Tyrone Mings exclusive: People remember trophies - but we don't want Aston Villa to be a fleeting success

Last Friday night at Molineux, around 10 minutes or so after the final whistle had blown on a 2-0 defeat which ranked among the worst results of his reign, was certainly one of those.

“The manager doesn’t really like to speak too much after games,” explains Tyrone Mings. “But I felt he thought at that point it was important to mention we had not won at Wolves in any of the other seasons he had been at the club but we still achieved our goals.

“He knew the performance was not a good one, the result was not a good one and it was a good time to speak and add some reason to the emotion.

“Understandably, there were a lot of upset players in the dressing room, knowing what the game meant in the context of our season but also to the fans. 

“We fell below that and the manager let us know we will fix it on the training pitch, fix it in the next game.”

That next game, at home to Chelsea on Wednesday night, now ranks as comfortably the biggest of Villa’s season to date.

Victory would leave Emery’s men with almost one foot already in next season’s Champions League, nine points ahead of their rivals with only nine matches to play.

Defeat, by contrast, would further intensify fears a season which at one stage was threatening the extraordinary, as Villa closed in on leaders Arsenal, might ultimately end in failure.

“Ultimately that is what we will be judged on,” says Mings. “Where do we finish after being in such a good position for such a large part of the season? 

“If we had been 17th or 18th for most of it and finished sixth, people would presume that was a good season. 

“If we had been third all season and finished sixth, they would have a slightly different view.

“Obviously, we want to finish in the Champions League spots. That is what we would deem a success.”

As the season approaches its climax the pressure builds, there is no-one in the Villa dressing room better than Mings to offer a sense of perspective.

There isn’t much he hasn’t seen in seven years at the club, whether it be record winning runs, Great Escapes from relegation, surges into the European positions or recoveries from career-threatening injuries.

Out of the eight campaigns he has finished as a Villa player, this could be the sixth which goes down to the wire. No-one knows better the importance of keeping a cool head in the spring.

“I think the subplots, at this point of the season, always make for interesting headlines,” he says. 

“If you lose a game now it is catastrophic because of the ramifications for Champions League qualification. 

“We have been in the position before when relegation was a threat. You lose and it is ‘oh, now we are definitely getting relegated’ or ‘now we are definitely going to drop out of the top-five’. 

“So it is important to try and block all that out and take results for what they are. 

"I know people will hate me for saying this but at this stage of the season I don’t see there being a bad point. 

"People will look at times we have played teams lower than us in recent weeks and picked up a point, there are times in that game when the mentality gets you through, rather than tactics and that can’t be a bad thing.

“I was speaking to Morgan (Rogers) the other day about peaks and troughs within the season. 

“Usually, it is the people who can keep their head in the bad times who can work their way out of it.”

He continues: "Sometimes you have to go to those (bad) places, to have those bad results like Wolves to think ‘this is getting away from us’ or ‘teams are catching us’ or this is not as easy or simple as we thought it might be. 

"I am not saying you would ever ask for bad things, or bad results, or bad performances. But when you find yourself in the middle of a bad run, you have to find something else, another way of competing or picking up a result."

Considering where Villa stood, one place above the relegation zone, when Emery arrived in November 2022, a fourth straight season in which some form of European qualification already appears assured should theoretically be something to savour.

Among supporters, however, there is a growing nervousness due to the financial importance of returning to the Champions League. 

Missing out for a second straight season would likely mean another difficult summer window, for a club which has found itself heavily restricted by financial fair play rules.

It’s a reality of which Mings is well aware, albeit the centre-back is keen to highlight just how impressive Villa’s achievements have been in light of their lack of wriggle room.

“We are conscious of what is on the line,” he says. “Obviously, we are not privy to the ins and outs of financial decisions. 

“But we can see the knock-on effect of decisions which are happening in the boardroom, to what you see on the pitch. 

“You see the club not making the signings that everyone else in the top-four, five or six are making, or are able to make.

He continues: “People like to point to the fact we can probably play a team at the moment which was here four years ago in the starting XI. That probably highlights the difficulty in recruitment over that period. 

“But some appreciation for what the players who have been here for a long period of time have achieved would be nice as well. 

“£70m players don’t guarantee success. £50m, £60m, £70m players, people would go ‘oh wow we have brought this player’. 

“But that new shiny toy isn’t always as reliable as the one which has delivered consistent success. 

“Of course, there is absolutely an evolution of the squad which should happen. 

“I think that is where the fans get frustrated. Have we evolved the team well enough over the years to stay fresh? 

“Or are we getting to the end of a cycle of a set of players who have given everything. How much more do these players have? 

“Players know that as well because we know it within the dressing room. But there is certainly no lack of fire or belief, or any less determination to be successful.” 

Quite what success means is open to interpretation. Returning to the Champions League would certainly be considered such but so should winning a trophy. This month will mark 30 years since Villa last lifted major silverware.

Mings admits the pain of last year's near misses in both the FA Cup and Champions League serves as motivation. He and his team-mates don't want to be remembered among Villa's 'nearly men'.

“We got so close last year,” says Mings. “The manager is always huge on Premier League, Premier League, Premier League because that allows us to get closer next year, with a bigger squad. 

“But there comes a point of course when you go so far in a competition. There were only four teams left in the FA Cup and suddenly it was becoming real, tangible and the fans could feel it.

“That was a disappointment the players did feel.

“Even those of us who have been here for a long time recognise it would be a real shame for this group of players to not win a trophy but we also understand how hard that is.

“Certainly we are sitting here envious of those fanbases. That is something they managed to get over the line and we haven’t. 

“I don’t think that is something we should get away from, or shirk the responsibility of looking in the face of the history of this football club and saying: ‘We want to be a group of players who have been successful in winning trophies’. 

“Ultimately, that is how you are remembered. I don’t think people remember qualifying for Europe three years in a row. 

“They will definitely remember winning a trophy. At the same time, we don’t want it to be a fleeting success. 

“We don’t want to win a trophy one season and everything fall apart after that.

“I think we can be really proud of getting the club to where we have so far, with the resources we have.

“I’m not saying we have done it on a shoestring budget. We are competing in the upper echelons of the Premier League and there is a lot of money going round.

“But the players never get away from wanting to do well.

“I know Morgan said the other day players are feeling the pressure.

“I take his point. But anyone who has been here for a long time knows that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”