By Craig Scott

31st Jul, 2022 | 1:10pm

Leeds United strike deal to allow Kiko Casilla exit from Elland Road - Phil Hay

Leeds United have had to reach an agreement with Kiko Casilla to allow the goalkeeper to leave Elland Road early, according to The Athletic journalist Phil Hay.

On Sunday (31 July), Leeds quietly released a statement confirming that Casilla, 35, had left the club “by mutual consent”.

Writing on The Athletic website, Hay added that “Leeds have struck a deal to terminate his contract” with the Spanish shot-stopper failing to earn a spot in Jesse Marsch’s first-team plans ahead of the new Premier League season.

Good riddance

Casilla was a horrible player and a horrible person and we’re glad to finally see the back of him.

For all the good that Marcelo Bielsa did at Elland Road, the worst thing he did was to give Casilla another chance after the Spaniard was suspended for racially abusing Jonathan Leko back in 2019.

Not only did Bielsa play the ex-Real Madrid shot-stopper after his ban but he also handed him the captain’s armband on one occasion.

Away from that part of Casilla’s stay in Leeds, the goalkeeper was absolutely horrific and was culpable for our failed play-off campaign in 2018/19 when he had a shocker against Derby while he also put in one of the worst goalkeeping performances of all time against Crawley in the FA Cup.

We’ve not felt so strongly against a Leeds player in a very, very long time and all we have to say about this statement bu the club is that it should have happened a long time ago.

As soon as he was hit with that eight-match ban, he should’ve been sacked.

Leeds need to move on now and find a new goalkeeper who can add some competition for Illan Meslier because Kristoffer Klaesson is very inexperienced.

In other Leeds United news, Marsch has told Leeds to seal this major new signing with a bid potentially on the cards.