English fans may finally get to see iconic goalkeeper Iker Casillas play on a weekly basis. According to latest reports, Newcastle United manager, Rafa Benitez is looking for a move for the Spanish stopper.
It will be definitely be a big swoop for Newcastle United, should they be able to convince the Spanish keeper to come to England.
Casillas, who has had an illustrious career, now cuts a frustrated figure at FC Porto. The Spanish legend has won every major trophy as captain for club and country while playing at Real Madrid. He finally moved on from Santiago Bernabeu after falling down the pecking order in search of regular game time.
Despite putting in tremendous performances last season for Porto, the Spaniard finds himself on the bench this season with Porto manager Sergio Conceicao favouring Jose Sa on goal. It is rumoured that the reason for Casillas drop is because of using his mobile phone during training however the manager clearly stated that Casillas is not playing purely because of tactical reasons.
Newcastle United did not have a good first few weeks in the season but have slowly come back to their grind and now stand seventh on the table with fourteen points from nine games. They have won five and drawn two of their last seven games and are looking more and more like the Newcastle of old who were cut out for the Premier League.
On the transfer front, things have not been so smooth and Rafael Benitez has made no secret of the fact that Newcastle United need new players. After a very impressive season in the Championships that saw them return to the Premier League, Benitez demanded more signings of Premier League standard to establish the club in England’s premier competition. However, with Newcastle unable to sell their existing crop of players, they have had to deal with a stagnant squad and that has frustrated Benitez.
Come the January transfer window, Benitez has made it clear that he wants a quality stopper. Newcastle currently plays Rob Elliot in goal with Freddie Woodman and Karl Darlow as the two backups. Although Elliot has kept three clean sheets in his nine league games, Benitez wants an improvement on Newcastle’s goal.
The move might be good for Benitez’s side though, who are slowly finding their feet in the big league and will want to cash in on the momentum by bringing in a goalkeeper who save the day with his keeping skills on his day but exactly how much will they need to spend on transfer and wages for a keeper of Casillas’s quality despite his age might convince them against the move.
So should the Magpies go all in for him?
