€50m Barcelona midfield target continues to suffer because of Nico Williams

The summer plans for FC Barcelona are not exactly at their smoothest point right now. By now, La Blaugrana may have hoped to tie down at least one of their priority targets during this transfer window. Instead, Barcelona are now in a state of waiting as they must resort to patience instead.

At the moment, the clear priority for Barça remains the arrival of Nico Williams. Almost every rumor and every source is working relentlessly to find any and all updates about the player’s response to the Catalan club as of right now. Instead, that operation is now holding back all of the other possible deals and scenarios.

With PSG’s latest interruption, and with a determined intention to sign him, the Nico Williams operation has become more complicated than it was before. However, while Barcelona continue to work on this deal, they have put a halt to their other operations.

As highlighted by Mundo Deportivo, this includes the hypothetical arrival of Mikel Merino as well. The Real Sociedad midfielder, currently aged 28 and valued at €50 million, remains the clear option for Barça as their midfield acquisition this summer, but his operation will now have to be put on a waiting list of sorts.

However, the Catalan club remains aware that they are not the only interested party when it comes to Merino. Arsenal, one of the Premier League’s most ambitious sides at the moment, are more than willing to dive deep into the operation to secure the Spaniard’s signing for themselves.

Yet, there has been no formal offer from the Gunners yet, and Barcelona remains stuck with the Nico Williams operation. The player himself, however, is reportedly still waiting on the Catalan giants to make whatever moves they need to make in order to facilitate his arrival.

With one more year left on his contract, the player knows that time is not exactly on his side. If nothing ends up happening between now and the 5th of August, the player will be obligated to return to Real Sociedad and possibly even complete his remaining year then. Barcelona, however, will only be able to follow through on his arrival after both Nico Williams and Dani Olmo have had their future sorted.