Both Swansea City players have been linked with a move away from the club this season but Rodgers believes that both could – and probably should – stay at the club for at least one more season.<\/p>\n
He told the Evening Post "I have had a couple of really good chats with Darren<\/p>\n
"He is in the last year of his contract, but he is more than happy to be here. <\/p>\n
"I think everyone understands that if a player has the chance to move to the Premier League, they want to go because it's the biggest league in the world. But if you're not going to make a move like that, there's nowhere better to be than here.<\/p>\n
"I think Darren understands that. He respects where I am coming from and I think he has got a new lease of life. He is enjoying the work we're doing.<\/p>\n
"He is certainly not rushing to get out and I'm very confident we can do something to keep him here<\/p>\n
"I respect Forest as a big club and a very good team<\/p>\n
"But I look at it in relation to where Darren is now.<\/p>\n
"He is at Swansea as one of the best midfield players in the Championship.<\/p>\n
"If he leaves and goes to another Championship club, he has to go and prove that again somewhere else.<\/p>\n
"Why make that move? Stay here at a club you love, in a city you love, with supporters who love you and a manager who loves you.<\/p>\n
"If you are going to move, move to the Premier League — but with Swansea.<\/p>\n
"He is an outstanding talent, although I think he can still improve<\/p>\n
"He got seven goals last season, but we want him to develop and score more.<\/p>\n
"He is a big player for the team because he gives us good balance, which is vital.<\/p>\n
"When you play three in midfield you need one of them to be able to penetrate, and Darren gives you penetration.<\/p>\n
"When you have got a player like that, you don't want to lose him."<\/p>\n
Rodgers re-iterated similar words when asked about Williams and added "His rise in the last couple of years has been super <\/p>\n
"We have got some of the best players in the Championship here, so of course there are going to be links with Premier League clubs.<\/p>\n
"I have spoken to Ashley and told him he has the ability to play at that level.<\/p>\n
"He is strong and he is quick, but what stands him out from other British centre-halves is that he plays football and understands the game. Having worked at a higher level, I know the big clubs are looking for defenders who can also play.<\/p>\n
"But he is in no rush. He is 26 and probably still has 10 years' football in him.<\/p>\n
"He is still learning the game and he is happy here."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Both Swansea City players have been linked with a move away from the club this season but Rodgers believes that both could – and probably should – stay at the club for at least one more season. He told the Evening Post "I have had a couple of really good chats with Darren "He is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}