American defender Tom Williams is on trial at League One club Bristol City. Can any one tell me about this player, please?
Theres a Tom Williams that played for Swansea this past year, and got sent off against Bristol City...?
Tom Williams bombed out in a quick google search, but Thomas Williams picked up a hit at a Drury University, only problem was their web page was bombing out. I was able to see it cached through google, looks like he was a senior 6-2 Defender. Drury seems to be D2, in the Great Lakes Valley conference. Williams was not an all conference selection, although the Drury team was not good, and sometimes that can bring down the perception of individual players. If this is the guy, he has to be a longshot. And if he gets a contract, thats one heck of a nice story. Assuming it is the same guy.
I could only find this cached info: http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache...illiams+soccer+drury&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1 Looks like he may have played PDL soccer last year for the Springfield Storm: http://sgfsoccer.com/2005/07/09/express-revenge/
Tom Williams played 26 mins in a friendly match against Tiverton on Friday. He does not appear to have made much of an impression. Game finished 2-0 to Bristol City, but Williams is not included in the squad for the next match. Not a great sign for his future.
Actually, if you read the articles, the team was divided in two. One half played on Friday vs. Tiverton. The other half played vs. Hereford on Saturday: http://www.bcfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/NewsDetail/0,,10327~870582,00.html Gary Johnson has divided up his squad for the pre-season friendlies with Tiverton Town and Hereford United. Four trialists will feature at Tiverton tonight (kick-off 7.30pm), with Vincent van Trier, Nuno Santos and Cherno Samba starting the match, while American defender Tom Williams will be on the bench. A fifth trialist, Morike Sako, will face a fitness test on his injured hamstring to see whether or not he can take a place on the bench. Alex Russell remains sidelined with a slight calf strain. Nuno Santos - Another trial Marcus Stewart, Dave Partridge and Grant Smith will all begin tonight's match, along with Matt Heywood and Scott Brown. The side to face Hereford tomorrow (kick-off 3pm) includes Phil Jevons and Steve Brooker up front for the first time since the opening tour match in Latvia. Scott Brown, Jennison Williams and Richard Keogh have all been named on the bench, despite being involved at Ladysmead tonight. City (to face Tiverton Town): van Trier; Wilson, Heywood, Keogh, Partridge; Brown, Smith, Wring, Santos; Stewart, Samba. Subs: J.Williams, Lamb, Benyon, T.Williams, Sako. City (to face Hereford United): Basso; Orr, Carey, Fontaine, Woodman; Cotterill, Noble, Skuse, Murray; Brooker, Jevons. Subs: Showunmi, McCombe, Brown, Keogh, Williams.
FYI, I did recieve confirmation from someone who knows him: From: Ole Olson I confirmed it with his coach, Alf Bilbao. It is Thomas Williams, recent graduate of Drury University, where he was starting center back & captain for the D2/GLVC Panthers. I’ve got a couple of short videos of the Drury team from last year, Thomas is #3. http://sgfsoccer.com/video-links/ Nothing significant of him personally but some shots, also of the Springfield Storm PDL team. Details on Thomas here - http://www.drury.edu/multinl/story.cfm?ID=5541&NLID=68
Cherno Samba!! Former big time youth stud for England that never panned out. Was rated as a monster back in the Championship Manager 2001/2002 days.
Thanks for all the input guys...I really appreciate it. It seems that Tom was not retained, neither was Cherno Samba. I'll try to find out where he goes to next and post it if I get any news. For what it's worth, friends who were at the Tiverton match said that Williams did well, but was not stretched or tested by the opposition. They also suggested that he hadn't made a bad impression in training, but had failed to get anywhere due to the standard of players currently at the club.
I wanted to follow up with the guy who gave me info about Tom and his trial at Bristol City: "He showed well apparently but there were six center backs in camp. He was not signed and is now spending some time traveling in Europe."