It long seemed like Nico Williams was Barcelona’s dream transfer target, but he’s now been relegated to third at best.
The Spanish winger has been pursued by Barca for the past few transfer windows, and it looked like this summer it may finally happen.
Yet just as talks re-started, Athletic Bilbao incredibly announced a new 10-year contract extension for Williams.
That was dressed up as a snub by much of the media, but president Joan Laporta has a different angle.
Barca have instead ended up with Marcus Rashford on loan from Manchester United, and Laporta insists he was the first choice option.
In fact – he went as far as relegating Williams to just a suggestion from his agent.
He said: “There were several options, and I’m very happy because we ended up getting the option I liked the most.
“It’s true that I also liked Luis Díaz, a very complete player, but due to his circumstances, with Liverpool very entrenched, it was complicated, although I appreciate the player who always wanted to come.
“The Nico Williams situation also happened. And given that Luis’ situation was complicated and that we were in the process of negotiating with Rashford, Nico’s agent came to me offering the possibility of signing him.
“Deco told me about it. In principle, I preferred to work on the other two options, but in these cases I always listen to the sporting director.
“He said we should at least listen because he’s an interesting player because he holds his own on the wing. Negotiations took place, but from what they told us to what it ended up being, there was a big difference in the payment terms, the agent’s commission, and a series of variables that already suggested the deal wouldn’t happen.
“Deco set a 48-hour deadline, and if they didn’t accept our terms, we wouldn’t do the deal. In the end, it didn’t happen. In parallel, work continued on the other two, and Rashford’s became clearer.”
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