‘Tension’—Barcelona Chief Delivers Worrying Update on Nico Williams Transfer | OneFootball

Barcelona vice president Rafa Yuste has urged Athletic Club to “ease the tension” which exists between the two La Liga clubs so that a deal for Nico Williams can be completed.

After publicly distancing themselves from the Spanish forward earlier this summer, Barcelona performed a swift U-turn. The Catalan giants appear to have agreed personal terms with Williams—reportedly persuading him to accept a salary offer which other clubs comfortably exceeded—but negotiations with Athletic have stalled.

The Basque outfit set up a meeting with La Liga to ensure that Barcelona actually had the funds to carry out a move for Williams and are demanding his release clause of €62 million ($72.6 million) be paid in a single instalment.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta took a combative approach to Athletic’s actions at the end of June. VP Yuste did his best to play the role of peacekeeper.

“What needs to be done is to ease the tension, and in this case on Bilbao’s part, because what they’re exerting is emotional pressure that can’t lead to any kind of happiness for Bilbao members,” Yuste sighed, as quoted by MARCA.

Athletic Club have requested an investigation into Barcelona’s finances. / IMAGO/Action Plus

“Bilbao members are intelligent members and they know that any player in Spain or around the world, if they want to leave a team, they leave, and if they don’t, they stay.”

Much like Laporta, Yuste was taken aback by the pushback. “From time to time, Athletic’s leaders aren’t very convinced or happy with Barcelona, ​​which I don’t understand because relations with Bilbao have always been excellent,” he noted.

Yuste was also unimpressed with Athletic’s insistence on publicizing each stage of a saga increasingly played out for all to see. “The truth is, I haven’t liked it because there are things that are internal to the clubs and that should always remain within the clubs,” he huffed.

“So there are things I don’t fully understand, but anyway, I hope and wish that an act of reflection on the part of the Athletic Club president will normalize the situation for the benefit of the members who love to watch soccer, and Barcelona and Bilbao have been two exemplary fanbases.”

There have also been suggestions that Williams is also growing concerned by the possibility of not being able to play for Barcelona even if a deal goes through due to the league’s strict financial regulations. Dani Olmo and Pau Víctor were notably removed from the squad mid-season as their wages didn’t fit within Barcelona’s salary limits, requiring intervention from Spanish government to earn new licenses.

To soothe Williams’s woes, Barcelona are willing to insert a clause into his contract which would allow him to negotiate with other clubs in the event that he cannot be registered next season, SPORT claim.