Well, this isn’t quite how I expected it to happen, but it looks like Marcelo Bielsa has been reading my pieces!
Leeds are reportedly in the process of signing 19-year-old French goalkeeper Illan Meslier from Ligue 2 side Lorient on a season-long loan. I’ve said in the past that there needs to be a clear hierarchy when it comes to goalkeepers, and it appears as though Bielsa has fallen in line with my approach; having a young up-and-coming goalkeeper on the bench to sit behind the established number one. Well, it’s not exactly ‘my’ approach, just something I believe it, I’m not claiming to have invented the system.
However, the wording of the deal is something that fascinates me. The fact that it is a loan rather than a permanent transfer is something that I find strange.
If this was a five-year permanent deal, then it would lead you to believe that Meslier is being ‘groomed’ as an eventual number one. He’ll sit behind first choice Kiko Casilla for a year, maybe get the odd run-out in a cup game (Salford City’s coming up next week, hint hint) then take the number one spot next summer as, again going back to the hierarchy theory, Casilla can be the wily veteran back-up goalkeeper that gets rotated in for the occasional cup game.
As was pointed out by a lot of Leeds fans on Twitter, leading to clarification from The Yorkshire Evening Post, the loan system is a weird one in the EFL, however because he is coming on loan from a foreign league, he won’t count against the loan limit that is imposed on EFL clubs. But the fact is, he is still a loan player, even if the EFL rules say different, he’ll head back to Lorient next summer if the clubs don’t agree to let him move permanently.
How is he going to get the chance to prove himself if he isn’t under Bielsa’s nose the whole time?
With Chelsea and Monaco reportedly snooping around him in the past, I don’t think he’s someone you can keep in the U23’s for a season, he has to be given a chance to prove himself with the first team. So that poses a conundrum. How many games if any, will he play for the first team this season, and does it put Casillas’ place under immediate threat?
What do you think?