In Thursday’s rather lowkey (by recent standards) press conference ahead of Leeds United’s Championship clash with Stoke City, manager Marcelo Bielsa admitted the capture of Real Madrid goalkeeper Kiko Casilla was nothing to do with him.
When fielding questions about the announcement of the arrival of the stopper, Bielsa was incredibly quick to point to Victor Orta as being ‘responsible’ for the deal going through and he credited the work of goalkeeping coach Marcos Abad for helping to identify him as a man that would fit with how we worked, but ultimately he felt owner Andrea Radrizzani should be ‘proud’ of the club for securing such a massive name in the game.
"Victor Orta is responsible for the arrival of Kiko Casilla. The analysis of the compatibility of his skills with our play has been done by Marcos Abad (goalkeeping coach). The fact that a goalkeeper from Real Madrid comes to Leeds, the owner of the club should be proud."
— Phil Hay (@PhilHayYEP) January 17, 2019
Bielsa went on to say that obviously with Bailey Peacock-Farrell and Will Huffer as our top two at the club at this moment in time we needed an ‘alternative’ and given Casilla’s experience in the game and the levels that he’s played out, whilst you can’t guarantee any signing, he should be the right kind of man to bring on their development at the same time as being a safe pair of hands himself.
“I don’t have to make any comment on Casilla because his career speaks for himself”