Swansea should pay up...but only what we can afford
The last few days must have been pretty lively if you are Ashley Williams' agent. All these leaks to the press must be coming from somewhere, and his mobile phone has probably been in overdrive as he looks to get his man front and centre of the national news - and in fairness he's done a pretty good job of it. All the major papers are now reporting that, essentially, we should take £3million for him now as opposed to losing him for nothing next summer - but therein lies the problem with British football. That stratagem assumes the club needs to sell. Swansea City don't need three million pound right now, but we need Ashley Williams.
Why isn't his new contract sorted out already? I'm sure that at some point in the past few months, if we'd have offered him a good increase on his current salary, it would have been very hard to turn down. This is based on the suggestion (in various articles) that Ash is "frustrated at the lack of progress on his current contract" which, if true, indicates he was willing to sit down and sign something, had the offer been right. Obviously only Ash knows if that's true (and possibly the club), but I find it very hard to believe there wasn't a happy medium to be struck between what we can offer and what the "elite clubs" pay their players on a weekly basis as a matter of course.
We're never going to match the moneybag clubs, but it's not about that. As weird as it sounds, if we were to offer Ash £30kpw I don't think it would be one-hundred percent about money - he knows our wage structure, and he knows how the club is run. Importance to the club can thus be inferred from how much the club are willing to pay you on a weekly basis, and with more potential comings and goings in our defence this summer I'd argue retaining Ash should, at present, be our number one priority.
How much should we be paying him though? I'd say an absolute maximum of £35kpw, but given his importance to the team and how long he's been here, I don't think that's a grotesque amount. It would probably make him one of the top earners at the club, if not the top earner, but he's worth it in my opinion as the alternative - losing him - has the potential to do us more damage than giving him a much improved contract would. Who would replace him? With Chico an ever-increasing calamity I don't fancy a summer where both our main centre-backs from the past few seasons depart, and I can't help but get a bad feeling whenever there is talk of Ash departing.
Who is interested? Rumours abound, but the common names are Liverpool (obviously), Arsenal (obviously), Napoli (we played them this season you know), Lille (not so obvious!) and QPR (who will sign anyone willing to agree to a ridiculous five-year contract). All of these clubs are liable to pay far above where our upper limit will be, but I get the sense that, for Ash, if we'd have (by this point) stumped up what he felt was an offer which reflected the club's commitment to keeping him in SA1, then instead of currently talking about his potential suitors the club may well have been announcing a successful contract extension.
How much money that would constitute you can't say, but while there have been rumours surrounding Ash's future for a while it's only this past week that anything has emerged from his camp with regards to potential moves away from the Liberty. Up until now, indeed only a few weeks ago, Ash stated that signing on at the Swans was his preferred option, so what has gone wrong since then? Well, either we haven't put up enough cash (or Ash and his agent were demanding an unreasonable amount, which I can't imagine given their knowledge of the Swans), Ash's agent has turned his head with talk of more money, or Ash just fancies a new challenge, coupled with a massive payday.
Worryingly, given the buildup to this, I can't help but think this was a completely avoidable situation, and that this is currently a talking point because we've been reticent in giving him the amount of money he feels he needs to commit to the Swans for the foreseeable future. It's not been a secret his contract is slowly creeping to an end, and that it's come to this really disappoints me.
Whatever now happens with Ash, it's important the club learn from this. He's blatantly an integral figure at the club, Monk clearly wants him around next season, and if occasionally shifting the goalposts on your standard practice is of benefit to the club it's something which should be done. As for the talk of Ash holding us to ransom this summer by demanding he be sold if a bid of £3million arrives... well that is simply ludicrous.
We paid out almost that amount to end the 32RED sponsorship deal early, and that's the kind of money that, in my opinion, means little to nothing in the cash-heavy throes of modern Premier League-dom. Ash is worth more over the course of the season than we'd buy for £3million quid - I'm sure he knows that, and that's why I don't buy everything I've been reading in the press over the last fourty-eight hours. I still feel Ash wants to stay here, and if the club haven't already made a big effort in trying to keep him here it's well overdue.
Only time will tell where Ashley Williams will be playing his football next season. I for one hope it will be for Swansea City.
How much money that would constitute you can't say, but while there have been rumours surrounding Ash's future for a while it's only this past week that anything has emerged from his camp with regards to potential moves away from the Liberty. Up until now, indeed only a few weeks ago, Ash stated that signing on at the Swans was his preferred option, so what has gone wrong since then? Well, either we haven't put up enough cash (or Ash and his agent were demanding an unreasonable amount, which I can't imagine given their knowledge of the Swans), Ash's agent has turned his head with talk of more money, or Ash just fancies a new challenge, coupled with a massive payday.
Worryingly, given the buildup to this, I can't help but think this was a completely avoidable situation, and that this is currently a talking point because we've been reticent in giving him the amount of money he feels he needs to commit to the Swans for the foreseeable future. It's not been a secret his contract is slowly creeping to an end, and that it's come to this really disappoints me.
Whatever now happens with Ash, it's important the club learn from this. He's blatantly an integral figure at the club, Monk clearly wants him around next season, and if occasionally shifting the goalposts on your standard practice is of benefit to the club it's something which should be done. As for the talk of Ash holding us to ransom this summer by demanding he be sold if a bid of £3million arrives... well that is simply ludicrous.
We paid out almost that amount to end the 32RED sponsorship deal early, and that's the kind of money that, in my opinion, means little to nothing in the cash-heavy throes of modern Premier League-dom. Ash is worth more over the course of the season than we'd buy for £3million quid - I'm sure he knows that, and that's why I don't buy everything I've been reading in the press over the last fourty-eight hours. I still feel Ash wants to stay here, and if the club haven't already made a big effort in trying to keep him here it's well overdue.
Only time will tell where Ashley Williams will be playing his football next season. I for one hope it will be for Swansea City.