SUNDERLAND are prepared to play the waiting game for unsettled Swansea centre-half Ashley Williams, writes Graeme Anderson. The Swans’ skipper is approaching the last year of his contract and the Black Cats have made a firm £4m offer for the 29-year-old defender. But with the situation getting increasingly political at the Liberty Stadium, the Black Cats have no interest in getting dragged into a bidding war. And they are awaiting the outcome of a delicate situation which sees Williams contemplating a lucrative move away while at the same time not burning his bridges at the club he has spent the last six years at. Williams is a highly-rated Premier League player and with Swansea yet to make an acceptable new offer, was widely expected to leave the Welsh club this summer. The player’s agent, Jamie Moralee, has now suggested though that Williams’ preference is to stay at Swansea. This could be manoeuvring on the part of Williams’ camp but either way, Sunderland plan to await developments now, rather than push the issue and the ball is now firmly in Williams and Swansea’s court. It remains unlikely that the Welsh club will meet the player’s contract aspirations and if that stays the case, Sunderland’s firm £4m offer will become increasingly tempting as Swansea contemplate losing the player for nothing next year. Williams’ agent Moralee said: “We’ll see what happens, “A bid has come in from Sunderland but I’ve got no control over who bids for my players and neither has the player. “At the moment, Ash is in Sardinia, I’m in Brazil and Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins is somewhere else. “It’s up to Swansea to make him an offer because he doesn’t want to leave. “Just because a club has put a bid in, that’s not to say Ash wants to leave — that’s far from the truth. “There’s been a lot of interest in Ash and that was always going to be the case, particularly as he only has one year left on his contract. “How we’ve arrived at this situation, I don’t know. If we’d talked about the contract in January we wouldn’t be in this position. “When players go into their last year it’s dangerous - this is business, it’s not personal - but hopefully we can get the situation put right for all parties.”
Sunderland are poised to table an improved £6m offer for Swansea centre-half Ashley Williams.(Daily Star)
Sunderland AFC News And Banter Page: 16 mins · SUNDERLAND are poised to table an improved £6m offer for Swansea centre-half Ashley Williams.
