Despite meeting with Andrea Berta, £50m player no longer sees Arsenal as an option

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Arsenal are yet to make much progress with recruitment this summer.

Andrea Berta is still awaiting his first signing as Director of Football at the Emirates Stadium, and not everything is going to plan as one target in Benjamin Sesko finds himself in a disagreement with RB Leipzig over his valuation.

Now, another target in Nico Williams looks set to reject Arsenal in a blow for Mikel Arteta.

Nico Williams only wants Athletic Bilbao stay or Barcelona move

A story from SPORT in Spain now states that the Athletic Bilbao No.10 is unwilling to leave the Estadio de San Mames for anyone other than Barcelona this summer.

TBR Football understand Arsenal met with the representatives of Williams along with Bayern Munich and Barcelona, although the Spain international has now seemingly ruled out a move to England or Germany.

SPORT explain that the winger has a contract extension on the table at Athletic Bilbao, which offers to significantly increase his current £50m release clause and provide him with a pay rise.

However, the Spanish news outlet add that Williams is not taking finances into account as he considers his next move, as any exit would purely be on a competitive level – he is eager to ‘be part of a project that appeals to him both on a sporting and personal level’ according to SPORT.

Arsenal always looked set to be rejected by Nico Williams, the signs were there

Despite the affordable £50m release clause, this always looked like a tough deal for Arsenal.

Williams said he is “super happy” in Bilbao as recently as the end of April, which suggested he was not considering a move to north London.

Furthermore, the mere fact the 22-year-old entered into discussions with Athletic Bilbao over a new contract didn’t exactly suggest he was pushing to leave either.

While Arsenal no longer seem able to sign Williams, Berta is working on a deal to buy Rodrygo from Real Madrid, so Arteta could still see a quality wide forward added to his squad this summer.