Barcelona President Joan Laporta has made no secret of their interest in signing Athletic Club winger Nico Williams, much to the chagrin of Athletic Club. This week could see the deal go one way or another.
In order to sign Williams, Barcelona must activate his €58m release clause. Until now Matteo Moretto had consistently reported that the Blaugrana would need to make a sale in order for the deal to be possible, but his latest update is that they are now exploring other ways of making the deal happen, without first making a large sale.
There are more contacts scheduled with Nico Williams' camp this week to get green light on personal terms. @FabrizioRomano
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) July 22, 2024
They would then seek to sell other players after the Williams deal has gone through. ‘The next few days could well be very important, one way or another’, Moretto revealed, after Sporting Director Deco met with Williams’ agent Felix Tainta last week to discuss contractual terms.
This information comes amid talk that the Blaugrana will request a fresh line of credit in order to be able to afford Williams’ release clause. Other reports say that Barcelona are awaiting the green light from Williams to go ahead with the move, while Athletic Club have been keen to show that they are confident he will not be going anywhere. Twice in the space of a week now manager Ernesto Valverde has maintained he is relaxed about the situation, and that he expects the 22-year-old winger back on the 12th of August, when his holidays are over.
I agree with Valverde that Williams is not going anywhere. BARÇA are broke and no changes have been made to the reasons and personnel responsible for that, so who is going to loan them money?