Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams reportedly demands specific guarantees from Barcelona ahead of his expected £49.5m transfer to the La Liga champions.Barcelona-bound attacker Nico Williams has allegedly made a last-gasp demand to the Catalan giants ahead of his proposed move from Athletic Bilbao.The Euro 2024 winner is believed to have snubbed interest from Arsenal and Bayern Munich to link up with the La Liga champions and has informed Athletic of his desire to move to Camp Nou.Williams stayed put last summer despite significant interest in his services, but the pull of La Blaugrana – and the chance to regularly play with compatriot and close friend Lamine Yamal – was too strong to resist this time around.Having received the thumbs-up from the player himself, all that is seemingly left for Barcelona to do is trigger his £49.5m release clause, but the La Liga champions may still have one final hurdle to clear.According to Marca, Williams wants assurances that La Blaugrana will be able to register him as soon as he signs, as the 22-year-old is desperate to avoid being caught up in another Dani Olmo-type situation.Olmo memorably missed the first two weeks of the season, as Barcelona could not register him without going over their salary cap, and the same problem arose during the January transfer window before the playmaker’s registration was approved by Spain’s National Sports Council.While Williams has agreed a six-year Barcelona deal until 2031, he is demanding guarantees from the Blaugrana that he will be registered without a hitch in time for the start of the new campaign, meaning Barcelona may have to offload some unwanted names to free up space on their wage bill.Which players could Barcelona sell to seal Williams registration?It is not just Williams who could be facing an Olmo-esque registration problem, as Barcelona have also beaten Arsenal to the signature of Spanish goalkeeper Joan Garcia from Espanyol and are about to sign Roony Bardghji from Copenhagen too.Garcia’s arrival could trigger the exit of one of Marc-Andre ter Stegen or Wojciech Szczesny, although an agreement over a new contract is expected to be found with the latter.A handful of defenders are facing uncertain futures too, namely Ronald Araujo, Eric Garcia and Andreas Christensen, and selling the former in particular would go a long way to balancing the books.Further forward, midfielder Marc Casado could supposedly soon be the subject of an offer from a Premier League club, while Pablo Torre and Fermin Lopez may head elsewhere in search of regular starts too.Ansu Fati’s loan switch to Monaco should also be confirmed in due course, so Williams ought to have no fears about another registration saga.ID:576447:1false2false3false: from db desktop :LenBod:collect4002:
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