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WHEN Ashley Williams speaks, people take notice.

Even at the tender age of 12, the schoolboy Williams’ voice was loud enough to bring about policy change at a company which had established a British institution.

Young Ashley wrote to Waddingtons, makers of the children’s tabletop football game Subbuteo since 1946, to ask why his England team contained no black figures.

Waddingtons had resisted pressure to make their model teams racially integrated up until then, despite the fact that they were already producing both black and white players.

They claimed that the effort involved in mixing up the two types of figures was prohibitively expensive.

Williams’ letter changed all that.

“Yes, that’s a true story,” smiled the now 32-year-old Everton defender. “I don’t really remember too much, but I asked my mum whey there weren’t any black players in my Subbuteo teams.

“My mum thought it was a good question and so I wrote a letter.

“They changed it and sent me some free stuff.

“I can’t remember what their reply was, or what happened in between, but I suppose that showed what I’ve always been like.

“I’d like to say it was a big deal, but at the time it was just a kid asking a question.

“I didn’t really understand why there was no John Barnes or Des Walker in the England and I wanted an answer to it.

“I wasn’t stood on a mountain shouting about it. It was just a question I wanted answering.”

Effecting policy change at a reactionary British insitution is one thing, but the 32-year-old Ashley Williams now has a much tougher task - trying to bring back success to a football club which once considered silverware as its birthright but hasn’t seen an Everton captain raise a trophy since 1995, 12 months before young Ashley posted his letter to Waddingtons.

He is just as forthright, just as bold with that challenge as he was with Subbuteo.

“I think Everton’s a massive club with a really good, passionate fanbase and a good history,” he said. “And we want to achieve something.

“That’s no disrespect to any of my other teams but once I got here I realised in my first week here how big the place is, especially the history of it. If you weren’t aware of the history before, you’re made aware of it just by seeing it all the time.

“I think we have a good chance (of winning things). It’s obviously difficult to win something and everybody knows how tough it is in the League.

“But we won the League Cup with Swansea and it is achievable for any club to win something. You just need to put a good run together in the Cups and hopefully find yourself going further in it. Once it gets to that stage anyone can go on to win it really.”

The quality of player Ashley is now training at Everton with makes that ambition all the more achievable.

First there is Romelu Lukaku, who was linked with a move to Chelsea throughout the summer and who Williams desperately tried to persuade to stay.

“I’d just signed and it was all going on,” he said. “I was trying to say to him ‘Stay, don’t leave!’ Obviously it shows Everton have got ambition, they want to go forward and make a move in the league and try and win cups and all that goes with it.

“I don’t know what happened but Rom obviously decided he liked what he heard and the way it was going and decided to stay a bit longer. Obviously we were all pleased he stayed.”

Then there is Gareth Barry.

Williams added: “I knew the players were good but when you train with them, you see they are really good, top class players. You look at someone like Gareth Barry. I didn’t realise how good he actually was. He’s an unbelievable football player. Until you play with him, you can’t appreciate that as much.”

Then there is the diamond called Ross Barkley, a young midfielder ignored by new England boss Sam Allardyce in his first international squad but rated by Williams as one of the most talented players he has ever played with.

'Ross is one of the most talented players I have ever worked with'

“Ross is an exceptional talent and he can probably be as good as he wants,” said Williams. “He’s one of the most talented players I have ever seen and worked with. You see that brilliance every day on the training pitch.

“I’m sure he’s going to have an unbelievable career and achieve all kinds of things. He can do whatever he wants I suppose because he’s one of the most talented players I have ever seen.”

And in charge of all that talent is a manager who was key in Williams making the decision to cut ties with Swansea City which had endured for almost a decade.

“I was a fan of Ronald Koeman at Southampton and his playing career speaks for itself,” he added.

“When I looked at it I thought ‘he’s done well in his managerial career and he played my position, one of the best to ever play my position, so I’m sure he’s got a head full of knowledge that he can pass on to me.’

“So I’ll try and soak all that up and try and put it into my game where I can and hopefully it progresses to help my game and my career.”

The training sessions Koeman has introduced are already helping.

Ashley explained: “I can only speak for myself but I feel I’m in good shape and feeling good.

“The training here is helping, it’s sharp and it’s demanding a lot of me every day.

“So hopefully I can play at the top level for as long as possible and keep trying to perform as well as I can.

“They’re similar sessions here. A lot of it is technical but here it is very intense.

“They demand that you train as close to match tempo as you can which will stand us in good stead in matches.

“Being a new boy again was probably the weirdest part to be honest, coming into a new dressing room where you are the new boy and having to introduce yourself and all that goes with that. “I’ve seen many new players come into Swansea, looking after them, and then I was the one asking questions here. Jags was looking after me.

“It was strange, something I had to get used to at the start. But I expected that coming in. They made me feel welcome.”

He has even avoided the dreaded initiation ceremony.

'I’m going to protest if they try to make me now'

“I’m past that time now. I didn’t have to do one,” he said. “Normally it’s singing, isn’t it? I did have a song ready but I’m going to protest if they try to make me now.”

And the song Williams had ready?

“R Kelly - Bump n Grind. They got off lightly!” he smiled.

So did Waddingtons with his curious letter.

Ashley Williams makes things happen.

And he will be hoping to do just that at Everton Football Club.