Iker Casillas was widely recognised as the best goalkeeper in the world at his peak. However, since then he has fallen out of favour at Real Madrid and has frequently lost his place to Diego Lopez.
The seasoned Spaniard, who is currently training with the Spain team ahead of the World Cup, still has 3 years left on his current contract at the Bernabéu, which could prove to be a stumbling block in his potential transfer to Arsenal.
At 33, Casillas would be an excellent signing and would provide top quality competition for Wojciech Szczesny, but his price tag may deter Wenger. He is still a top goalkeeper and it would cost a fair amount to free him from his contract at Madrid.
The big question is, is he worth it? It has been reported that we are interested in Cardiff City’s David Marshall, and that we have opened proceedings with a £6million pound bid.
Marshall had a brilliant season for Cardiff in the Premier League last season and, at 29, is four years younger than Casillas. He played 37 Premier League games last season and kept 7 clean sheets. That doesn’t sound like much, but given the team in front of him, it isn’t bad at all. He also racked up a total of 153 saves over the course of the season, one of the highest in the league.
Cardiff will be reluctant to sell their star keeper, but when a big club comes knocking and the player wants to leave, there isn’t much they can do. The price tags for the two keepers are likely to be similar, if Marshall isn’t slightly cheaper.
With that in mind we would be much better off focusing on securing David Marshall’s services, as opposed to Iker Casillas.