Williams lost his rag... and his claim to the armband

Your headline perfectly captures my take on Williams – in my view, the management need to set an example and get rid of him irrespective of the business side of football. He is unfit to represent Everton.

The appointment of someone who represents the Brian Labone end of the market, such as Séamus, would be a statement in itself that both on and off the field we were blind but can now see.

On Saturday Barnes totally bossed, out-muscled and out thought both Williams and his former teammate Keane. The swing of the elbow from Williams aimed at Barnes was the icing on the cake for the centre-forward and confirmed what we all knew – Williams had been owned all afternoon and his cowardice and subsequent red card was totally justified.

Going forward Everton need to rid itself of the players who in addition to clearly lacking in ability but also the character, self-discipline and motivation required as a minimum. Too many players have demonstrated flaws in their mental strength and character this season – exemplified by Williams on Saturday.

Moshiri needs to go in and read the riot act at Finch Farm as it quite clearly has not worked under either Koeman or Allardyce. We need to know who is up for the fight ahead given that a relegation fight is not out of the question. The list should start with Williams and include:

Keane
Schneiderlin
Martina
Bolasie

Should be shown the door at the first opportunity.

Oh, I forgot!! We had Shane Duffy and sold him to Blackburn. He'd make bits of Keane and Williams!!!

This player is high on my list. His ability is extremely limited, poor in the air, abysmal on the ground and has the positional sense of a fart in a bottle.

Baardsen
Hottiger
Krøldrup
Williams
Keane
Martina

Claus Thomsen
Schneiderlin

Bakayoko
Kone
McGeady

Subs:
Gerrard
Tony Thomas
John Collins
Bilic
Angell
Oster
Simon Davies or Alexandersson

Manager – Allardyce, Koeman or big Walter

1. He's personally happy at the club so he's not trying to get away (even if his form wouldn't get him too far).
2. I know he forged a good partnership with Holgate earlier in the season which was broken up by Allardyce no sooner than when it started to look promising.
3. The most likely reason is the decline in his form is similar to that Distin. His decline was swift and was evident by similar traits. Mistimed tackles in dangerous situations, poor clearances either by foot or head and regularly being caught cold by on running attackers. Much that I respected Sylvain he was being caught out positionally and in possession. I think that this is what's happening with Ashley Williams.

He can longer repeat what he did with Wales and Swansea three years ago. When Allardyce leaves in May, whoever takes charge will deem Williams surplus to requirements.

I don't think a team of our "worst ever", as Ian proposed above, would have six players from the last five years in the starting XI. But immediate/recent memory tends to rule when it comes to "best of" or "worst of".

Williams has been disappointing, and failed to improve our defence. He's been a mediocre player for us and now seems to be declining further. Wholly underwhelming, yet far from one of the worst ever players to play for the club.

When we signed Williams I was mildly excited at the prospect of us getting a solid vocal leader, something that with the likes of John Stones and Ramiro Funes Mori had been lacking from the previous 2015-16 season whilst it's been widely known that Jags is a bit too nicey-nicey with opponents.

The signing of Williams at 31 seemed to be perfect for at least two or three years – much in the way Sylvain Distin arrived in his twilight years, but produced immense defensive capabilities for four solid years.

Watching Ashley Williams now is cringe-worthy, what the hell happened to his leadership qualities? Where is the solid defender at Swansea gone? Why is he making pathetic rash stupid decisions like getting sent off on Saturday and at Old Trafford last April with us holding on in injury time?

I thought when we signed him we were getting a role model and a leader of men but, instead of that, he's become a complete embarrassment to himself and to be brutally honest this current three-game ban should be the curtain call on his Everton career and he shouldn't be seen in a Blue shirt again now.

A sad end to a shockingly poor short Everton career that should have produced a solid captain that the defence was organised around instead of the joke figure Williams has become.

His golden moments in the Welsh march at Euro 2016 were commendable. But the buffoons who sanctioned his buy at 㾸 million at his age and under achievement, were complete mugs on an epic scale.

Swansea to Everton, via Mickey Mouse stopovers along the way were a bridge too far, by many miles, for the West Midlands lad.

His frustration is probably down to coming to terms with his own demise. We got him on the way down but he is by no means one of the worst we have seen.

I've been willing him to do well ever since he signed but it is absolutely clear his time has gone! He is a complete liability and it's best for all of he never plays for us again!

He's a bit like Samson (not Kenny) – ever since he's had that long hair he's lost his strength, pace, ability and confidence!

I predicted he'd be the next Everton captain to lift a trophy – not one of my better predictions! Gutted!!

Deffo make Seamus captain, and get Williams anger management. Passion, guts and determination... yes, in every game, but having a nark as he looks prone to increasingly as he's too slow and can't read the game means, he is always yards off and nearly always on the positional side as a centre-back.

Imagine in the Man City and RS games. Hopefully he won't be in the team for the RS, and he will miss Man City as part of his 3-game ban.

I hope Williams never plays for us again. When he signed for us, I knew it was a bad signing.

He has been a liability for too long and Sam must shoulder the blame for allowing him to continue to play, nevermind lead the team. Coleman is the obvious answer.

Typical of the new era at Everton: over-paid, over-inflated ego and over the hill.

There was a time when ITV would pinch stars off the BBC just past the point where they were starting to go backwards. Godolphin often do this buying racehorses off other yards. We did this with Williams. And if the rumours are true, we want to do it with Vardy and Wenger.

But those rumours are nonsense, aren't they?

Just what does that say to the rest of the squad?

Pattern emerges that a lot of our signings never really live up to their previous reputations when they come to us. It's like they switch off as soon as the ink is dry.

Gotta ask why???

He was never a good passer of the ball, he used to simply pass the ball onto Leon Britton. His performances for Swansea over the previous two years were showing a rapid decline. Very few Swansea fans were upset at his departure.

His signing must have been based on the Welsh performance in the Euros. He has always been an accident waiting to happen and, even in his better games, there have been moments of panic.

It transpires that the trenches is where he really belongs in a footballing sense.

He puts his body on the line with blocks, lunges etc, and is a siege player. When he moved to an arguably better team – yes we were – and he wasn't required to clear his lines and play in his own box for almost the whole match, he was found out to be an average football passer with no pace and poor positional sense.

I don't blame whoever signed him; it seemed a good, if pricey, move at the time. It looks like the Euros were his Swansong, and time has now exposed his increasing limitations.

He should have been used as a makeweight in the Sigurdsson move, or a concerted effort for Alfie Mawson.

I don't think he should represent us again though.

He came to Everton, hit the big(ger) time, grew those stupid dreadlocks, and his form went completely down the pan.

I rest my case!

In what I thought was our darkest hour this season (sadly I fear it may still be around the corner) Williams was a total liability and played with visible fear in his eyes. I'm thinking about the trouncings received in Europe.

I anticipated a leader but he has never shown an ounce of leadership. Barely says a word to his teammates. Contrast that with a virtual child named Morgan Feeney and this gutless clown has no redeeming features.

In an ideal world he simply should not ever play for the club again, he is not good enough and, on recent showing, not deserving.

Roll back to Summer 2016. We have just signed a DoF in Walsh and tell him we need a strong durable no-nonsense centre back to replace Stones. So he checks his stats, as it's quite clear that's how our DoF works. He finds a guy who in 2015-16 season was 2nd in Blocks, 1st in Clearances and 2nd in Headed clearances in the Premier League, a club captain, a leader and had just had a great Euros as captain with Wales. A no-brainer, apart from his age.

I had only seen Williams play for Swansea against Everton and he always did well. Unfortunately, he was just at the end of a stellar career with Swansea and could never replicate that form. The only criticism we can make is that the age profile was off, as we are all agreed, the signing was a disappointing one.

Here's hoping – always hoping!

Ashley should go in the summer for his and our sakes. I reckon his frustration is coming from the knowledge that he can't do it anymore at Premier League level. He won't be the first or the last to get pissed off at getting old. It comes to us all.

He also thought coming to EFC was a step up to bigger and better things. That turned out well, didn't it?

It seems to me he got his last big move from Swansea to Everton and, likely knowing he'd peaked, has coasted ever since. Strolling around the field showing no heart or desire, growing his hair into a ridiculous (albeit probably fashionable) pastiche of Jason Lee and, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, has lashed out and disgraced himself on more than one occasion now.

At this point, I would honestly pick Pennington or Galloway over Williams. There's also potentially Funes Mori, Holgate and Jagielka to choose from.

Sam has done a great job of making Klaassen, Vlasic and Sandro disappear. Please, Sam, do the same with Williams!

Nakrani then went on to bluntly state that Williams has been lacking, both physically and technically, for several months. And while the 33-year-old has had a proud career – not least captaining Wales to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 – he is now done at the highest level of English football.

The worrying thing is that, despite Williams's obvious shortcomings, Allardyce not only continues to play him but makes him club captain. Says it all really!

I was reminded of the howls that came when Lescott was physically assaulted by Carragher in the same part of the field. If the referee does not protect players, it is he who should be suspended.

He's lost a step or two and, with the defence in shambles, he needs to join Distin in the stands until we can find a club that will suit his current skill set better, and allow him to leave.

Williams should be in the stands.

On the other hand, if you'd named one of our current number of no-playing players, rather than one who's long gone...

Two-over-the hill centre-backs. The similarities seemed obvious to me... maybe just me, though.

James, Pennington can't get in the Leeds team. I wouldn't put him in in place of a fully fit Funes Mori, Holgate or Jagielka.

And where is Galloway these days? Struggling to get a game for Sunderland Under-23s?

Sorry, pressed the send button in error.

James, I would, like you, play almost anyone instead of Williams but some of the young lads we thought had a bright future appear to have lost their way.

One of the worst Everton players of all time? I'm not sure he's even one of the worst Everton players this season, unfortunately.

He has never looked as good as he did at Swansea and is proof that buying players who have performed well at other Premier League teams is little guarantee that they can replicate their form. Different systems, clubs, players bring the best out of some and the worst out of others.

Not worth paying the huge premium that Premier League players tend to cost, though Williams was fairly cheap – unlike Keane, who is a much bigger concern and disappointment to me, to be honest.

Williams's Everton career should be as good as over now after Saturday. He is simply not good enough for Everton, not that Sam will see this! I agree with other comments on here about Keane, another massive disappointment. Funes Mori and Holgate (if fit) need to start the next game at the back. Bring Rooney back alongside Davies and drop Gueye, then put Sigurdsson behind a front line of Walcott, Tosun and Bolasie.

On paper, we have players to get at defenses but when it comes down to it, we just sit back and then crumble. I cannot remember the last time an Everton team were offensive from the start of a match.

Williams was a promising player at Stockport and we should have nabbed him before he went to Swansea. Bringing in ageing players on the back of good performances in an international tournament that few people really care about isn't a good idea. He is past his best now and almost certainly was when Koeman brought him on board. Looks frustrated with his own decline.

Holgate and Funes Mori is probably best medium/long term option for me in central defence. If our best defence is Coleman, Holgate, Funes Mori and Baines, then it is certainly short of games this season!

Perhaps if the others see that the club is serious about the standards we expect from those who wear our shirt, it might prove to be something of a catalyst, assuming they have the intelligence to realise they could be next.

Some good choices but you must be too young to remember Micky Walsh.

Oh for a True Blue skipper. Bring back Mike Lyons. Fuck all skill, but a solid, hard defender AND one time top scorer. Blue to the core.

The thing most lacking in the Everton team for around a decade has been leadership and spirit. We have had a team which has talent, skill and great support, but which has not had the player who will inspire and get stuck in when trouble arrives.

Williams actually is such a player. For all his faults, he does not run away, he does not hide. When he gets stuff wrong (which is fairly often) at least he was there to make the mistake, unlike, say, Schniederlin. Personally, I'd prefer someone who turns up and gets it wrong to someone who just packs up and doesn't bother (like the striker who went for a very large sum) when it gets a bit tough.

Unfortunately, Williams has lost both form and the kind of inner restraint which allows passion to show and to inspire, but stops the kind of stupidity we saw last weekend. What he needs is to regain the qualities he had when playing for Wales in 2016.

It may be too late in his career to get back the form and the footballing intelligence he would need, but I still don't think he is a post cause, and is still one of the few players out there whom I think could provide the spark.

That said, I resume my call for Coleman as captain which I used to recite regularly before the poor man got the usual "Everton player in an international" result.

With Jags suffering regular injury problems, the time has come to appoint a team captain who is pretty much guaranteed to be an automatic choice. For all the reasons outlined by Lyndon, that man should be Seamus.

If he doesn't get the armband soon, I'd be shocked and disappointed.