Man Utd ruin Arsenal’s chances of signing Nico Williams

Manchester United could ruin Arsenal’s hopes of signing Nico Williams this summer.

Sensational reports in Spain on Tuesday claimed that Williams had given his agent the “green light” to finalise a deal with Arsenal.

TodoFichajes reported that despite competition from Aston Villa, Barcelona, Chelsea and Liverpool, Arsenal “will be the ones” to sign Williams this summer.

They claimed Arsenal will trigger his €58 million release clause and make him the highest-paid player at the Emirates Stadium.

However, CaughtOffside reports that Man Utd are interested in signing Barcelona winger Raphinha this summer.

The Blaugrana may cash in on the Brazilian this summer in order to raise cash to balance the books and sign other targets.

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The report states that United are the best placed team – along with Liverpool – to sign Raphinha, who has enjoyed the best season of his career with 27 goals and 19 assists in all competitions from 41 games.

If United were to complete the deal for Raphinha, Barcelona would then have the funds needed to sign Williams.

Arsenal and Barcelona were in a two-way tussle to sign Williams last summer but the player eventually stayed at Athletic Bilbao.

Barca had been particularly desperate to sign the Athletic winger last summer but were unable to complete a deal for financial reasons.

It has long since been claimed that Williams would ideally rather join Barca if that move is still on the table.

Thus, United could play a crucial role in deciding Williams’ next club.

Williams at Euro 2024

Williams was one of the stars of Euro 2024 with electric performances as Spain won the trophy.

He scored in the 2-1 final win over England and was one of the players of the tournament.

His best performance was arguably against Italy where he tore apart the right-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo and set up the winner – an own goal by Riccardo Calafiori.

He also scored a fantastic goal in the win over Georgia in the last-16.

The 22-year-old Williams is considered one of the most exciting young wingers in all of Europe.

Blessed with lightning pace and dribbling skills, he has a promising future in the game.

After making his debut for Athletic in 2021, Williams has scored 27 goals in 157 games.

He has also scored four goals in 24 games for Spain, and travelled to the 2022 World Cup.

This season he has seven goals in 35 games.