Arsenal quoted a fair price for Ashley Williams?

Arsenal have been persistently linked with a lot of attackers this summer, most notably in Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain whom we seem set to sign in the coming week, whilst we’ve also been linked a lot with Wayne Rooney and Julio Cesar, both who are still very much in the papers, however one player who has gone off the record in the last few weeks is Swansea defender Ashley Williams.

A few weeks back Arsenal were reportedly set to make the opening bid for the Welsh international defender, only to receive a response from Swansea stating that they value the 28 year old at £10 million. I think that’s a very extortionate price for a player soon approaching 30 years old, not to mention the fact he’d probably play a very limited role at Arsenal. So despite his quality, I for one am pleased Arsenal seem to have ended their interest in Williams, however we cannot be certain and for all we know Wenger still probably has his eye on the player.

The reason for this topic to be brought back up is the fact that there are some new quotes relating to the development on this story and I thought not only does it possibly show how my valuation of the player is wrong, but also the constant understanding that British players are overvalued.

Ashley William’s teammate Ben Davies, told the Metro; ‘Last season I would say Ash was one of the best centre-backs in the Premier League, I cannot think of many who were better than him. The job he did was incredible and a price of £10million or more to sign him is completely justified. You see some of the money that gets spent in this league on players who are unproven in the Premier League. I think £10million is more than a fair price.’

I completely disagree and although perhaps he is worth £8 million or so in that range, I think there are much better players and defenders especially available for the same price or lower. We need to consider that fact that it’s likely he wouldn’t be a starting XI player, as Mertesacker and Koscielny are much better and then we have the star Vermaelen who may not of performed well last season, but definitely still has quality. If Wenger is looking for a central defender, then surely it won’t be for anything more than a backup or even 4th choice replacement for the surely outgoing Johan Djourou, so in my opinion William’s definitely isn’t the answer for Arsenal and the money can be used much more to our advantage elsewhere.