Tyrone Mings

[dave17]

Villa stay up... Bournemouth go down.... what do you think the “overpriced” Tyrone Mings is thinking tonight?

are beaches still closed down south?

[frank black]

Villa stay up... Bournemouth go down.... what do you think the “overpriced” Tyrone Mings is thinking tonight?

are beaches still closed down south?

He’ll be on the beach in Bournemouth Tomorrow with full kit on and a hangover from hell

[themossman]

Illuminating to hear him talk about how the call up affected his game, but not in the way most  assumed. The Johnny big bollocks explanation is tempting and I indulged in it myself but it was obviously wrong. Good on you Tyrone.

http://www.thefa.com/news/2020/jul/27/tyrone-mings-heads-up-270720

[dave17]

Villa stay up... Bournemouth go down.... what do you think the “overpriced” Tyrone Mings is thinking tonight?

I reckon Eddie Howe is going to offer his resignation too.  They have a few really decent players who I would fancy a look at.  Tyrone could help to do the, er, legal recruitment (tapping up).

any other betting tips?

[dave17]

Illuminating to hear him talk about how the call up affected his game, but not in the way most  assumed. The Johnny big bollocks explanation is tempting and I indulged in it myself but it was obviously wrong. Good on you Tyrone.

http://www.thefa.com/news/2020/jul/27/tyrone-mings-heads-up-270720

Mings is 27 with 4 (?) full season behind him. Tough for him to carry a prem defense with that experience. Throw in what happened with England, hard not to say he’s a class act and a great bloke who deserves as much support as possible

[Steve67]

Certainly no billy big bollocks from Tyrone.  Great man and will go on to be a Villa Legend.  Now he's had his first, proper, first full Premier Division season, he will be a better player for it next season. 

[Mister E]

How can Southgate play a back three, playing a right-footed DMF as the left CB of the three, when he has Mings on the bench?
To say I was open-mouthed when I saw that would be an understatement.

[danno]

Dier must make a hell of a cup of tea, or be really good at carrying Kane's bags.

[Risso]

Dier is crap in his regular position, so quite why he's playing in defence I do not know. It's probably that brain-donor Southgate thinking "I was a bog standard midfielder shunted into defence where I got good, so it'll definitely work with Dier!" Pillock.

[Dave]

Dier is crap in his regular position, so quite why he's playing in defence I do not know. It's probably that brain-donor Southgate thinking "I was a bog standard midfielder shunted into defence where I got good, so it'll definitely work with Dier!" Pillock.

To be fair, Dier spent his time in Portugal at right-back or centre-back. It was only when he moved to England that he was moved into midfield.

Not that he should be playing any of those positions for England.

[brontebilly]

How can Southgate play a back three, playing a right-footed DMF as the left CB of the three, when he has Mings on the bench?
To say I was open-mouthed when I saw that would be an understatement.

Only compounding the selection error of having a right footed left wing back in Trippier next to him...surely that Arsenal kid could have been given a go there? At least Carragher was calling this out on commentary but not as strongly as he should have been

Southgate's post match interview was another waffle fest, asked a question about Grealish and responds with how happy he was with Mason Mount in a new role

[OCD]

It was probably good for him to not be involved in that shit last night and means he's not picked up a knock.

[Lastfootstamper]

If anybody's interested, he's doing a poll on his twitter as to what shirt number he should sport for next season, 40 or 5. You've got til 8 tomorrow evening.

[Border villan]

Excellent article on Tyrone in The Times sport section. Online it is behind a paywall. Can anyone sort out a link?

[AnsellsVillaman]

Here's the whole article. Thoughtful, honest and driven throughout as you'd expect:

Aston Villa have plenty to be proud about. Well-motivated by their head coach Dean Smith, they fought hard to stay up. Villa’s captain, Jack Grealish, has made his long-craved England debut. They have bought shrewdly in Championship talent such as Ollie Watkins and Matty Cash. And in Tyrone Mings, Villa have a centre back in the form of his life, pivotal to their defensive defiance with his blocking and leading that helped ensure their Premier League status, as well as being a widely praised, socially aware role model.

Mings works with Prince William, campaigning on mental health issues. He runs the Tyrone Mings Academy in Birmingham, providing A-licenced coaching for children. He’s helping the FA devise a diversity code. He’s involved with fellow England internationals Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling in using their profile and social media to lobby for social change. “We’re a fearless generation,” Mings says.

He’s more than a football player. “I’d describe myself as a deep-thinker, quite caring, quite aware, very loving but I’m very driven and I’m very cold at times. I’m not necessarily here to make friends. I’m here to win. I’m here to be the best I can be. I understand my role in society, which is trying to help, so that’s where the empathy comes from.

“My parents were a huge influence on me when I was growing up. I took different characteristics from the two of them.

“My dad is a lot more cold and calculated. My mother is unconditional love and showering emotions on you.”

Now 27, Mings’s back story reveals a man with an understanding of the harshness of life outside the football bubble, living for almost a year in a homeless shelter with his mother and three sisters, football scholarship to Millfield School, rejected by Bristol Rovers, Swindon Town, Portsmouth, released from Southampton’s academy. He worked as a mortgage advisor, playing non-League with Yate Town and Chippenham Town before Ipswich Town gave him a trial. He moved on to Bournemouth and now Villa.

He has life in perspective. “The fact that I can identify myself with someone who works in an office, a bar, a restaurant, everyday jobs, means I don’t see myself as Tyrone Mings, the Aston Villa and England player,” he says. “I’ve seen life on the other side. I know what people will be feeling, the stresses other people are under. I have had them myself.”

He’s been on the edge. A knee injury suffered at Bournemouth tipped him towards inner turmoil. “Any time that destiny isn’t in my control is really mentally unstabling. At the start of my knee injury I drank a lot, which was obviously detrimental to me getting my knee fit. I was low enough that I didn’t want to go to training. I didn’t want to speak about my problems, I didn’t want to do any rehab.”

It is why he campaigns on mental health. “There are tell-tale signs if it creeps up on you. It usually derives from stress but everybody’s different. Whenever I’m not in control it’s a really unstable place to be. I speak to Héctor Bellerín [of Arsenal] quite a lot about it.

“It’s really annoying people label you as a footballer and you should only be that [immune to mental-health issues] because it’s such an unstable industry whether it’s coming to an end of contract or even week to week: you have a good game and you’re a hero and then go to have a bad game and being the worst player the club has ever signed.

“It’s such an unstable place to be that things you can do outside of work to maintain a level of happiness or sanity really adds to you as a person and as a player. I like reading. I’m really into self-help or business books, trying to learn more about myself. I go for a few bike rides along the canals.”

Those inner-city waterways weave close by Villa Park, where Mings has become such an important defender for Smith’s side. He doesn’t tackle too frequently, preferring to usher opponents away from goal or as the last line of defence, he’s throwing in blocks. “I’m not in the middle of the pitch nailing someone. I don’t think Virgil van Dijk made many tackles. I’m in esteemed company!” He’s not comparing himself to the Liverpool move-reader, just talking about different styles of defending. “Growing up, Rio Ferdinand was a good one for me, a well rounded centre back that I would have modelled my game on, even being left back, just the way he anticipated what’s going to happen rather than diving into tackles.

“I’m quite leggy and athletic and Rio stepped out with the ball quite a lot. I like the leadership of Thiago Silva and Sergio Ramos.”

He looks and learns from Smith’s assistant, John Terry. “He’s a huge help. A lot of weaknesses in my game were perhaps strengths of John Terry. He was very aggressive in his defending but the best thing I can take from him is probably his mindset to train to the top level every day.”

He studies opponents. “I quite like playing against direct strikers, a willing runner like Jamie Vardy, the best example of someone who loves playing on the shoulder and loves getting into foot races. That’s one of my biggest strengths. That coupled with my anticipation means I back myself in foot races.

“Players that play the game between the ears I find a lot more difficult. Roberto Firmino drifts off you, into midfield. Sergio Agüero spends the majority of the time offside and you don’t really know where he is until [Kevin] De Bruyne cocks his leg back to play the pass and he’s all of a sudden onside. Agüero has given me more of a problem than anyone else in my career.

“Manchester United are a bit like the Liverpool front three. They interchange like the Red Arrows.”

Such has been the quality of Mings’s performances that he has become hugely admired by the Villa faithful. He will run out for today’s friendly against United at Villa Park, again missing the fans. “The Holte End is just such a special place,” he says. “It’s a real shame they are not here. That’s a huge part of the game and sometimes all it needs is a bit of a lift from the crowd. We miss them dearly.”

Mings has been impressed with Watkins, Villa’s new £28 million striker, in training. “He’s really sharp. He’s getting used to us, we’re getting used to him. Matty Cash will be great for us too. In an ideal world we’d have got more players in sooner because it’s never easy asking people to hit the ground running in the Premier League, let alone when you sign them ten days before the season starts. We have to be understanding. Everybody’s still holding out for pre-Covid prices and the buying club is of course asking for post-Covid prices.”

He studies football business, keeping one eye on his post-playing days. “I’ve got no interest in coaching or managing,” he says. “If I stayed in football it would be in an executive position.” Mings would like to address the imbalance of diversity in the corridors of power, particularly at the FA. “Are there opportunities for black and ethnic minorities to move into those positions? At the moment no. The FA’s one governing body. Look right through every elite sport in this country and I don’t think the diversity is there. There is a long way to go.

“We’ve done great work in the coaching sector, pathways especially within the FA at every junior level, they have someone of ethnic minority on the coaching staff. To get that representation in the boardroom eventually would be great.”

Mings is unimpressed with the Premier League’s decision to swap the sleeve badge stating “Black Lives Matter” for the anodyne “No room for racism”.

The Premier League became twitchy about the BLM association with the political movement. “Every player that I’ve spoken to in relation to Black Lives Matter has said the political element is completely irrelevant. We are talking about the lack of opportunities, racial stereotyping and unconscious bias towards ethnic minorities.

“I think it’s tokenism they’ve put ‘no room for racism’. We’re talking about an isolated group of people hugely represented in the Premier League and that’s black players.

“‘No room for racism’ on a shirt seems a little bit like the Premier League is taking a back step.”

He experiences racism. “There’s unconscious racism, things like going into a designer shop if you’re black or you’ve got a hood up, there are stereotypes that unfortunately follow you about. Security are more on edge. People follow you around the shop. If you drive a nice car, you’re stopped by the police more. That happened to me when I went back to Chippenham. I was driving a Range Rover and the police were like, ‘This car isn’t from around here, why are you here?’. And there are far more scenarios that happen in places like London. With the more generations that go on, and hopefully the quicker [Donald] Trump gets out of power, the more it should be driven out.”

He is proud of Villa’s strong stance on racism. “We were the first people to take the knee before the first Premier League game back [of Project Restart]. Between myself and Dave McGoldrick at Sheffield United we thought that would be a powerful statement.”

Mings knows there wouldn’t be universal approval if players took a knee in front of a full stadium. “No. And there wouldn’t be universal approval on ‘no room for racism’ on the shirts because a lot of fans come to football to get away from political messages, from the everyday news. I only have to log into Twitter and go into my mentions to find that is the case.”

Some fans would boo him taking a knee. “Yes, of course,” he says. “I wouldn’t really care because any Aston Villa fan that wants to turn up and support me but not support an antiracism message is no fan of mine.

“We’re a generation where players have a platform on social media so we can be more powerful. I’m not a captain here but we’re all in a WhatsApp group speaking about the anti-racism messages, speaking about what we can do for Black Lives Matter. There’s a new-found unity across different clubs which hasn’t always been there. People aren’t afraid to talk out.”

So why didn’t he, and the other England players, walk off in Sofia last October when subjected to monkey chants by a group of Bulgaria fans? “Good question. We wanted to follow the protocol. We wanted the relevant authorities [Uefa] to have the power to make the right decisions and give out the relevant sanctions once we followed the right protocol. If we’d walked off then, if they had to follow their protocol they might have fined us. It would have taken the attention away from what really was the issue. If it happened again, I would follow the protocol. It was a collective decision.”

He has just been with Gareth Southgate’s squad in Iceland and Denmark for the Nations League qualifiers. “Four points from two games isn’t the end of the world,” he says. “It was not ideal to go there and not play but it was good to mix with the boys, training, and a good few conversations with the manager.

“I speak to Gareth Southgate about the personality test you can do to understand your role within a team. What makes a good leader? Some people need shouting at in front of the team. Some people need an arm around the shoulder. Some people need speaking to in private. Some people need being left to their own devices. I’m a helper.

“My ego isn’t big enough to think that I know everything or that I’ve cracked it or now I’ve played for England and Aston Villa that I’m at the peak. It’s always humbling to know I’m not the finished article as a person or as a player.”