Swansea City: Russell Martin was wide of the mark with initial assessment of Liverpool recruit | OneFootball

Swansea City signed Rhys Williams on loan from Liverpool and he failed to make an impact despite making a positive impression on his manager

After narrowly missing out on Premier League promotion just a couple of months prior, the summer of 2021 was a tumultuous time for Swansea City with a change of managers and a huge turnover in players.

Swansea saw manager Steve Cooper leave the club, while key players like Andre Ayew and Connor Roberts also departed with their Premier League parachute payments coming to an end after three seasons in the Championship.

Russell Martin was appointed as the club's new manager on the eve of the 2021/22 season and made a number of signings in August to bolster what was a squad thin of Championship quality and depth.

He looked to have pulled off a deadline day coup when defender Rhys Williams penned a season-long loan deal from Liverpool, with the young centre-back having made 19 first-team appearances for the Reds the previous campaign.

However, while Williams made a decent first impression on Martin, it wasn't to last and his time in SA1 won't be remembered fondly.

Rhys Williams failed to make Swansea City impression despite early praise

Williams' parent club, Liverpool, had endured an injury crisis in defence the previous season and Williams had formed an unlikely centre-back partnership with Nat Phillips to lead the Reds to a top four finish and qualify for the Champions League against the odds.

However, with the aforementioned injured players returning to fitness ahead of the 2021/22 campaign, Jürgen Klopp decided to loan the youngster out to get regular senior football under his belt, and after penning a long-term deal at Anfield, Williams made the move to south Wales.

Given his experience of playing for a top Premier League club, it looked like a shrewd deal for Swansea, and one that suited all parties involved.

After completing the switch to Swansea, Williams said: "I am buzzing, I have heard nothing but good things about the club.

"I spoke to a few players about it, and they all spoke so highly of the football and the place itself. It's a club with a good history behind it.

"I was keen to come here, it was one of the places I wanted to come to because of the football they play."

Williams came straight into Martin's starting XI for the visit of Hull City at the beginning of September 2021, and he impressed, keeping a clean sheet and earning praise from his manager in the aftermath, with the Swansea boss saying: "Rhys Williams settled in brilliantly; He played like he had been here for a long time."

However, that is as good as it got for the Liverpool loanee, and his debut against Hull was just one of the two occasions he completed 90 minutes in the Championship for Swansea.

Williams would start just three more league games for the Swans, being taken off against Luton Town at half-time with his side 3-0 down, before starting against Reading and Middlesbrough, two games where Swansea were defeated.

The Liverpool loanee tasted victory in a Swans shirt just once in his seven appearances in all competitions for the club and, after falling down the pecking order, he was recalled by Liverpool in January 2022 and spent the second half of the campaign playing for the Reds' under-21's side.

It was a move that promised so much, but despite initially impressing Martin, Williams struggled for form and his time in south Wales will ultimately be remembered as a failure.

Rhys Williams' fortunes haven't improved since Swansea City loan

After showing such promise in the Premier League the previous season, Williams' time at Swansea was initially seen as a blip, but he's also struggled for form in the years that have followed.

Further loan spells at Blackpool, Aberdeen and Port Vale have all proved difficult for Williams, failing to make a single first-team appearance at Aberdeen and Port Vale, and his chances of becoming a first-team regular at Anfield have all but disappeared.

Injuries have played a part in that, but Swansea aren't the only club who have struggled to get the best out of Williams, and despite his Premier League experience, it looks like the lower echelons of the EFL are where the defender will spend the next couple of years of his career.

Williams is still a contracted Liverpool player, which may come as a surprise to most people, but he's currently on loan at League Two side Morecambe, and to his credit he's enjoying a fruitful campaign with the The Shrimps.

The 24-year-old has played 32 games already this season, the most he's ever managed at senior level, and while his dreams of being a regular starter for Liverpool may be over, he's shown that he could still have a decent career at EFL level.

The centre-back has a Liverpool contract until 2026, but with no chance of breaking into Arne Slot's first-team it remains to be seen what the future holds for him in the summer.

However, Williams is thriving at Morecambe at the moment, and after a tough couple of seasons which included a difficult spell at Swansea, playing regular senior football is the most important thing for the defender, regardless of what division it's in, and he's shown signs of rebuilding his career this season, although he will probably never make it back to Championship level.