Ashley Williams convinced Everton can end 23-year trophy drought with or without Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley
Toffees are now 23 years without silverware and confident centre-back reckons their time is now
ASHLEY WILLIAMS believes Everton can end their 23-year trophy drought — with or without Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley.
The Toffees secured European football season after a fine seventh-place Premier League finish in Ronald Koeman’s first season in charge.
And the Dutch boss has already been backed in the transfer market with almost £60million spent on keeper Jordan Pickford and midfielder Davy Klaassen, plus Malaga striker Sandro having his £5.2m buyout clause met on Thursday.
Now the next step for Everton is to crack the top six and succeed in the cup competitions, in a bid to bring the first trophy to Goodison since the 1995 FA Cup.
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But, even with doubts over the futures of star duo Lukaku and Barkley, defender Williams believes the new season will be a good one.
He said: “It’s exciting times to be at Everton.
“It would be nice (to win a trophy). That’s what people expect.
“Being in and around the city and listening to the fans they want a cup. They want something to celebrate. Seventh was really good, but we need something to celebrate.
“From a player’s point of view, you’d like to keep your best players and bring more players in.
“I’d like Romelu and Ross to stay because they are my mates.
“You don’t want to lose friends in terms of who you see every day. But it’s normal and it is football.
“The club and the player have to do what is right for them.
“You understand players leave. You are used to dealing with it every season when you lose people and new faces come in.
“I’ve played against (Jordan) Pickford and managed to catch a couple of the games he has played for England in the tournament.
“He has looked very good and really sure of himself.
“I’m happy the club have been willing to pay that much money on a goalkeeper.
“To play at a club who are trying to do something is obviously good and I’m happy.”
Everton will try to gain Europa League qualification alongside a tough start to the new campaign.
After a home opener with Stoke on August 12, Koeman’s side face successive league games against Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United.
Williams said: “It could be good to get them out of the way early.
“But hopefully people look at us and think that’s going to be difficult. The next aim for us is to get into the top six.
“That’s what we want to do and you can see the club are backing the manager and the team.
“It was a really good season last year. We had great home form, winning the majority of the games and only losing two, which is good in a strong league.
“We need to sort out our away form. If we picked up more points then we might have squeezed in anyway.”
Williams, 32, only finished his season on June 11 after leading Wales — minus the banned Gareth Bale — to a creditable 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw in Serbia.
And the Wales skipper believes with talisman Bale back in Chris Coleman’s ranks for the next qualifier against Austria in September, their World Cup dream remains alive — despite lying only third in Group D.
Williams, who admitted last summer’s Euro semi-finalists have had a ‘jittery’ campaign to date, said: “The Serbia draw was a big one.
“We’d liked to have won considering we were in the lead, but with the fixtures coming up we will take the position we are in.
“We know if we win then that will start the momentum, just like in the Euro qualifiers, again.
“Gaz is back so there’s no reason why we can’t.”
Real Madrid superstar Bale, who claimed his third Champions League title in Cardiff earlier this month, sent his Welsh team-mates a good luck message prior to the Belgrade clash last week.
But it is his Real team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo who has been at the centre of recent transfer speculation.
Williams added: “Gaz is probably happy with that.
“He knows he is going to be there. I know from my experience it’s sometimes nice not to be the one who everyone is talking about. You are not having to wait or have people asking questions about the future.
“You can just relax and enjoy your time off.”
*Don’t Take Me Home, a documentary about Wales’ march to the Euro 2016 semi-finals, is available on DVD & Blu-ray from July 3.