The transfer story that has shadowed Arsenal’s summer planning for two consecutive years is gathering fresh momentum, with Athletic Club now privately signalling they are prepared to sanction a sale of Nico Williams for a fee in the region of £78 million if the right offer arrives this summer, according to reports from TEAMtalk and Fichajes.
Williams committed to Athletic Club only last summer by signing a staggering contract running until 2035, one of the longest deals in world football, which simultaneously bumped his release clause upward from £60 million to roughly £78 to £90 million depending on the source, making him significantly more expensive than the move would have cost twelve months ago.
The 23-year-old has endured a difficult campaign by his own standards, registering just four goals and six assists in 26 appearances across all competitions, largely because a groin problem similar to the pubalgia that disrupted Lamine Yamal and Cole Palmer kept him sidelined for extended periods before he began working his way back to fitness in recent weeks.
Those injury problems have reduced his numbers but have not cooled the appetite of the clubs tracking him, with the manager most publicly invested in signing Williams being Mikel Arteta, who TEAMtalk describes as viewing the Spanish winger as his dream signing and whose sporting director Andrea Berta is understood to have already done substantial work on the feasibility of a deal.
Arsenal’s case for signing Williams comes down to a specific positional gap that has been exposed throughout this campaign: the left flank has lacked the kind of direct, game-changing presence that championship-winning sides typically possess, with Gabriel Martinelli struggling for consistency and Leandro Trossard entering the final stretch of his career.
Williams ranks in the top six percent of wingers in Europe’s big five leagues for expected assists, the top five percent for successful dribbles, and the top five percent for touches in the opposition box and possession won in the final third, meaning his underlying output substantially outpaces the raw goal and assist numbers that have attracted scepticism about whether a £78 million fee is justified.
Barcelona remain lurking in the background, having failed to sign Williams twice, with the Catalan club still described as monitoring the situation despite their current recruitment priorities lying elsewhere, including a striker and a central defender, which gives Arsenal a window of opportunity if they move decisively before the window opens formally.
Chelsea and Manchester United are also watching the situation closely, creating the kind of multi-club competition that tends to benefit Athletic Club in any negotiation, as the presence of multiple serious suitors removes Bilbao’s incentive to reduce the fee below the contracted release clause level.
The question of whether a potential Williams arrival would trigger Gabriel Martinelli’s departure is one that Arsenal’s own hierarchy has not publicly resolved, though multiple reports suggest Andrea Berta has earmarked the Brazilian for a potential sale at around £50 million, creating a financial structure in which Williams’s cost could be partially offset by the outgoing proceeds.
Arteta has not publicly confirmed Arsenal’s interest, maintaining the discretion he has applied to all of the club’s summer transfer planning, but the consistency of reporting across multiple credible outlets over several weeks now places the Williams pursuit in a different category from speculative background noise, giving Arsenal supporters reasonable grounds to anticipate a serious bid once the summer window formally opens.