Transfer Toss: Arsenal Linked With £15m Move For Iker ‘Mardy Bum’ Casillas

Chris Wright

21st, August 2013

9 Comments

By Chris Wright

Spain Soccer La Liga

According to the El Pais newspaper today, Jose Mourinho’s parting advice to Florentino Perez before he left for Chelsea in was that he should sell Iker Casillas if he wanted any of his future managers to enjoy success at the Bernabeu.

Quite what went on between the two is unclear, but it was generally assumed that Mourinho was merely pulling one of his “I’m not afraid to drop anybody” alpha dog stunts in order to deflate Casillas’ ego and keep his self-entitlement in check. After all, no-one is bigger than the team when Mourinho is in charge.

Anyway, the net result is that Casillas has found himself bench-bound for over half of the 2012/13 season. It seemed unthinkable that the 23-year, 500+ game veteran should be anywhere other than top of the pecking order, yet Diego Lopez continues to hold down the No.1 spot at Real under Carlo Ancelotti, chiefly, one suspects, as he hasn’t put a foot wrong since being elevated to first choice.

And lo, here come the rumblings.

Obviously Casillas is not content with his lot at Real and is now looking elsewhere. Having missed out on Valencia’s Vicente Guaita yesterday, Arsenal are being linked with a move for the ‘keeper (by the Guardian) but, because they’re Arsenal, are duly expected to balk at Real’s £15million valuation of the 32-year-old and attempt to haggle the Spaniards down by about…oh, £15million or so.

Barcelona goonsquad Sandro Rosell, Andoni Zubizarreta and Javier Fausare are also reported to be hovering with a plan to raid the enemy’s camp at midnight and escape with their former company boy-turned-turncoat.

This, of course, will never happen in a month of Sundays.

Posted in Arsenal, Newsnow, Real Madrid, Transfers & Rumours

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9 Comments

  1. Banjankri says:

    He’s not 23!

  2. Si says:

    @Chris – 500 games is a lot for a 23 year old…

    • Shegz says:

      He didn’t mention “23years old” anywhere in the post… I think what he meant is 23 years of being in madrid, playing 500+ games in that time…

  3. Grant says:

    @Si, What Chris meant was that Casillas, who is 32, has been at the club since he was about 9 years old, and in those 23 years has played more than 500 games for the first team, most of them in the last decade, obviously.

  4. Anabelle says:

    That picture of Casillas is hilarious.

    Casillas looks a tad worn out, with a red nose as if he’d been crying.

  5. Andy Carroll's Ponytail says:

    He’s too old for Arsene.

  6. Kevin says:

    Casillas isn’t as good as he’s made out. He fluffs a lot and hasn’t got great positioning. Granted his reflexes are top draw, but Mourinho was right to drop him. He has a massive ego because he is the Spanish media’s and Madrid’s ‘darling’. Keepers tend to be talked up a lot by commentators on tv, how often have you heard a pundit say ‘WORLD CLASS SAVE!’ when its a ball coming directly at the keeper? The same thing that happened with Casillas in Spain is about to happen here with Joe Hart. Massively overrated keepers, not SOLID at all.

  7. Mike says:

    hmmm,.

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