Ashley Williams has been doing the rounds in the transfer window as of late. He seems to have been linked to all and sundry, the latest of which is Arsenal. What’s taken the papers so long to bring these two entities together? (Source: The Guardian).
Arsenal are an absolute state defensively. Nothing typifies the Gunners soft centre more than their most recent display against rivals Tottenham. In a big game, Arsene Wenger needed his centre-backs to shine – boy must he have been disappointed.
Both teams played with high lines, looking to trigger offside traps, but it was Arsenal’s sluggish defenders that paid the price. Neither Per Mertesacker, nor Thomas Vermaelen would have had the pace to catch Gareth Bale or Aaron Lennon once they were through on goal, but this fact ended up being more or less irrelevant.
Balls from the midfield divided the Arsenal defense and sent Bale and Lennon through before the centre-back pairing could even react. Making that mistake once was a grievous error. Repeating the same mistake within a number of minutes, is damn near unforgivable.
Of course, there will be some who point their fingers at the defensive coaching available at Arsenal (or the lack thereof). But I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to suggest that Arsenal could use further recruits in this area.
And they could do a lot worse than Swansea City captain Ashley Williams. The Capital One Cup winning centre-back has proven to be the real deal since the Swans have entered the Premier League and it’s little wonder that he’s attracted attention from other clubs.
He’s known for his leadership qualities (something that Arsenal clearly lack in), his outspoken nature, his physicality and his organisational skill. Isn’t this exactly what Arsenal need? This is somebody who could step up and take responsibility for the Gunners failings. He could implement a sea change throughout the Arsenal back-four and lead an all new, more effective defensive backline.
The 28-year-old has a contract with the Swans until 2015 and this is likely to make negotiations rather difficult. Still it’s thought that a fee of around £8m would be enough to convince Swansea City to sell.
Despite being captain of his club, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Williams would be willing to jump ship for a club with as much history as Arsenal. Given that he’d be something of a bargain, it makes sense that Arsenal pursue this one. He may be exactly what the club needs.
What’s your take? Should Arsenal look to seal a deal for Ashley Williams?
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Williams has PL experience but if we want to start winning things again we need a high profile CB who plays for a top team so we know he has the quality to play for a top team. I thinking of Hummels. Also the CB from Bilbao who is available on a free.