William obviously heeded those lessons, and says he loves coming to training every day now, and especially likes being part of a dressing room with such a great team spirit.
“Sometimes training is hard, it’s tiring too, especially when we play twice a week, but when we are winning a lot of games you really like coming to training.
“The atmosphere is so good here, even more when we are winning, but I love being here every day. I love the small-sided games in training – it’s very competitive. If you lose those, your day is ruined!”
He says he is especially close with fellow defenders Jurrien Timber and big Gabi, but “gets on very well with everybody”. And does he like to remind them in training every now and then that he used to be a striker?
“Oh, they know!” he says laughing. “For sure sometimes I show them some stuff in training. And I enjoyed the game against Brentford recently,” he says, referencing the game where he consistently brought the ball forward out of defence earlier this month. “It was good, no? But I was tired afterwards,” he laughs.
So looking further ahead, what does the future hold for William? He only turned 24 last month, but has he thought at all about what he might do after his playing days?
“No, to be honest I don’t know yet. I haven’t thought about it. But I will have to soon, because sometimes you think something is not close, but it can all happen so quickly. “Whatever it is though, I think I would like to stay in football, but I’m not sure what exactly.”
He’s already shown in his young career to date the ability to be adaptable, learn new roles and take strength from setbacks. So whatever he decides in future, there’s a fair chance he will master it in no time