Liverpool Eye Nico Williams as Salah Successor Amid Arsenal Interest
The same names keep coming back around Liverpool’s recruitment meetings, and one in particular refuses to leave the whiteboard.
Nico Williams. Again.
The World Cup winner and Euro 2024 champion is back on the Reds’ shortlist as they continue the unenviable task of replacing Mohamed Salah. The club’s gaze has been fixed primarily on PSG’s Bradley Barcola, but the door to La Liga has never fully closed. Williams remains very much in the frame.
Arsenal Move First, Liverpool Watch Closely
The latest development comes via Ekrem Konur, who reports that Liverpool have renewed their interest in the 24‑year‑old Athletic Club winger. They are not, however, setting the pace.
“Liverpool are interested in Nico Williams, but Arsenal’s pursuit is currently more advanced,” Konur stated on X. He added that Arsenal have already made “new contacts” for the winger, with sporting director Andrea Berta assessing whether a deal is realistic.
The key number in all of this is simple enough: £77 million. That’s the release clause written into Williams’ long-term contract, a figure Konur notes Arsenal and several other Premier League clubs can realistically meet. Liverpool fall into that bracket too.
So the race is on. Liverpool are in it, just not in front.
A Long Courtship with La Liga’s Livewire
Williams has been linked with a major move for what feels like an age. Last summer, he hovered on the brink of a switch to Barcelona before delivering a shock of his own, committing to a ten-year contract at Athletic Club running to 2035.
The deal looked like a statement of loyalty. The release clause told a different story.
At his peak so far, during the 2023/24 campaign, Williams looked every bit the coming superstar. He produced 18 direct goal involvements in 31 league appearances, driving Athletic Club’s attack with pace and aggression from the flank. He then carried that form onto the international stage, emerging as one of Spain’s standout performers in their EURO 2024 triumph.
That summer, his name moved from scout reports to boardroom agendas across Europe.
End Product vs Potential
Since that surge, the numbers have cooled. Across his last two league seasons, Williams has registered only ten direct goal involvements in each campaign: 5 goals and 5 assists in 2024/25, then 6 goals and 4 assists in 2025/26.
Solid. Not spectacular.
He has never broken the 11-goal mark across all competitions in a single season. For a winger with a £77m buyout clause, that raises an obvious question: is the output matching the price?
On raw statistics alone, the answer is debatable. On talent, the picture changes. Williams brings electric pace, sharp changes of direction and the ability to unbalance a back line in a single stride. He stretches games, forces defenders onto their heels and opens spaces for others.
Liverpool know exactly what they are losing in Salah: 12 goals and 10 assists last season, but also reliability, ruthlessness, a guarantee of numbers when it matters most. Williams, at this stage of his career, is not that guarantee. He is a bet on ceiling rather than certainty.
That is the dilemma.
Liverpool’s Calculated Gamble?
The logic for Liverpool is easy to trace. They want a wide forward who can run at defenders, carry the ball over distance and grow into a central attacking role over time. Williams ticks those boxes. He is already a proven international, already used to pressure, already operating in a league that demands tactical intelligence.
But £77m demands more than promise. It demands production.
Arsenal’s more advanced move forces Liverpool’s hand. Do they push hard for a player they have admired for years, accepting that they are paying for what he might become rather than what he is? Or do they hold the line and trust that Barcola, or another target, offers a cleaner balance between cost and end product?
One thing is clear: the Salah era at Anfield is over. The next right-sided star will define the next phase of Liverpool’s attack.
Whether they decide that player is Nico Williams, at £77m and still chasing his first truly elite season, will say a lot about how bold they are prepared to be.
