Section:GDN 1N PaGe:53 Edition Date:190830 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/8/2019 19:50 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Friday 30 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •Sport^53
FootballSouthgate calls up Wan-Bissaka instead
of Walker in keeping emphasis on youth
Mings’ journey
takes detour to
be with England
Gareth Southgate has insisted Kyle
Walker’s England career is not over
despite the Manchester City defender
being left out of the squad to face
Bulgaria and Kosovo in favour of Aaron
Wan-Bissaka.
Wan-Bissaka is in the senior squad
for the fi rst time since moving to Man-
chester United and is joined by the
Aston Villa defender Tyrone Mings for
the Euro 2020 qualifi ers at Wembley
on Saturday 7 September and South-
ampton three days later. Recalls for
Chelsea’s Mason Mount and James
Maddison of Leicester tak e the number
of uncapped players to four.
There is a return for Liverpool’s
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain after his
comeback from injury – the fi rst timesince March 2018 that the midfi elder
has been included.
The omission of Walker , a mainstay
of the side that reached the semi-fi nals
of the 2018 World Cup, raised most
eyebrows, with the England manager
explaining that he had left out the
29-year-old right-back to take a closer
look at Wan-Bissaka and Liverpool’s
Trent Alexander-Arnold.
“Without getting Trent’s head too
big, too quickly, he’s got to be one of
those we look to integrate and give
more opportunity to,” Southgate said.
“So, it’s a bit like at a club – if we
don’t make a pathway, then when
are you ever going to put them in?
With Aaron, [we’ve got] a completely
different kind of player, so we’ve
got Trips [Kieran Trippier] as a bit of
cover around that and there’s no point
bringing Kyle in if the intention is not
to start him in the games.”young ones as well. Probably two years
ago, we waited until we had qualifi ed
and then evolved. I think during the
Nations League we did it as we were
going along and we think that’s the
right route to go .”
Southgate was adamant Walker
understood the reasons for his
omission and that the selection of
Trippier and Wan-Bissaka did not
necessarily mean they were ahead in
the pecking order. “It depends on how
well everybody does,” he said. “But
I have not said to Kyle that that’s it.”
Maddison’s return after he was
fi rst called up for the Nations League
matches against Croatia and Spain
last year is reward for his form since a
disappointing summer with England
Under-21s, when Aidy Boothroyd’s
side were eliminated in the group
stages of the European Champion-
ship. Wan-Bissaka was also in that
squad and Southgate said they must
learn from their experiences in Italy.
“They had some good moments and
some not so good moments, but that’s
the development in football,” he said.
Southgate said the exit of the
under-21s , despite being one of thetournament favourites, had provided
a lesson. “We must always have
humility,” he said. “That’s a little bit
down to their age. They’ve got to
recognise it and learn.
“But we play Kosovo in the second
game ; they’re a good team and they’ve
got some really good players. We can’t
underestimate that sort of game .”Goalkeepers
Tom Heaton, Jordan
Pickford, Nick Pope
Defenders
Trent Alexander-Arnold,
Ben Chilwell,
Joe Gomez, Michael
Keane, Harry Maguire,
Tyrone Mings,
Danny Rose,
Kieran Trippier,
Aaron Wan-BissakaMidfielders
Ross Barkley,
Jordan Henderson,
James Maddison,
Mason Mount, Alex
Oxlade-Chamberlain,
Declan Rice, Harry Winks
Forwards Harry Kane,
Jesse Lingard,
Marcus Rashford,
Jadon Sancho, Raheem
Sterling, Callum WilsonEd Aarons England squad
L
ast Saturday afternoon,
less than 24 hours after
helping Aston Villa
beat Everton in front of
Gareth Southgate, a live
television audience and
more than 41,000 spectators, Tyrone
Mings was back where it all started,
at Hardenhuish Park, in Wiltshire,
watching Chippenham face
Weymouth in the National League
south among 768 others.
To say Chippenham is where it
all started is not quite true. Mings
got his big break there in 2012,
when Ipswich invited him to drive
his Citroën Saxo to Suff olk for a
trial, but before that he played for
Yate Town, another non-league
club in the south-west, and had
also been part of Southampton’s
academy, only to be released at the
age of 16.
Rejection was in danger of
becoming something a theme in
those days. At one stage – and he
would later laugh about this with
Adie, his father – Mings was turned
down for a job in his local One Stop
corner shop because of his lack of
experience.
He had more success pulling pints
in the White Hart near Chippenham
and applying to work as a mortgageadviser with London & Country’s
Bath Offi ce, where he was earning
£15,000 a year to go with the £45
a week he was picking up in the
non-league game.
With all of that in mind, it is easy
to see why Mings talked about it
being “a long journey to get to this
point” when he pulled up a chair
at Villa’s training ground , with a
big grin on his face and his eyes
sparkling, and refl ected on the news
he had been called up to the England
squad for the fi rst time.
The 26-year-old thought it was
a prank. “I got a text when I came
in from training from the England
player liaison offi cer, Emily. I texted
back saying: ‘Oh shit.’ Excuse my
language. She then called me and
said: ‘I’m not joking.’ It was only
when I spoke to her , I knew she was
being serious.”
Mings has been on England’s
radar for a while. Southgate
watched him last season in a 2-1
victory over Blackburn in March,
when Jack Grealish and Tammy
Abraham were also in his thoughts,
and the England manager or his
assistant, Steve Holland, have seen
Villa’s three Premier League games
this season, during which Mings
has been hugely impressive. Tall,
quick, combative and comfortable
on the ball, he ticks a lot of boxes for
a central defender, especially as he
is left -footed.
Even so, England recognition
represents a remarkable turnaround
for a player who made 10 Premier
League starts for Bournemouth
after joining from Ipswich in- Injuries played their part in
Stuart Jamespsychologist as well as the club’s
medical staff because of how low
he felt – there is no getting away
from the fact there were also plenty
of occasions when he was fi t and
desperate to play at Bournemouth
but not deemed good enough to be
in the team.D
isillusioned and
frustrated, Mings
pushed hard to go out
on loan in January
and his wish was
granted on deadline
day, when he signed for Villa
following negotiations between
the clubs that were far from
straightforward. Over the course
of the next four months, which
culminated in promotion to the
Premier League via the play-off s,
Mings was a revelation.
A natural leader, he quickly
formed a close relationship with
Villa’s assistant head coach, John
Terry , who knows a thing or two
about playing at centre-back
and would stress to Mings how
important it was for a player in that
position “to go through the game
without being seen”. Mings, though,
was being noticed for all the right
reasons.
Although a few eyebrows were
raised this summer when it was
announced Villa had signed Mings
permanently for a fee that could rise
to as much as £26.5m, it is already
looking like money well spent.
Three games into the season and
the West Country boy who has never
forgotten his roots is on his way to St
George’s Park.that statistic – Mings snapped his
cruciate ligament six minutes into
his fi rst appearance for the club
and, much to his annoyance, later
spent seven months on the sidelines
with a back problem he felt should
have been resolved within seven
weeks.
Yet aside from those long and
lonely months trying to get back- Mings ended up working with a
Aston Villa defender initially
thought text say ing he was
in the squad for Euro 2020
qualifiers was a jokeHe added: “He’s a senior player
and he’ll value the rest and recovery
as much as anything else. But we could
be in a diff erent space in four weeks’
time because he’s started the season
very well, he’s got competition for his
place at his club and we’ve got that
here. It’s a unique position to have four
that are of a very high level, but two53years
ifi ed
g the
were
s thealker
his
onoff
not
ad in
how
“But
it.”
was
ague
pain
nce a
land
oyd’s
roupTyrone Mings
has every reason to
be happy at Aston
Villa’s training
session yesterday
after his selection in
the England squad
for the Euro 2020
qualifi ers
NEVILLE WILLIAMS/ASTON
VILLA VIA GETTY IMAGESQuick, combative
and comfortable
on the ball, he ticks
a lot of boxes for a
central defender
Aaron Wan-B iss aka
has earned his first
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