{"id":277806,"date":"2025-10-04T19:01:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T19:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/277806\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T19:01:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T19:01:23","slug":"barcelonas-deco-gives-indignant-account-of-nico-williams-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/277806\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona’s Deco gives indignant account of Nico Williams saga"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barcelona Director of Football Deco has fired off an irritated account of the Nico Williams transfer saga, placing the blame for the failure of the deal at the feet of his agent Felix Tainta. The story dominated Spanish headlines for three weeks, for a second consecutive summer, but saw Barcelona end up without the Basque winger.<\/p>\n

The story that emerged from various sources was that Williams\u2019 agent demanded guarantees over his registration, something Barcelona have struggled with over recent years. Unable or unwilling to provide said guarantees, Tainta pulled the plug on a deal, and Williams signed an extension until 2035 with Los Leones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018If a great player like Nico suggests a move, we\u2019ll talk\u2019 \u2013 Deco<\/p>\n

During an interview with MD<\/a>, Deco was asked why the club considered his signing, having been turned down by the 22-year-old the previous year. The Blaugrana hierarchy had dismissed the idea of a pursuit of Williams this summer earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no change. When we were focused on Luis Diaz, we saw it as very difficult. With Rashford, United only wanted to sell him, and we were looking for solutions. Nico wasn\u2019t the exact profile we wanted, but he can play on the left and the right. And Ferran was becoming a \u20189\u2019, and you take him out of the equation on the wings. If you bring in Nico, you have a right and a left wing, but not so much the \u20189\u2019 profile.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Deco: “What is missing for De Jong to sign his renewal? We’re talking. Frenkie is really enjoying being here. Maturity at all levels, with the family, in the team\u2026 If you are a player with character, you not only want to stay to be in Barcelona, but because you want to compete\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 barcacentre (@barcacentre) September 29, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIf a great player like Nico suggests a move, when the agent looks for us, we\u2019ll talk, and that\u2019s how it was. Football is like that; the player, for whatever reason, didn\u2019t want the conditions that were proposed. The agent has his interests, and we don\u2019t know how things are going, but there\u2019s no controversy. It\u2019s a very easy matter. He gives you a right and a left wing, he doesn\u2019t give you the \u20189\u2019 quality, but if you don\u2019t have the other solutions, it would suit us because he\u2019s a great player and could give you two of the three positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It wasn\u2019t about registration guarantees\u2019<\/p>\n

Many wondered why Barcelona pursued Williams without certainty they would be able to register him, and certainly\u00a0 in Spain, the narrative has been that it was something of an embarassing episode for the Catalan giants. Yet Deco said that the deal collapsed due to Barcelona refusing to cave to fresh demands<\/a>, rather than registration issues, something President Joan Laporta has also stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no failure, we simply set the club\u2019s conditions, then we have to put the negotiations on paper, into contracts, and we said we wouldn\u2019t accept the conditions they set us because no player is going to impose any restrictions on us, and in the end, that\u2019s it. We gave them a deadline to respond, but they didn\u2019t respond; they went their way, and we went ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NicoImage via Juan Manuel Serrano Arce\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of registration guarantees; it\u2019s very simple. It\u2019s just that if you\u2019re going to negotiate, tell me everything you need and what you want, and don\u2019t change it afterward. That\u2019s it. And I won\u2019t say any more about this topic; it\u2019s been talked about too much, too much nonsense, even in Bilbao.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Bilbao are no example for anyone\u2019 \u2013 Deco fires pointed reponse to Athletic Club<\/p>\n

There was plenty of bad feeling from the Basque capital directed towards their Catalan counterparts, but Deco\u2019s view was that their ire should be directed towards Tainta rather than Barcelona.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to get into issues that aren\u2019t my own. I\u2019m dedicated to players, to the day-to-day management of the club, but I don\u2019t think Bilbao is an example in this regard. We haven\u2019t sought out their player, we haven\u2019t gone after their player. They have to worry about the agent, who has come to Barca several times to offer the player.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DecoImage via Marca<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a club issue. If one of our players gives his agent permission to talk to other teams, we can\u2019t get angry at the others about it. We\u2019re moving on. He\u2019s a Bilbao player. It\u2019s a very simple situation. The agent sought us out, he tried to get us. It didn\u2019t work out, and we must move on with other, more important issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to be clear, we didn\u2019t seek out Nico, it was the agent who sought us out. And if the negotiations between Luis Diaz and Rashford were a bit complicated, we had to find solutions. But the Nico deal didn\u2019t work out, and that\u2019s it, no problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barcelona\u2019s ongoing registration issues<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Barcelona and Deco will struggle to change the narrative on their registration struggles until they make a big signing. With the exception of the addition of Dani Olmo (\u20ac55m), Joan Garcia (\u20ac25m) has been their most expensive signing since the heavy spending during the infamous \u2018economic levers\u2019 summer. Olmo was only registered due to La Liga\u2019s emergency injury rule, and then a court order, while Garcia required the emergency injury rule and a board guarantee to be registered.<\/p>\n

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