With the arrival of new Aston Villa head coach Dean Smith, defence at the club quickly became a priority with an already understrength set of options being heavily hit by injury.
January saw a swift move for Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Kortney Hause, and by the close of deadline day we’d also added Bournemouth’s Tyrone Mings as new faces to the backline. Mings came into us highly rated, but given recent injury concerns and a lack of game time, he hit the ground running pretty quickly and began to seriously impress the fanbase with both his performances and his overall attitude on the pitch.
He’s done himself no harm on social media either with the messages he sends out.
Villa do only have a matching offer option on his loan deal though come the summer, but there are few in the fanbase who wouldn’t make him a priority for a permanent deal as we look to the campaign of 2019/20.
This week, the 26-year-old gave an in depth interview to the Telegraph and it’s certainly worth a read.
With fans hoping we’ve won Mings over with how he’s excelling in rebuilding his career and reputation following his injuries, whilst it’s only an indication, he doesn’t sound like someone who would be against a permanent deal in a couple of months.
“This loan is massive for me. I don’t think I could underestimate how big it is and how big a decision it was to choose where to go because everything had to click immediately. The aim is obviously to make the play-offs, but coming here and playing games, and feeling wanted was so important. Personally, it was a big choice and I 100 per cent believe I made the right one.”
Add that to his comments on Twitter and we at least know he’s happy here and again, as previously pointed out by Smith, his standing within the dressing room already is epitomised by the times he’s taken the armband, with Jack Grealish recently beelining for him when substituted late on.
