Barcelona did not manage to get a deal over the line for Nico Williams this summer, despite being heavily linked with the Athletic Club star. The latest in Catalonia is that Barcelona will come back in for the 22-year-old next summer.
Williams appeared to turn down a chance to move to Barcelona, although there were also doubts about their ability to pay his €58m release clause. However Sport say that Williams had given the green light for a move to the Blaugrana, but imposed certain conditions that the Blaugrana could not meet.
The Basque winger did not want to leave Bilbao on poor terms, and requested that the deal be closed in a swift fashion, and also that they guaranteed they could register him immediately. This was something Barcelona were convinced they could do, but could not guarantee.
The proof is in Dani Olmo, who was only registered after Andreas Christensen was injured, and his salary was used to help register Olmo under the emergency injury rule. One of the reasons Barcelona thought they might be able to register Williams was the potential new sponsorship deal with Nike, which they are still working on, but never went through this summer either.
Barca identify 19 y/o Frenchman as 1 of 3 January options to replace Ter Stegen
Barcelona are considering their options after being hit with the blow of finding out that captain Marc-Andre ter Stegen will be out for at least the majority, if not all of the season. It seems likely they will sign a replacement, but the question remains whether they will go for someone in January or sign a free agent immediately.
If they do decide to go for a free agent, the options of Keylor Navas and Claudio Bravo, who yesterday offered to come out of retirement if he was called, are the options that convince Barcelona most, as per Sport. The Blaugrana have three names in mind if they do decide to wait until then.
Las Palmas’ Alvaro Valles has been identified before as a potential option, and he is out of contract next summer. Las Palmas are using Jasper Cillesssenen in goal currently, and they could be open to letting him go.
Another option is Valencia’s Stole Dimitrievski. The North Macedonian international was signed by Los Che to replace Giorgi Mamardashvili on a two-year deal, but with the future Liverpool goalkeeper unexpectedly sticking around this year, he has found himself on the bench. Barcelona have previously scouted Dimitrievski too, as is the case with Valles.
A much younger option would be Toulouse’s Guillaume Restes. The 19-year-old would be a much younger option, and would compete with Inaki Pena for the number two spot, once ter Stegen is back in action, but would be much more expensive. Barcelona considered a €15m plus €5m in variables offer in the summer, although clearly they did not have the funds for such a deal.
