Will getting rid of Williams be a priority as Everton eye younger models?

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Ashley Williams has been awful for Merseyside giants Everton in the Premier League this season and a replacement is needed fast.

Ashley Williams could be on borrowed time at Everton.

The veteran Welshman has endured an error-strewn season at Goodison Park and has been perhaps the worst in a dreadful defensive bunch.

And according to the Sun (22 January, page 50), Williams could have been on his way out of Goodison Park had Everton managed to secure the signing of Adama Soumaoro from Lille.

By the end of the window, however, the Ligue 1 strugglers rejected the Toffees’ £19 million bid, as reported by La Voix da Nord, meaning that Soumaoro and Williams stayed put.

But Everton will surely make signing a young defender a priority in the summer amid reports in Sport that they were keen to sign Espanyol’s 22-year-old Mario Hermoso for around £7.1 million.

The likes of Hermoso and Soumaoro – rising talents whose best years lie ahead of them – could be the perfect addition to a creaking Everton defence containing the likes of Williams and Phil Jagielka.

It is quite damning, after all, that the 33-year-old Williams, who cost £12 million from Swansea City 18 months ago, has featured 21 times in the Premier League this season despite some truly horrific performances under both Ronald Koeman and Sam Allardyce.

He did not exactly cover himself in glory during Saturday’s 5-1 thrashing at Arsenal either.

Sam Allardyce, or whoever is sat in the Goodison Park dugout by the end of the season, has a big job on his hands reviving a misshapen Everton squad. Plenty of additions are needed all over the pitch.

And ageing, declining has-beens like Williams should be the first to make way.