‘He can teach us all a lot’ - Laura Woods defends Tyrone Mings over Graeme Souness’ criticism

TalkSPORT pundit Laura Woods has backed Tyrone Mings after Graeme Souness criticised the Aston Villa defender.

Steven Gerrard opted to remove Mings as captain and replace him with John McGinn this summer, before benching the centre-back for their opening match against Bournemouth.

The talk around Mings and the support he has gained over the past couple of weeks led Souness to write a column about his previous experience with the England international, claiming that “for a young man who hasn’t achieved anything in the game, he has a hell of a lot to say”.

Souness was referring to an interview he hosted with Mings during lockdown in which the defender spoke about how footballesr were viewed as ‘commodities’ at the time.

While Mings was quick to defend himself on Twitter in reaction to Souness’ column, Laura Woods also backed the 29-year-old on the radio.

Speaking to Ally McCoist on talkSPORT, Woods said: “The captaincy could have been taken off of him for many different reasons.

“Gerrard said he inherited him as a captain so it could have been that he wanted to choose his own, make his mark, and go his own way.

“Perhaps he wanted to set an example to the rest of the team who all contributed to a downturn in result towards the end of the season. We might actually never know.

“Attacking someone’s character is where it’s a bit of a stretch and especially to someone like Tyrone. For me his reaction has been exemplary. The way that he dealt with being benched for the first game of the season, to having the captaincy stripped of him, everything he said I thought was exemplary.

“In regards to Tyrone Mings not achieving anything in the game, he was homeless as a child. He grew up to become a Premier League and international football which I would say is quite an achievement.

“He might not be able to teach Graeme anything about football. But I personally think he can teach us all a lot about a lot of other things.”

Mings has impressed on the pitch for much of as his career as he climbed up the football ladder - playing for Chippenham Town ten years ago.

However, the former Villa captain has also had a huge impact off the pitch too including playing his part in the Players Together initiatie that saw the Premeir League support the NHS throughout the pandemic, as well as also being key to deliering the anti-racism message during Project Restart.

Mings has always used his status and wealth for the good and was often praised for his work with charities during his time in Ipswich Town, most noteably when he spend Christmas Day 2013 feeding homeless people.

While the former Bournemouth man has had a turbulant start to the season, he may be set for a quick return to the starting line-up following the injury to Diego Carlos.

Villa’s summer signing was confirmed to have torn his achilles tendon in only his second appearance for the club, leaving him sidelined for around six months.