No Glory for Williams in Perth
Eight years ago this month we signed Middlesbrough defender Rhys Williams on loan from Middlesbrough but this month he is in dispute with his club Perth Glory after they refused him a move to Sydney FC.
Owen Coyle made moves to bring him to Turf Moor on a regular basis once promotion had been won at Wembley, where he was a guest of the club, but he remained with Middlesbrough until the end of last season when, after two serious injuries, he was released by Aitor Karanka.
At the age of 28 he took the opportunity to return home to Australia and signed for his home town club Perth Glory who can also boast three other former Burnley players now in their ranks. They are his brother Aryn Williams and Brandon Wilson, both of whom played in our development squad, and Joseph Mills who we signed from Reading, initially on a season-long loan, in the summer of 2012.
However, he hasn’t played as often as he would have liked and he has been subject to an offer from Sydney FC which he would like to take. They are in desperate need of new defenders having lost players to injury and consider Williams to be the perfect fit.
Yesterday, a meeting between Williams, his representative Tony Rallis and representatives of the players’ union and the club was held but Glory have remained firm that he will not make the move. He’s been told if he wants to move it must be overseas or he can stay to try and work his way back into Glory manager Kenny Lowe’s favour.
Chief executive for the club, Peter Filopoulos said: “We’d prefer him to stay here. However, if an overseas club showed some interest, we’d have discussions, but certainly for us to terminate the contract for him to be able to move in the January window to another A-League club is not an option.”
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