Barcelona didn't want Nico Williams! Deco criticises Athletic Club star over failed summer transfer and says Marcus Rashford is a better fit for Hansi Flick's side

In a drawn-out summer saga, Williams was heavily linked with Barcelona before making a dramatic U-turn by signing a ten-year deal with Athletic Club, leaving the Catalan team embarrassed as a move seemed imminent at one point. Barcelona president Joan Laporta blamed sporting director Deco for the fiasco, but the director has since defended himself, insisting it was Williams’ camp that approached Barcelona about a move, not the other way around.

In an interview with Mundo Deportivo, Deco explained that Williams was not the exact profile Barcelona were targeting. He said: “Nico wasn't the exact profile we wanted, but he can play on the left and the right. And Ferran [Torres] was becoming a '9', 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 '9' profile.

“If a great player like Nico asks us to come, when the agent looks for us, we'll talk, and that's how it's been. Football is like that; the player, for whatever reason, didn't want the conditions that were proposed. The agent has his interests, and we don't know how things are going, but there's no controversy.  It's a very easy matter. He gives you a right and a left wing, he doesn't give you the '9' aspect, but if you don't have the other solutions, it would suit us because he's a great player and could give you two of the three positions.”

He further emphasised that the deal fell through because the club stood firm on its conditions, adding: “There's no mistake, we simply set the club's conditions, then we have to put the negotiations on paper, into contracts, and we said we wouldn't accept the conditions they set us because no player is going to impose any restrictions on us, and in the end, nothing happens. We gave them a deadline to respond, but they didn't respond; they went their way, and we went ours.”

Barcelona then moved on to sign Rashford on loan from Manchester United. The English forward has made an immediate impact, scoring two goals and providing three assists in all competitions, helping the Catalans remain unbeaten and sit top of the La Liga table after seven games.

"Looking at last season's squad, we were missing something there," Deco added as he weighed the three options Barca pursued over the summer - Williams, Rashford and Luis Diaz. "We thought Ansu [Fati] would fill that role. He started preseason well, but then things didn't go his way, and he also suffered injuries that made things very difficult for him. He could play on the left wing and as a number 9, providing those solutions, but we lacked that profile in the squad. Luis Díaz fit in, Rashford fit in, and then it's a matter of negotiation."

He added of Rashford: “He's a very high-level player; he exploded very early, then he had great seasons at United, then he had years of more complicated management with changes of coaches, and perhaps he struggled too because they demanded a lot of things from him there. But we're happy with him; that's the most important thing.”

Barcelona will now hope Rashford can become the protagonist when they take on defending champions Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday.