Nigel Martyn claims Bielsa needs to sell Casilla to bring better players to Leeds
Former Leeds United star Nigel Martyn believes that Kiko Casilla is an expensive luxury that Marcelo Bielsa can’t afford to keep.
The former Real Madrid keeper is on a reported £32k-a-week at Leeds [Spotrac] and has lost his place in the side to Illan Meslier.
Casilla has been restricted to Under-23s and cup games and was dropped from the first-team squad entirely on Monday.
That’s led to a lot of speculation about Casilla’s future at the club, with Bielsa previously being a big supporter of the player.
Talking to Leeds United News, Martyn thinks that his time is up at Elland Road.
“The only thing that would make me think that is that he is probably one of the higher wage earners, given his age and experience,” Martyn said.
“Part of what the manager will have seen this season is that he needs to buy quality players – to maintain and improve.
“[Casilla] is not a player who is in his starting eleven, but he is in his starting eleven wage earners.
“Bielsa might think that he will need to make a saving in order to purchase someone else, who will be playing regularly.”
Time to go
£32k-a-week is £1,664,000 a year and there’s no way that Leeds should be paying that for a player who isn’t even making the bench now.
The issue is that it’s going to be very hard to find a club who will be willing to take these wages on for a player who has flopped and been disgraced at Leeds.
Casilla still has two years left on his career and there’s a chance the club and player could find an agreement and terminate the contract early.
That could cost Leeds less than keeping him on the books for the next two years and free up some cash to spend on players who can be a net positive for the club.
There won’t be many Leeds fans who will be sorry to see him go.
His cryptic Instagram message this week that seemed to hint at leaving didn’t go down well and neither did his explanation that it wasn’t football related.
If it’s a private matter, why is he sharing it with his 1.4m followers, mainly football fans?
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