Athletic Bilbao are a club that is distinguished by a good financial standing because it bases a significant portion of its sports project on the Basque youth academy and rarely makes significant outlays for footballers.
The club led by Jon Uriarte has made it clear that changes are necessary for the Bilbao team if it hopes to stay on the right track financially, where they will start to run into issues if nothing is done.
According to Marca, the club already experiences losses of about 6 million euros, which are attributed to the cost of hiring sports personnel.
The Basque group has experienced similar situations in the past, and in those instances, they have turned to sales to find a solution.
Nico Williams is the initial trigger because Athletic wants to invest in replacing its key players but may have to sell if it wants to keep its financial stability.
The current situation of the lions was made clear by Jon Uriarte: "Athletic's situation is bad. We have been dragging in negative inertia for a while now.
For instance, the equity and provision have decreased by 110 million euros, or 37 million per season, over the past three seasons without extraordinary income from the sale of players.
The name Nico Williams appears in this context as the potential large sale that the club needs to make in order to maintain the balance both economically and athletically.
The 20-year-old is currently the rojiblanco team's most valuable asset. Due to his youth and exceptional talent, a number of teams are eager to sign the Spanish international attacker and are prepared to spend a sizeable sum of money to do so.
Despite Nico being one of his key players, the Basques may be forced to sell him due to Athletic's impending problem.