Athletic Club president Jon Uriarte has shared his confidence that they can keep Nico Williams at the club long-term after he ‘rejected an offer from Aston Villa’.
The Athletic president has been speaking to Radio Nacional de España, relayed by Marca, as he enters the second year of his presidency, looking to make a splash by keeping hold of the highly thought of forward.
Williams has been impressing at the club over the last few years and that’s earned him attention from the Premier League where Aston Villa, and particularly Unai Emery, were showing a willingness to sign him this summer.
Indeed, a report last month made it clear that they had made a big offer to the player to make the move to Villa Park and that was followed by claims that Williams was close to packing his bags and making the switch.
It seemed that Aston Villa, who are splashing the cash this summer for Emery, were willing to pay the forward’s release clause and get him out of Athletic as soon as possible.
However, that has not happened, with those reports dying off and instead being replaced by claims that there had been a turnaround and he would be staying where he is.
That’s now something Marca are echoing, insisting that Williams has ‘rejected an offer from Aston Villa’ to move there this summer.
They couple that with comments from Uriarte, who is also very confident they’ve managed to fight off the Villans.
“Nico came when he was 11 years old and he is very comfortable here,” he said.
“His family is from Athletic to the death and his brother is another of the great players of the first team.
“We are trying to provide the means so that he can extend his career with us, and I think that we’ll achieve it. “
