Elche strengthens in a big way: former Real goalkeeper, Spanish sharpshooter or Javier Pastore arrives!

Last season, Spanish club Elche CF experienced nerves until the end as they feared relegation, which they eventually missed by 2 points and finished in the last non-relegation position. The management of the Spanish club doesn’t want to experience something similar this season and therefore decided to strengthen their club in a big way. Now, let’s take a look at the most interesting names that have recently headed to this club.

We’ll break down the players in order of their arrivals. We won’t list and cover all the players who have headed to Elche in this summer transfer window, but we will only focus on the most interesting names.

The first such player is Kiko Casilla, who is a Real Madrid offspring. Casilla left the Spanish capital for Espanyol in 2007. Eight years later, the Alcover native returned to Real and was there until January 17, 2019, when he left for Leeds.

In the Leeds jersey, Casilla played a total of 62 games, receiving 61 goals and keeping 23 clean sheets. On 12 July 2021, the thirty-four-year-old Spaniard headed to Elche on a one-year loan deal.

The other player who deserves a mention is Lucas Pérez. This thirty-two year old striker, who arrived on 31 August, will certainly be an asset to his new club. The native of A Coruña has been in Spain for many years and is undoubtedly very familiar and knowledgeable with the Spanish league.

Pérez also has experience at Arsenal and West Ham, where he was quite productive for both teams. At Arsenal, the experienced Spaniard played a total of 21 games, scoring 7 goals and notching 5 assists. At West Ham he played 19 games and scored 6 goals. Pérez has signed for Elche until 30 June 2022.

The third major signing was Gerard Gumbau. The 26-year-old midfielder has been at Barcelona for 3 years, among other things. At the Catalan club, Gumbau played mostly in the B-team, in whose jersey he played 95 games, scoring 15 goals and notching 9 assists.

In addition, the Campllong native also made 9 starts for the Barcelona A team. Gumbau joined Elche on 31 August from CD Leganés, where he was a key player for his team. The Spaniard has signed a contract with his new club until 30 June 2023.

The last name to be mentioned in this article is Javier Pastore. This long-time PSG mainstay has been at AS Roma for the last 3 years, only for the club to recently agree to mutually terminate his contract.

Thus, Pastore has already signed as a free agent on September 4 with Elche until June 31, 2022. For the 23-year-old Argentine offensive midfielder, this will be his first stint in Spain.

In the current season, Elche has played 3 games. In those, after two draws and one loss, they have gained 2 points and are in 15th place. However, we have to mention that this club had a very tough draw.

Elche drew 0:0 with Athletic Bilbao in the 1st round, lost 0:1 to Atlético Madrid in the 2nd round and drew 1:1 with Sevilla in the last round so far. As you can see, these have always been top clubs.

Where do you think Elche will finish this season thanks to their new signings?

Source: Transfermarkt, Livesport