Marcelo Bielsa let Leeds United fans down by playing Kiko Casilla v Southampton
Marcelo Bielsa has done a near-faultless job in charge of Leeds United.
He’s secured a top-half finish in Leeds’ first season back in the Premier League to top off what has been an amazing journey so far for the Argentine in West Yorkshire.
However, there’s one part of his leadership at Elland Road in the last year that has rubbed us the wrong way and that’s Bielsa’s insistence upon using Kiko Casilla in his first-team squad.
Last year, Casilla was found to have racially abused Jonathan Leko when Leeds played Charlton towards the start of last season.
The 34-year-old had the audacity to claim he was “unaware of the existence” of the racist word he was found guilty of aiming towards Leko.
He was banned for eight matches and in all honesty, his punishment should have been a lot more severe.
Leeds stood by Casilla despite this and failed to post any kind of apology. Once Casilla’s ban was over, Bielsa then handed the ex-Real Madrid shot-stopper a start in the 3-1 win away at Derby on July 19.
We expected that the Spaniard would be sold or released in the summer transfer window that followed but Casilla remained at Leeds player.
Despite his rotten performances in the Championship, his inept display against Crawley in the FA Cup this season and being found to have racially abused a young man on a football pitch, Bielsa played Casilla yet again on Tuesday night as Leeds beat Southampton in the Premier League.
What has this man done to deserve Premier League football? Why on earth has Bielsa allowed him to play in the biggest league in the world over a young and superb goalkeeper in Illan Meslier? What must Meslier think about that?
Bielsa even handed Casilla the captain’s armband earlier this season in the Carabao Cup defeat to League One side Hull City.
Casilla is a calamity and standing by him, for us, is the worst thing Bielsa has done in charge of Leeds United Football Club.
That player really needs to released in the summer because we can’t continue to have him playing for Leeds and it’s really not just down to his woeful performances in goals.
In other Leeds United news, Rodney Marsh admits he was wrong after being bombarded by Leeds fans.