Leeds United have made some real blunders in their history.
The Whites’ fanbase won’t need reminding about some of the worst signings the club have ever made.
There’s Paul Rachubka, the goalkeeper who was once subbed off at half-time due to his poor performance, Roque Junior, the World Cup winner who was recently blasted by Kevin Blackwell and Eddie Gray, or perhaps one of the many players Peter Risdale splashed out on, eventually sending the Whites to the brink of extinction.
However, despite a long-list of poor signings throughout the club’s storied history, one man who joined relatively recently has worked his way into contention for being considered United’s worst signing ever.
Unfortunately, that tag is being attached to Kiko Casilla.
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Is Casilla the worst player Leeds have ever had? No, he’s a three-time Champions League winner with a lot of pedigree, but in terms of a player having the biggest negative impact at the club, he’s almost unmatched.
While Rachubka was laughably bad during his stint between the sticks, the stakes were quite low as Leeds weren’t really challenging for anything at the time, and his biggest gaffes came in a 5-0 drubbing against Blackpool.
Casilla’s big errors have come at the worst possible times.
Nobody needs reminding of what the Spaniard did in the playoff semi-final second leg against Derby -the former Real Madrid man was at fault for two goals as the Whites were denied a chance to go to Wembley.
However, that wasn’t Casilla’s only calamity.
The Spaniard was sent off against Sheffield United last term in United’s 1-0 loss in a game that was huge in deciding their fate, and this season he’s made high-profile mistakes against Wigan, Nottingham Forest and Brentford, costing his team points in the process.
The Spaniard single-handedly robbed Leeds of a chance to make it back to the top-flight last term, and it remains to be seen if he’ll end up doing the same this season – if Leeds miss out by a point or two it’ll be very easy to point towards the three aforementioned errors as the moments that changed the campaign.
Not to mention the fact he’s also managed to get himself banned for racism, at a time when Leeds ironically need him to perform most. Perhaps that’ll prove to be a blessing in disguise.
The goalkeeper has to go down as one of United’s worst signings of all time.
In other news, Leeds would be in trouble if this 1960s protocol was followed.
