Hansi Flick & Ernesto Valverde speak on Nico Williams situation before Barcelona vs Athletic | OneFootball

The respective managers at Barcelona and Athletic Club were this weekend drawn on the name of Nico Williams.

This, of course, comes as the explosive wide-man prepares to lock horns with the club who have been chasing his signature across the entirety of the summer.

Athletic Club have touched down in Catalunya’s capital, ahead of going toe-to-toe with Barca in a highly-anticipated La Liga showdown on Saturday evening.

In the buildup to the clash, much of the chatter, unsurprisingly, has centered on the predicted impact of the aforementioned Nico on proceedings.

After a will he, won’t he saga spanning the bulk of the summer transfer window, Euro 2024 winner Nico, in the end, came to the decision to stay put in the Basque Country for the season ahead.

Speaking in their respective pre-match press conferences, it therefore came as little surprise when the name of the 22-year-old was put to Ernesto Valverde and Hansi Flick alike.

And their respective responses are detailed below.

Athletic headmaster Valverde explained:

“One is not oblivious to what is said. You come to the preseason and no matter how much noise there is, you don’t have any concrete data that a player is going to leave, you count on all those who are there. I was hoping that Nico would come here, in the end he came here like everyone else. I have not had any doubts in this sense, he came happy, he took the number 10 and he is ready to play.

“I don’t think it will affect him. I see him very well, training with the team with total guarantee. I don’t see any problem in this sense. It is possible that there has been noise all this time, which there has been, but it is noise, nothing more. We have to separate what is important from what is accessory. That noise has not said anything true about us or about Nico. It is the noise that accompanies football. It has served to fill many newspapers and talk shows, so very well. Here we are, we have to play a game, I don’t think it should affect us.”

Barcelona manager Flick, on the other hand, kept things altogether more blunt:

“It is not my job to talk about a player from the opposing team.”

Drawn specifically on the task of keeping Nico quiet on Saturday, the German tactician concluded:

“We have a very expert player to control him, like Jules Koundé.”

Conor Laird | GSFN