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Arsenal Beat Liverpool To Williams After Agreeing Three-Year Deal Worth £60k Per Week

By on May 24, 2013

Reports today are claiming that Arsenal have agreed terms with Ashley Williams over a move to the Emirates this summer with the club expected to agree a fee in the region of £10m with Swansea City.

Williams has been on Arsene Wenger’s radar in recent months after another impressive season with the Swans that saw the 28-year-old lead his team to a top 10 finish in the Premier League as well as lift the League Cup at Wembley.

With Thomas Vermaelen tipped to leave Arsenal this summer after falling behind Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny in the pecking order, it seems Williams is the man the boss has identified to come in and replace the Belgian.

Liverpool have also been strongly linked with a move for the Welshman with Brendan Rodgers looking for a replacement for Jamie Carragher, but it appears we’ve won the race with Goal claiming a three year deal worth £60,000-a-week has been agreed with the centre-back and now all that’s left is to settle on a fee with Swansea.

It’s understood that we’ve opened preliminary talks and started the bidding at £8m, but the final fee is likely to be nearer £10m, with the signing expected to be completed in the next two weeks. The Daily Mail are also running a similar story but with less detail, so it looks like Williams could be coming to the Emirates this summer.

I feel he’d be a good squad player but has little chance of breaking up the Koscielny-Mertesacker partnership. Wenger is highly unlikely to change his starting pair next season after the impressive run-in so i fear the best Williams can hope for is being 3rd choice – if Vermaelen does leave.

Personally, I’d like to see the Belgian stay and we go into next season with 4 strong centre-backs, but unfortunately I only see Williams coming in if Vermaelen is sold. Either way, we should have a dependable back up option in case of injury or suspension to our first choice pairing.

What do you make of this news? Would you welcome the signing of Williams?

40 Comments

  1. Ian Frost

    May 24, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    Please do win the battle
    We Liverpool fans will breathe a huge sigh of relief
    £10m for a guy that is nearly 29
    Kind of daft signing we used to do

    • atid

      May 24, 2013 at 2:25 pm

      Oh yeah would much rather spend your cash on downing henderson and carroll. Let’s also not forget tbat liverpool are seeking more for skrtel who isn’t fit to lace the boots of williams. Williams is 28 in the prime of his career captain of his country and has 7 good years in him. Just look at Ferdinand who has just had his best season in years at the age of 35 and who wouldn’t have signed Maldini at the age 38!! Plenty of football and room for improvement in Williams i say £8-10m is a bargain. Hell we got almost double that for Toure!!

      • Ian Frost

        May 24, 2013 at 2:38 pm

        That’s the point dumbo
        Re-read the original post
        We used to do daft deals like Carroll and Downing
        We appear to have leaned our lesson
        PS Henderson is a different story and is becoming a rounded player
        Williams will cost more than Coutinho ( albeit different position) who is a gem

        And before your inevitable reply
        We have 5 European cups, how many do you have?

        • al

          May 24, 2013 at 3:17 pm

          plus three Uefa cups, and 18 league titles, lest we forget . . . the list goes on!

          Dodged a bullet re Williams IMO. papodopolous is the man to shore up our defence, and we have Martin kelly coming back too and hopefully Toure to give us some experience

          • goonerwest

            May 24, 2013 at 4:19 pm

            Popo who? Your Merseysides 2nd team now ain’t got no beef with Liverpool infact would rather you lot came back and win the league instead of Man Utd n Chelsea. Facts are facts though over 20 years of the Premier league and you haven’t woń it, even champions league qualification is a far distant away at the moment.

          • goonerwest

            May 24, 2013 at 4:19 pm

            Popo who? Your Merseysides 2nd team now ain’t got no beef with Liverpool infact would rather you lot came back and win the league instead of Man Utd n Chelsea. Facts are facts though over 20 years of the Premier league and you haven’t woń it, even champions league qualification is a far distant away at the moment.

        • panther

          May 26, 2013 at 3:21 am

          Your a numpty mate! How many English ptemier leagues have liverpool won? Oh yeah NONE! Twat

    • demongooner

      May 24, 2013 at 5:14 pm

      sorry but that the most stupid statement i have ever read … 10 million for a premier league proven player at 28 or 29 is a worth while deal.
      considering players playing longer now , i also expect he be at arsenal(if we sign him i don’t really believe this deal is any where near being done yet) at arsenal for maybe 3 years then moved on where we would recieve around 5 to 8 million for him …sounds good bussiness to me

    • obyno

      May 24, 2013 at 6:04 pm

      U wish indeed. Even at 29, he truly worths more than that amount. Do u think u can av Terry 4 dat amount? And he is quite older. Williams worth more my dear. Hope our Arsenal can get him. Decent defender & better than any Liverpool defender

  2. SAGunner

    May 24, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    We needed a stong fearles man at the back – Mert is good but too slow.

    • James Morgan

      May 24, 2013 at 3:25 pm

      As far as am concerned.. Matesacker n Koscielny was d best pair we had last season.. Talkin about a fearless defender, we had that in TV5 but messed up big time. Kozza is technical and fast while Per is slow yet technical. In a nutshell we need a bit of a fast n slow defender to balance up the defence. Two fast defenders wont help. E.g Rio Ferdinand(slow) Nemanja Vidic (fast).

  3. Bill

    May 24, 2013 at 2:17 pm

    Liverpool have only been interested in Williams in the minds of the UK media columnists and pundits. For a start Liverpools owners FSG will not sanction the purchase of any player aged over 25 years, and especially for the fee that was quoted to BR of £15M for the 29 year old player.

    • demongooner

      May 24, 2013 at 5:16 pm

      liverpool only saction deals for players that are over priced and not proven …how is carrol btw

  4. atid

    May 24, 2013 at 2:20 pm

    It would be a tragic loss if we allow vermaelen to leave. Two of the last 4 seasons he has been our best defender by some margin. When he was alongside gallas and djourou he was quite simply world class. In between his good seasons came the injured one and this season he was shaky. However I believe that this season was down to the way we played as a team and in particular the defensive shield in front of the centre backs where arteta was having his first season as a DM and during that time arteta had no.less than 4 different partners. It wasn’t until ramsey moved alongside arteta that we looked solid in that department unfortunately for vermaelen he only played once behind that shield.
    My opinion is also that if vermaelen played alongside williams we would have another great pairing every bit as good as per and kos if not better. I just hope that djourou is the fall guy not vermaelen. The thing is we also have 2 very good youngsters in Hayden and Miquel though I don’t think either is ready for arsenal until they have proven themselves elsrwhere.

    • panther

      May 26, 2013 at 3:33 am

      Vermaelen is accident prone and his initial goal scoring exploits, covered up his lack of positional sense. I’m not saying get rid but he must focus and cut out the stupid mistakes. Even in his first season he was caught out of position to far up the feild, on several occasions. I actualy do blame Vermaelen for Arsenals bad defending over the ladt few seasons, because he was the apparent leader of the defense but he constantly made the same mistakes again and again.

  5. Danno

    May 24, 2013 at 2:20 pm

    Dodged a Bullet there 😉 £10.000.000 Million Pounds for a 29 year old hahaha Arsenal are the new Liverpool of the negotiating WORLD 😉 where selling Downing for £15.000.000 if use fancy buying him 😉 SUCKERS…

    • atid

      May 24, 2013 at 2:27 pm

      Yeah your also trying to sell skrtel for 15m good luck with that now that is funny.

      Erm kolo toure 15m when we sold him that is even funnier

    • Kungfauxmaster

      May 24, 2013 at 2:55 pm

      Your comments 29 years old! He’s 28 and that’s the perfect age for a defender to be at their peak. Williams is a top defender and will prove to be a bargain.

      • Danno

        May 24, 2013 at 4:02 pm

        When the season starts in August Williams will be 29,get your FACTS STRAIGHT !!!

        • atid

          May 24, 2013 at 4:23 pm

          So in fact he is 28 then?

          You sound like a fat spanish waiter now FACT haha
          when in fact someone is still 28 until they reach their 29th birthday. FACT

          • Danno

            May 24, 2013 at 4:44 pm

            When the season starts in August he’s 29 idiot !!! Get that througth your thick skull…

    • demongooner

      May 24, 2013 at 5:21 pm

      yes well we can’t argue with a club that kept players like garragher , and gerarrrrrrdd, brought players like carrol was it erm 35 million ? and suarez and downing hmmmmm no sorry i think arsenal much better and will never be like liverpool who dispite great success are skint good luck watching your middle of the table team next season

      • Danno

        May 24, 2013 at 7:56 pm

        Your right demon use won’t be like us ( 5 European Cups,18 League Titles NEED I GO ON FOOL )
        And we can’t be that skint if we spent £35 million on one player,when was the last time use did that IDIOT !!!

  6. aryour

    May 24, 2013 at 2:21 pm

    my praise 4 per is huge but av always believed d guy is a little too slow.

    • piken79

      May 24, 2013 at 3:18 pm

      Per is a great defender..not a coincidence we do better when he plays

  7. mac14

    May 24, 2013 at 2:26 pm

    I do agree that Per Mertesacker’s lack of pace is a worry at times, but surely we can’t argue with his record alongside Koscielny during the second half of the season?

    The pair deserve to continue together at the start of next year, if things go bad, that’s why we need a dependable third choice CB. Williams wouldn’t be my first choice, as some LFC fans have pointed out, £10m is steep for a 29-year-old. I’d sooner keep hold of Vermaelen personally.

    • atid

      May 24, 2013 at 2:28 pm

      Except he is 28 and centre backs live longer than wingers, in fact second longest only to goalkeepers.

      • Ian Frost

        May 24, 2013 at 2:42 pm

        He’s 29 at the season start I think you’ll find
        Well have Vermsnlen off you- to us he appeared a good player and had a bad spell then was out of the team ( bit like Skrtel)

        • al

          May 24, 2013 at 3:21 pm

          Skyrtel was dropped after the debacle at Oldham, when he came out publicly that he was being blamed for the defeat(which he was!) and rodgers took exception to that and left him on the bench since- quite right too! Easily worht £12m+ though

    • Danno

      May 24, 2013 at 4:03 pm

      Some sense from Mac14

  8. Neal

    May 24, 2013 at 2:38 pm

    I wish people would stop citing Goal.com and CaughtOffside as sources. They are not. They are people sitting around in their bedrooms making stuff up.

  9. Bimbo

    May 24, 2013 at 2:43 pm

    Williams ‘ll give us needed depth but not @ the expense of TV.
    I believe TV will do well as a DM.

  10. Patrick

    May 24, 2013 at 2:57 pm

    Liverpool don’t want Williams and I ain’t just saying it because Arsenal are about to sign him. We’re after Papadopoulos who’s younger, better and a beast of a man. He’ll cost more but it’s worth it.

    • al

      May 24, 2013 at 3:22 pm

      exactly

    • goonerwest

      May 24, 2013 at 7:32 pm

      Popo who? Your Merseysides 2nd team now ain’t got no beef with Liverpool infact would rather you lot came back and win the league instead of Man Utd n Chelsea. Facts are facts though over 20 years of the Premier league and you haven’t woń it, even champions league qualification is a far distant away at the moment.

      • Ian Frost

        May 24, 2013 at 8:36 pm

        And you’ve won it twice Iin 20 years but lag behind Us in everything
        No European trophy of any type EVER
        No trophy since 2005
        We’ve won 3 since you did
        You celebrate 4th as a trophy
        Your manager is stale
        But carry on…….
        How many fans do you have in Asia, Africa , America
        You’re the 5th biggest club in England
        We’re in the top 5 supported on the planet but carry on.,,,,,dem Skawsers are de 2md best team on merseyside….,

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