The rumours about Ashley Williams and Crystal Palace will not die and today it is the Sunday People that is reporting that Alan Pardew wants to make him one of his summer signings and will be testing the Swans resolve with an eight figure bid.
However, that bid is reported to be exactly £10m and the People states "The Eagles’ hope is that Swansea will find it impossible to turn down such a sum for the 30-year-old Wales defender."
I have to find major with this statement and not just to upset the Crystal Palace fans that may just look in to read this but it is absolutely crazy to think that we could even consider selling at this price.
Ashley Williams is an integral part of this side and for me when you have someone who is so important the question that you should always ask is not what the bid is you are receiving but how much would you have to pay to replace the talent that you would be losing.
And that figure would be massively more than £10m for a player who has made well in excess of 100 Premier League appearances, is a regular and established international and captain of his country as well as having previously been courted by the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool.
There is little doubt in my mind that Crystal Palace would love to sign Ashley Williams but in fairness so I suspect would have the Premier League teams as well and that is at a minimum. He is a rock for us at the centre of our defence and at 30 it is not as if he is at the end of his career so it isn't even a good deal from that point of view.
Garry Monk has already said that he is not looking to sell players this summer and given his relationship with Ash I would hazard a guess that they have discussed this interest and potentially already put this to bed before it really gets much more airspace.
To keep it simple we simply cannot afford to even consider selling Ash so it is time politely to come out and say that and start pushing the attention of Crystal Palace elsewhere.