Two biggest transfer wishes for Barcelona this August have been Dani Olmo and Nico Williams. Both players have been a revelation at the recent EURO 2024, and both would have strengthen the Catalans significaly. Also, Barca could only afford the pair due to their financial woes. As it turns out, they couldn‘t afford even both of them as Olmo came in, while Williams decided to stay in Bilbao and will be in Barcelona today, but not for the signing, but for the game in La Liga. And president Juan Laporta has something to do with it. Aupa Athletic! Nico faithful to Bilbao, Barca miss on their first wish, and today they could lose their second pickAccording to the Spanish ‘AS‘, the current Barca president ‘poisoned‘ the relationship between the clubs due to Williams‘ proposed transfer and even the player gave up at the end, due to empty promises and disappointed expectations. There will be no board meal between the two entities before the match today. The Athletic’s board did not feel like sitting down to eat with the Catalans executives after the June transfer window. And it‘s all because of the failed Nico deal, which was not going to happen it the first place. Laporta made a PR campaign in the media as soon as the EURO 2024 was finished, claiming that the club has a 58 million euros ready to activate the release clause. Since Bilbao has such a jewel like Williams in their hands, they didn‘t want to give any discount to Barca or anybody else and wanted the money to be paid in full. Yamal’s bromance with Nico could be the key for BarcaBut, as time went buy, Nico Williams didn‘t get a call from Barcelona to join his best friend Yamal as there was never any money. In fact, even the Dani Olmo transfer almost didn‘t happen as Barcelona didn‘t have the cash to pay for their former academy player. Only after tough negotiations and various add-ons did Leipzig decided to let the player go. And let‘s not forget two things: he was not a regular in Leipzig and the Catalans are still unable to register him for La Liga matches and he might not be (again) in the team today against Bilbao. So, Williams and his family had doubts, also because Barca could never give him a guarantee for the transfer. According to the Spanish media, this worsened his image of the Catalans and was an important reason for his Barca rejection. He has stayed in Bilbao for at least another season and has all the support he needs. He might even create a ‘revenge‘ against misleading Laporta tonight at the Montjuic.
