- 19 hours ago
Nico Williams: Aston Villa plan hijack as Chelsea move ahead of Arsenal
Carlo Garganese
- 17 Jul 2024 07:30 CDT
- 3 min read
Chelsea have moved ahead of Arsenal in the race to sign Euro 2024 sensation Nico Williams, but Aston Villa are planning a hijack.
Sport reports that Chelsea are more serious than Arsenal about the Athletic Bilbao winger and have put more groundwork into preparing a deal.
The Gunners regard Williams as an option for the right wing as an alternative to Bukayo Saka, while Chelsea see him as a key player on the left wing where he would recreate his partnership with Spain national teammate Marc Cucurella behind him.
As Arsenal can’t guarantee Williams first-team football, the 22-year-old also sees Chelsea as more attractive than the Gunners.
According to CaughtOffside, though, a surprise new entrant to the race has emerged in the form of Aston Villa.
Villa are negotiating the sale of Moussa Diaby to Al-Ittihad for a fee in the region of €70 million and see Williams as the ideal replacement.
They have held talks with Williams' agents and have no problem meeting his transfer fee and wage demands.
However, despite all this, Chelsea and Aston Villa are still behind frontrunners Barcelona in the race to sign Williams.
What did Romano say?
Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Barcelona are strong favourites to sign Williams, who would prefer to join the Blaugrana.
"Barcelona know that Premier League clubs could return for the Spanish winger after the fantastic Euros campaign he had with Spain, so they know about Chelsea's interest, they know about Arsenal's interest,” Romano said.
"But Barca want to be faster on the player's side. This is the mission...Their full focus for the budget is on Williams and the confidence of the Barca board, manager Hansi Flick and all the people at the club is growing."
"Barcelona will make a contract proposal to Williams. They know this is crucial, to agree on the contract, salary and all the details of the deal, to have the green light from the player is the crucial step."
"Barca want to make it happen and then get the green light from LaLiga for Financial Fair Play to sign Williams by triggering the [€58m] release clause at Athletic Bilbao."
Current ETV
Nico Williams
M (L)
Athletic
Nico Williams
M (L)
Athletic
ETV Range
€34.2M - €57M
As noted by Romano, Williams has a €58 million release clause in his Athletic Bilbao contract.
He is considered one of the most exciting young wingers in all of Europe.
Blessed with lightning pace and dribbling skills, Williams was one of the stars of Euro 2024 as Spain won the tournament.
He scored Spain’s opener in the 2-1 final win over England and was an electric talent throughout the tournament on the left wing.
After making his debut for Athletic in 2021, Williams has scored 20 goals in 122 games.
He has also scored four goals in 20 games for Spain, and travelled to the 2022 World Cup.
His brother is fellow Athletic Bilbao star Inaki Williams, who plays his international football for the Ghana national team.
