Valverde confident in Nico William staying at Athletic

The 2024-25 summer transfer window has been fairly quiet as far as big moves are concerned. However, it is not free of the usual soap operas of each window, and Nico Williams and his possible move to Barcelona is one of them.

Athletic Club faced Eibar on Thursday afternoon. After the game, coach Ernesto Valverde was asked about the future of his player, to which he responded calmly and serenely: "I'm calm, just like before. I know that the transfer window closes on 31 August. There is still a month left. I'm not talking about Nico, but also about the fact that we are going to try to improve our team and the rest of the teams I suppose will improve theirs".

"Nico is good, we know that. We'll see what happens because here every day something new comes out in the press and what we can't do is let ourselves be guided by that, but simply by the things that are happening. The things that come out don't have to unbalance us," he added.

Valverde also confirmed that Athletic's three internationals have holiday leave until 12 August: "I don't know if they will come before or not, it's one of the possibilities".

"We have to be more forceful, but it's a question of pre-seasons. They progress little by little and when they are long they are a bit tiring. Today the pitch was even and it was difficult for us to create a threat," concluded Valverde.