Barcelona spent most of their summer dreaming of signing Nico Williams by all accounts, but Sporting Director Deco was quizzed this week on why exactly they did not manage to bring in the Basque winger. Dani Olmo was the only star signing that Barcelona managed to bring in.
Last week President Joan Laporta avoided speaking about Williams when asked during his press conference, while Deco gave an interview to club channel Barca One. The ex-Blaugrana midfielder explained that Hansi Flick had requested that if signings were to be made, that they gave a jump in quality.
“I tell you again. We are talking about the level of the players. Today we have Raphinha, Ferran, the return of Ansu, he was very good in preseason, Lamine and players like Fermin or Olmo who can play there.”
Al-Hilal offered 100 million euros to Barcelona for Raphinha this summer, with a salary of 25 million euros per season, but the Brazilian rejected the proposal with a brief 'No, thank you'. @joaquimpiera
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) September 11, 2024
“To bring someone in they had to be of a very high level. With the signing of Dani it gave us more options. It’s not that we haven’t spoken with players, but we had other priorities that have been decisive in not bringing in another winger.”
Deco’s explanation contradicts all of the other information that has come out about their attempts to sign Williams, which claim that Barcelona could either not afford the deal and/or Wililams decided to stay in Bilbao. The Euro 2024-winner has spoken about being happy to remain at Athletic Club, and will be playing in Europe with his boyhood side for the first time this season in the Europa League.
