Phil Hay names Leeds player with ‘very strong likelihood’ of summer exit
Phil Hay has claimed that there is a “very strong likelihood” that Kiko Casilla could leave Leeds United this summer.
The Spanish goalkeeper is currently serving an eight-game ban for racially abusing Charlton Athletic player Jonathan Leko earlier in the season, and has seen himself fall beneath Ilan Meslier in the pecking order at Elland Road.
The Mirror have reported that the Whites plan on making their loan move for the French youngster permanent if they get promoted.
And Hay has suggested that Casilla could be on his way out of the club as a result.
Writing in a Q&A for The Athletic, he said: “There’s a very strong likelihood that he [Casilla] might leave.
“The publicity around him was very negative (deservedly in my view) and it might be that both he and the club think that it’s best for all sides to call time on his spell here.
“Allied to that, if Meslier does enough to convince Bielsa that he should be first choice next season then Casilla is an expensive player to have on the bench.”
It’s not hard to envisage Casilla leaving this summer.
As Hay puts it here, he’s an expensive player to keep around as a deputy, and Meslier has impressed enough to suggest that he could stake a legitimate claim for the number one shirt at Elland Road.
This season he has conceded just 0.56 goals per game compared to Casilla’s 0.88 this season, as per Wyscout.
Meslier has also made more saves per game, as well as making a higher percentage of saves that require reflexes per match.
Bearing that in mind, Casilla might have a hard time on his hands reclaiming his number one spot, and if that is the case, an exit doesn’t seem like an unimaginable possibility.
In other Leeds United news, Exclusive: Leeds ace could face disciplinary action for what he did during Fulham game – pundit