Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Bright, young MINGS
£20m Villa star desperate to prove he wasn’t a ‘rip-off’
TYRONE MINGS is sure he’s on track to prove that Aston Villa haven’t ‘had their pants pulled down’ over his £20million summer transfer.
The strapping centre-half returned to Villa Park from England duty with a newfound determination to gain game time with the Three Lions.
But he is adamant that his first aim is to show boss Dean Smith (right) that the fee paid to Bournemouth was value for money. Mings, 26, said: “I thought the figure for me would have been £15-16m.
“Everyone would have looked at that and said, ‘That’s a good deal’.
“Then it went up to whatever it went up to and people were thinking, ‘I don’t know if we’ve had our pants pulled down here’.
“I’d like to think there wasn’t anyone at Villa, with the impact I had last year, who thought it was a rip-off.
“It might have been higher than they wanted to pay but it’s supply and demand.
“There’s only one of me, I felt like I could come back here and make a positive impact, and the manager thought that as well.
“But then you look at some of the prices that centre-backs went for and the prices that were quoted for others.
“At the end of the day ,though, they are numbers. I just wanted to sign for Villa.
“The money doesn’t come out of my bank account. I knew it was a deal I wanted to get done and that both Villa and Bournemouth wanted it done too.
“Whatever price they settled at was for the money men to decide.
“Does it weigh heavily on me? No. In the end, I think it was about right.”
Smith was underwhelmed by Villa’s performance last time out at Crystal Palace.
Just as much as the decision from referee Kevin Friend to disallow Henri Lansbury’s goal at the death which would have earned his side a point. Both Mings and his manager have called for the same atmosphere against West Ham tomorrow night as Everton experienced on an emotionally-charged evening at Villa Park three weeks ago.
Mings said: “West Ham are laced with quality. Their attacking players are very good, they have experience and I do like the look of Sebastien Haller.
“He’s been a great addition to their squad, it’ll be another tough test. It seems a cliche, but every team we look at has great quality.”