Barcelona Director of Football Deco has explained the the club’s pursuit of Nico Williams and the reason why the transfer failed to materialise in the summer.
The story dominated headlines for weeks, for a second consecutive summer, but saw Barcelona end up without the Basque winger. According to Deco, Williams asked his agent to meet with Barcelona to discuss a move but then ended up penning a long-term contract with Athletic Club.
Softfootball reported back then that Barcelona reached an agreement over personal terms with Williams, who was thought to be keen on making the move to Catalonia, but concerns over their ability to both fund a transfer and register him in the squad put the move in doubt.
The story that emerged from various sources was that Williams’ agent demanded guarantees over his registration, something Barcelona have struggled with over recent years. Unable or unwilling to provide said guarantees, Tainta pulled the plug on a deal, and Williams signed an extension until 2035 with Los Leones.
Now, according to Fabrizio Romano via his Facebook page, Barcelona sporting director Deco was recently asked about the club’s inability to land Nico Williams. Deco dismissed the notion of failure, stressing that Barcelona had set their conditions for the deal, which were not accepted, and therefore the club decided to move on. The post reads:
Why did Barcelona fail to sign Nico Williams?
Barça sport director Deco: “There was no failure! We set our club conditions, they DIDN’T ACCEPT, and we moved on. Simple. No player will DICTATE CONDITIONS TO BARÇA. That’s not how this club works.
Many wondered why Barcelona pursued Williams without certainty they would be able to register him, and certainly in Spain, the narrative has been that it was something of an embarassing episode for the Catalan giants. Yet Deco said that the deal collapsed due to Barcelona refusing to cave to fresh demands, rather than registration issues, something President Joan Laporta has also stated.
Following the collapse of the deal, there was plenty of bad ‘blood’ from the Basque capital directed towards their Catalan counterparts, but Deco’s view was that their anger should be directed towards Tainta rather than Barcelona.
