Dan Bardell exclusive: Questioning Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings’ character is baffling
We’re delighted to welcome The Athletic’s Dan Bardell as our exclusive Aston Villa columnist each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the club…
Dan Bardell finds it “bizarre” that Graeme Souness has questioned the character of Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings amid the debate over the club captaincy.
The well-known pundit used his Daily Mail column on 12 August to back Steven Gerrard’s decision to hand the armband to John McGinn, while attacking Mings as a player who has too much to say for someone who hasn’t achieved anything in football, to which the bemused centre-back responded on Twitter to challenge him to talk things over.
Souness followed up in his new role as a pundit on talkSPORT by saying “bring it on son” while suggesting he wouldn’t learn anything from the England international, and Bardell is unimpressed that the criticism appears to have strayed beyond the boundaries of Mings’ abilities on the football pitch.
He exclusively told Villa News: “I think for Graeme Souness to question Tyrone Mings as a footballer is absolutely fine. We all do it, we all question people. I do it, it’s part of my job, so I’ve got no issue with that at all.
“But I found it very, very strange and very, very off that he was kind of questioning Tyrone Mings’ character based on a vague Zoom call where Tyrone Mings was invited by Sky, it sounds like a strange thing to take your opinion of someone’s character from, just off one Zoom call.
“And I think, like he has done with everything over the last couple of weeks, Tyrone Mings has handled it in a really positive way, he’s come out and called it out himself.
“I think Graeme Souness has then continued it on talkSPORT and kind of doubled down and continued it when he would have been probably better off to just be quiet about it, I don’t think Souness is making himself look great with it, I disagree with a lot of things that he’s said.
“As I said, everyone’s entitled to their opinion as people and as footballers, but to question Tyrone Mings’ character, that’s one thing that I fundamentally would never, ever, ever question, because I know what a difference he’s made to Aston Villa as a player, and I know what a difference he’s made to Aston Villa as a man.
“He’s my favourite player at the club and a lot of that is to do with this character, not just his football ability alone, it’s to do with the man he is and to do with the type of person he is.
“So for Graeme Souness to question those things when I don’t think he’s an expert on Aston Villa either, I just find it bizarre.”
Souness is well known for his uncompromising attitude to most things, having built that reputation as both a player and a manager before becoming a pundit.
But his opinions can at times border on the uncomfortable, such as with his apparent vendetta against former Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba.
With the French star now gone from the Premier League it looks like he might have settled on a new target in the Villans defender, who was thrust into his eye-line by Gerrard’s captaincy decision but has dealt with it as professionally as he reasonably could have done, so the level of criticism certainly appears unwarranted.
In other Aston Villa news, the club are in the hunt to sign Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah on loan.