12 Apr 2013

LFC in pole-position to sign 'terrific' £12m star who idolised John Barnes

After a disappointingly shaky season, Liverpool's defence is due for an overhaul this summer, and with three potential vacancies opening up, central defenders will be near the top of the Reds' priority list in the upcoming transfer window. Swansea's Ashley Williams ia a major target for the club, and with each passing week, it seems more and more inevitable that the 28-year old will be wearing a Liverpool shirt at the start of next season.

According to a report in The Guardian today:

* LFC are in 'pole position' to sign him.
* Williams favours a move to LFC.
* The Welshman was a boyhood Reds fans.
* He will cost around £12m.

Speaking to the BBC in mid-March, Swansea boss Michael Laudrup hinted that a summer move for Williams is a realistic possibility:

"When a player is doing well it [a transfer] is possible. He has done great which may be why some bigger clubs want him. He has had a great season, but lets see what the player wants and take it from there. To talk about it now does not make sense."

A couple of Liverpool legends are in favour of the deal. In an interview last week, Ian Rush told ThisIsSouthWales:

"To get Williams would be great. At the right price Swansea would let him go, and he would be good for Liverpool with his experience."

Rushie's former team-mate, Jan Molby, is also in favour of signing Williams. In March, he told the Liverpool Echo:

"He [Williams] looks better this season than he did last. He’s assured, even when he’s being put under pressure. He can play and he can graft. You don’t get many centre backs like that at the moment"

Wales boss Chris Coleman is convinced that Williams can be a success at one of the big clubs in the Premier League, and in an interview with the BBC in March, he enthused:

"I'm not surprised that he [Williams] is being linked with big clubs. He's a terrific defender and a great personality [and has] a great mentality towards football"

Fans should probably start getting their heads around the idea that Williams be leading Liverpool's defence next season. For some reason, there seems to be a lot of apathy and/or vitriol towards the idea, but he is undoubtedly a good defender, and the his stats over the last five years prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt. Indeed, this season - according to Opta stats - Williams is a more effective defender than both Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel.

Nothing is a foregone conclusion, however. Liverpool may be in 'pole-position' right now, but Arsenal are also interested, and Swansea rejected a £9m bid from the Gunners in January. Wenger will almost certainly be back in the summer, and the Reds can probably expect Spurs to put in their customary bid too.

I'd have no problem with Liverpool signing Williams. Anfield legend John Barnes is his favourite Reds player, so that makes him okay in my book ;-)



NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)


43 comments:

  1. Does he have enough pace? How would Suarez react?

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  2. We should be aiming for better if we want top 4 , br should not have the final say on signings( Allen borini)

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  3. Sounds good to me, at least 5 good seasons left in him allowing plenty of time to continue grooming our own.

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  4. another comfort signing another waste of money when will we learn

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  5. Agreed. We cannot spend 27m in one year on two Swansea players, especially when the first one we bought hasn't shown much yet.

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  6. imo he worth about 7million given his age and top flight experience but i do think he will end up coming to us for 12million

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  7. liverpool4life5656:42 pm, April 12, 2013

    He a leader, losing carra was a blow (who a true leader) with Williams he has experience and he also a leader from the back, he doesn't mess around also he would settle in quiet well, so I also agree would be a good signing but not for 12 million only because of his age, if its around 8 million bracket then that's fine.

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  8. Error prone. imo there are better CB's out there for that kind of money. hes hard and he's welsh, that will endear him to a certain extent but you only need to look as far as vertongen and the fulham CB to know that there are better deals to be had.

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  9. good luck to the boys in the youth cup semi final its live on itv4 at 7.30

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  10. The last thing we need if we're realistically going to push for a top four place is another bang average and overpriced player from a mid table team. Rodgers should have learnt his lesson with the signing of joe Allen. Genuinely makes you wonder what our scouts must do all day, seem completely incapable of looking beyond the lower reaches of the premier league. Not sure how Williams stats over the last 5 years can show he's a good defender beyond a shadow of a doubt when most of them have been spent in lower leagues. If you want to look at how he will square up against other top sides especially in Europe you only have to look at his peframce against totenham- completely inept. Overweight pub player, and to make it worse he has a problems orb Suarez that would undoubtedly disrupt the squad. Preying we don't sign him

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  11. I tend to agree with that line of thinking. I wish we wouldn't "declare" our interest in a player so often. While it's nice for the player to know that he's wanted, it also kills any leverage we have with his current team.


    i.e. Charlie Adam

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  12. I agree with £7-8m price tag... For 12m, i think we can find better or cheaper player from other league..

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  13. 'Genuinely makes you wonder what our scouts must do all day, seem completely incapable of looking beyond the lower reaches of the premier league'. What about Coutinho, Assidi, Yesil, and Borini then?

    I don't agree with you about Williams either. He looks like a good defender whenever I've seen him play (You can't put Swansea's recent debacle at Anfield at his door which was down to an inept team performance).

    Our defense and team in general has lacked backbone this season. I wouldn't expect Williams to get bullied as Agger and Skertel have on a number of occasions recently, plus he's relatively agile and decent on the ball.

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  14. Another nail in our mid-table status coffin. Has Rodgers got a lack of confidence in his scouts to find a decent CB other than another Swansea player. It's an absolute joke - and after his verbal attack on Suarez, should be a no go - but I fear Suarez is on his way anyway (a shame coz Suarez alone has kept Rodgers in a job).


    Disagree with JK, cannot see him leading the defence. He is an overpriced British player with average stats - of course he might make more tackles as smaller teams have more defensive work to do - bigger teams do more defensive work in midfield - at least we used to until Brendan arrived, no we have no defensive midfield, hence why we have leaked so many goals this year.


    Need a change in the summer - if not a manager then at least a coach who knows how to coach the defenders.

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  15. Worth 2 million at most

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  16. No pace and a disgrace what he said about Suarez - makes me wonder if a decision has already been made about selling Suarez.


    This signing would show BR limitations as a manager - why keep raiding your old club? Terrible times for LFC.

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  17. liverpool4life56510:39 pm, April 12, 2013

    Are you crazy? His stats are better than agger and skrtel, and he is a solid unit.

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  18. No matter how much you moan about Williams possible move to Liverpool it wont still change anything,because the manager has the final say on the transfers and they have to agree with the owners,all those haters and hooligans against him coming to Anfield must go and support Man U or Chelsea we dont need such unwise fans filled with negativity,he williams apologised to Suarez for his comments and its done and dusted,you are the very same fans who will start worshiping him wen he proves to be a no nonsense CB and an excellent purchase you even go to the extent of making his images a sunctuary or a terbanacle as a holy shrine,please just be honest with me on current form which Liverpool CB can equal Williams form at present?no one thats just a plain fact, i would like him to partner Agger not skirtel error prone,or if the deal fails we should also look to De Vigril and Alderweirld for a decent fee or Sakho and in the midfield we get one of these attacking mid fielders Eriksen, Strootman and Honda and get a CDM like Diame,Matuidi and Gundogan and get a quality winger like Ada Turan not Capel and get a decent striker like kelvin Gameiro from PSG or bid for Hinguain

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  19. You've gone mental matey!

    Someone restrain this fool before I pimp slap him with the force of thousand Dolemites.

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  20. It is actually embarrassing that we keep looking for British players. 12mil is a lot for AW. There are better options for sure who will be cheaper.
    BR's comments about not being in Europe next season is a blessing sickens me. How can you be a manager of LFC and say this. Fcuking joke.

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  21. Shit. End of.

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  22. I think 12m is probably a little too expensive but I do think he is a quality defender who has the potential to step up his game at a bigger club. If we could get him for under 10m I'd be very happy.

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  23. I agree with Owen. I think Williams would be a solid addition and he is definitely a quality defender if you've seen him play in the premier league. We also need to sign another top quality centre back though. If we can get Williams plus perhaps another younger talent like Toby Alderweireld from Ajax I think that would be doing quite well.

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  24. We cannot spend 27m in one year on two Swansea players? Ehhhh, why not? Or is your explanation for this because the first one we bought hasn't shown 'much yet'? Jesus, thank God YOU are not in charge of our transfer policy.

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  25. Blind. End of.

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  26. That explains the shitness then.

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  27. I would love to see him in Liverpool jersey. Amazing player. Gives 100% every time. But I really hope it doesn't hinder the progress of the likes of Conor Coady.

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  28. Looooool give it to him Dolo!!!

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  29. 12 million pounds could be better spent Williams is not really worth it there are better defenders out there cheaper and younger.
    I hope in this case FSG say no.

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  30. Think Rodgers would love him so hope the owners stand firm over their age policy.. sure they will see that 12 million is too much on a 28 year old unproven at a big club. Would anyone like to see Kelly given a chance to fill Carragher's boots alongside Agger?

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  31. Coady's a midfielder

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  32. I bet loudrop cant wait

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  33. You can make stats up on anything and make a player look good or bad.Look at all the stats thrown at us when we signed Allen.His pass success rate was one of the best in europe only just behind xavi etc.Surely if we continue buying last seasons swansea team were end up finishing 9th or 10th where swansea were at the end of last season.Rodgers you may as well of stayed at swansea and asked the club to just change there kit colour to red.Ill be surprised if we manage a top 4 next season

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  34. we will pay more if he signs it will be closer to 12million

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  35. i like your insult i will see if i can get it into one of my postslol;-)

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  36. Good shout Jaimie. Ashley Williams is a very good defender and proven in the EPL. He has what it takes to be our kingpin defender for many years. £12m is about right for him. We paid about 3m more than Allen was worth (he is by no means rubbish but has a way yet to justify his price tag) so Swansea mustnt be greedy. We would be signing both a very good player and a Liverpool fan so motivated to play his heart out for the shirt. Get him in Brendan :0)

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  37. waste of 12M, rodgers is a joke going back to swansea AGAIN- he'll be gone by xmas as we sit mid table AGAIN.

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  38. QUALITY OF PLAYERS and PERFOMANCE MUST BE IMPROVE for next season.Current not too strong and can compete to winning the tittle.They jusy ordinary players and mix with passenger players in the team.So we cannot hope good result yet.Please don’t tell me downing and henderson is still good players with only small improvement.Scare to dribble, fail crossing the ball, slowly counter attack and what else we can hoping now? We want to see goal is the final result. Football is about winning games, and the winning is about how much goal you have scored.That is the fact.Borini, Carroll is still in dream life and just coming to honeymoon holidays at Anfield.They will go and needed to go when this season are finish.Lucas and Joe Allen are still cannot meet high expectation from the owner and fans.After departured Xabi Alonso and Mascherano, they never found good replacement players for CDM position.Lucas and Allen have small size body, and cannot tackle down bigeer players contenders.Next season LFC must addres important areas to CDM and CENTREBACK who having versatile, can assist or score the goal and solidfy protect the fortress very well.Combative players needed to add on to areas defender.

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  39. Why not sign Modibi Diakete from Lazio - Free agent - worth a punt. Napoli - Roma - AC Milan all want to sign him, why not us?

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  40. Very productive response. Thanks for your words of enlightenment.

    As the old saying goes, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

    So we purchase Joe Allen, who hasn't not performed up to the expectations that people hoped. He started off the season well in the first few games but gradually tailed off.

    And now we are considering going back to the well again to spend another 12m? At least when we went back to Newcastle to buy Enrique it was for about half that.

    We shouldn't have bought Joe Allen in the first place. He was a luxury buy that we didn't need. We needed another striker and we needed another center back.



    We need to stop buying players at peak values. Buy low sell high. Coutinho is a great example of what we should be aiming to do. Even if he doesn't work out in the long run, we didn't give up a king's ransom for him.


    But thank goodness that I am not in charge of our transfer policy. Because I'm sure that makes EVERYONE sleep so much better at night.

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  41. My top 5 Reds (in no order) Ian Rush, Steven Gerrard, Robbie Fowler, John Barnes, & Jamie Carragher.

    Now, if they want to pay me that much too, to ride the bench for a season, I'm happy to sign.

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