Cold calling to England call-up Mings’ amazing rise to the top
Defender thanks Villa coach Terry for helping his rise, writes Jim White at St George’s Park
So far this season, Tyrone Mings has delivered more blocks and clearances than anyone else in the Premier League. Which is all the more eye-opening a statistic considering that eight years ago he was playing part time for Yate Town in the Southern League Premier Division while earning his living dialling random numbers trying to sell a mortgage to anyone who would pick up the phone.
Now the figures achieved by the Aston Villa centre-back with a penchant for flinging his body into the line of fire has earned him a call-up into the England squad. Were he to earn a debut cap over the next week it would represent the kind of favourable return not even the most optimistic financial adviser would dare suggest.
“I can’t say that while I sat at my desk cold-calling or trying to help people remortgage that playing for England was a real achievable goal,” he says as he addresses the media at St George’s Park. Articulate, open, thoughtful: his delivery suggests Mings must have been almost as formidable a telephone salesman as he is a centre-back. “But I’ve worked with great coaches and have been able to play for some great clubs.”
Not least his current club, Aston Villa. Indeed, it was not really until he established himself in the Villa side while on loan from Bournemouth last season that Mings started to be mentioned as a player who might have plausible grounds for international recognition. Tall, quick, athletic: finally in the Championship he was achieving a consistency to match
his natural attributes. And there is one man in particular he credits with helping him to start realising his potential.
“John Terry has developed my game for sure,” he says of the former England stalwart who is now Villa’s first-team coach. “He’s been there and achieved everything I would want to achieve in the game so to learn from him and take little pieces of advice from him, I feel really very fortunate to be able to do that.” Terry has not simply offered a role model, an example of determination at club and international level. His influence on Mings has been specific and technical.
“We watch clips of my game back and John will tell me what he likes and what he doesn’t like,” the defender says. “At the moment there’s more of the former than the latter, but he’s worked under such great managers that he has all the experience that I’d love to have so anything he tells me really sticks. We then try to implement that on the training pitch. He gives me a little bit of criticism but mostly it’s a lot of positivity.” And there is one tip in particular that Mings has taken on board.
“He tries to tell me to go through a game without being seen or being mentioned. He says a good reflection of a centre-back is coming off the pitch and no one really knows what they’ve done and they’ve just gone quietly about their business. That’s something I’m trying to do more.”
With only four centre-backs in Gareth Southgate’s squad, there is every chance that Mings will get a run out in this international window, more likely against Kosovo than Bulgaria. Against such opponents it could be said that he is being offered the gentlest of introductions to the international game. These are opponents that offer every chance for the defender of playing without being seen or mentioned. “I would have come in at any stage I would be asked. I don’t know if there is ever an easy, or easier time, to come into the squad,” he says. “The manager wants a winning mentality and wants us to show humility and persevere at any cost to get a win and to really drive that mentality.”
One thing is certain: should he make his debut, there will be plenty of those who have followed the 26-year-old’s upward trajectory who will be celebrating.
“I bumped into my old Yate captain when I came out of the [St George’s Park] gym yesterday, which was a little bit strange but perhaps a little bit fitting,” he says. “Since I have been called up I think I have heard from everyone I have ever come into contact with in football, which is nice. Everyone has played their own part in my development and has a story to tell on my journey. I do speak to a few people in non-league. There are a few people in Bristol where my family is based that I used to play with at Yate. With Chippenham, I was back there a few weeks ago watching. I do keep in touch.”
And if anyone in the England squad needs help with securing a mortgage, they know who to call.