"Nico Williams wants to come to Barcelona and we'll try to seal the deal" - Deco gives assurance

The Spanish international has been linked with a move away from Athletic Bilbao, with the likes of Arsenal, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich looking to sign him.

However, he looks destined to leave for Barcelona after the LaLiga champions agreed personal terms with the winger.

Barcelona sporting director Deco made it clear that Nico Williams wants to wear the Blaugrana shirt. In an interview with La Vanguardia, the former Portuguese international stated the club will move to secure the winger's signing.

"Both Nico and other players are currently showing a desire to come. If Nico's circumstances are favourable, then we will try. We already had him on the table last season. We always had the idea of going after Nico," he said, as reported by Abola.

Deco also emphasised that if Nico Williams does end up heading to Barcelona, it won't be because of his friendship with Lamine Yamal. "The fact that they are friends is good, but we are not going to play the friend card.

"This isn't a friends' club; we came here to work and try to win. While their friendship is positive, it won't influence our decision. We are always concerned with the harmony in the dressing room, and we have a very good one. We want to maintain that."

In the interview, Deco also justified the signing of Joan García, despite having a goalkeeper like Ter Stegen in the squad: "I'll give you a very simple example. Liverpool has a goalkeeper named Alisson, who is 32 years old, and they signed one of the best in the league, Mamardashvili, who is 24.

"If we have players who are 32-33 years old, we have to try and plan for the future of the squad. Last year and the year before, we had Ter Stegen injured, and we only had Iñaki Peña. We had good goalkeepers in the youth ranks, but they were still very young. This raised a red flag for us."

Regarding the possibility of Barça creating problems for Ter Stegen should he want to leave the club, the former player was direct: "When a player really wants to leave, it's very difficult to stop him.

"But that's not a problem at Barça. That's not at issue right now. We made the decision to sign a young goalkeeper, which means he can play tomorrow, be on the bench, or play in one or two years.

"We have expectations for Joan that must be met. Everyone who comes here starts from scratch; no one arrives with an advantage over others. I have great respect for Marc, but with Joan, we had to make a decision about the present and the future."