“He is a very good age,” Williams added.

“He is a very bright, intelligent guy and we like that because we are heavy on the coaching and the meetings we have.

“I think his club have owners who understand the EFL very well.

“He is a player who is highly regarded at both clubs. They feel like this is a really good opportunity for him. They wanted to know a lot about us and how we are trying to play.”

Swansea have been in desperate need of defensive reinforcements, with Ben Cabango and Harry Darling their only senior centre-back options after the summer exits of Nathan Wood and Bashir Humphreys.

Williams does have left-sided defender Kristian Pedersen as a central defensive option, after he returned to Wales following a loan spell at Sheffield Wednesday.

But it remains to be seen whether the Denmark international will still be at Swansea when the transfer window closes on 30 August.

Abbey is Swansea’s fifth signing of the summer window after Lawrence Vigouroux, Eom Ji-Sung, Goncalo Franco and Zan Vipotnik.

They are also working on a deal for French winger Florian Bianchini.