Bowing to the Inevitable

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Waiting to see if Marc Williams gets a new contract is a bit like waiting to see if Audley Harrison beats David Haye at the weekend. It ain’t gonna happen (If Harrison wins, expect to see an edited version of this opening paragraph on Sunday morning!)

I’m very sad to have to face up to the fact that Williams’ Wrexham career is over, but frankly I’ve been having to do that for the last few months. When Dean Saunders says he hasn’t made his mind up yet, he’s just delaying the inevitable, and quite rightly as a player should be told about their future face-to-face, not through the media. However, I’m sure Williams has worked out the lay of the land already.

I’m very sad about all this. Williams is a player of potential, who took the Conference by storm when he was last fit, two seasons ago. Let’s not forget that, if he hadn’t picked up that freak injury against Salisbury, he might have ended the season as top scorer in the division and we might have had a shot at going up. Isn’t it incredible how things can turn on such narrow margins and moments of fate?

Williams is still young and has potential. I know managers are paid to make tough decisions, and fully understand that Saunders is in a difficult position. He’s seen how it went when successive Wrexham bosses kept faith in another local boy, Mark Jones, in the hope he’d rediscover his form, and he wants to free some money up to spend on the wages of new players in the January transfer window. Adrian Cieslewicz’s new contract, which the young Pole deserves, means he has to look elsewhere for someone to remove from the wage bill. That means Williams.

However, I’m not totally sure I understand the logic behind keeping Williams, or for that matter Wes Baynes, on in the Summer bearing in mind what has transpired since. Neither have even been on the bench, and Mathias Pogba has overtaken both of them. If they weren’t going to be in contention, maybe that money their release will free up should have been available from the start of the season?

I’ll be very sorry to see Williams go; an articulate footballer with a lot more to give and an excellent attitude to the game is always going to be a loss. I wouldn’t be surprised if he flourishes somewhere else, and I richly hope that he does. Waiting for his inevitable departure’s been like waiting for Jack Duckworth to die though; once we knew it was bound to happen, it’s a relief to get it out of the way. Sadly, I’m sure Marc will reluctantly feel the same.