TOUGH-TALKING talkSPORT pundit Graeme Souness has challenged Tyrone Mings to “call me anytime”, after their bitter war of words spilled into a third day.
The former Liverpool and Scotland captain – who famously never pulled his punches on or off the park – stunned listeners by calling out the Aston Villa and England defender, challenging him to hit the airwaves and have it out with him live on talkSPORT.
Souness sparked a bitter feud between the pair by singling out Mings for stinging criticism in his national newspaper column on Saturday.
The no-nonsense Scot backed Steven Gerrard’s decision to strip Mings of the Aston Villa captaincy and to axe him from Villa’s opening game of the season at Bournemouth which they lost 2-0.
He also said Gerrard was right to hand midfielder John McGinn the skipper’s armband at Mings’ expense.
Souness wrote in his column for the Mail: “I won’t be joining the love-in for Tyrone Mings, the man Steven Gerrard has stripped of the Aston Villa captaincy in a move which, summed up in one sentence, says: ‘I just don’t fancy you.’
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“Mings is ‘well-loved in the dressing room’, apparently.
“Well, when he appeared a couple of times on Zoom for shows we were doing on Sky Sports during lockdown, I thought: ‘For a young man who’s not achieved anything in the game you’ve a hell of a lot to say.’
“He’d been talking about how footballers were viewed as ‘commodities’ at the time and I asked him if he didn’t think players were incredibly fortunate to be doing their job.
“He had an answer for me, of course, but that encounter told me a lot.”
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Mings was clearly miffed by what he felt was a hatchet job on him and did his best to hit back as he took to social media, at the weekend, after returning to Villa’s first team in their win over Everton.
Mings Tweeted: “What a weird article. That zoom call I was invited on was 2 years ago & he said nothing to me at the time, now wants to drag me into his pointless column.
“Btw, I’ve achieved plenty from where I started. Happy to chat things through if you ever need me.”
If Mings thought that would end the matter it didn’t take Souness long to put him right.
The feisty 69-year-old, used his Monday slot on the Jim White show on talkSPORT to ramp up the rhetoric.
White told Souness that Mings had: ‘Lobbed the ball back into his court,’ and wanted to chat things through with him.
Souness replied: “Anytime, anytime,” before launching another blistering volley at the Villa man.
Souness who managed giant clubs, most notably Rangers, Liverpool, Galatasaray, Benfica and Newcastle United, during his career as a boss, rapped: “I was a manager for, I think, 880 games.
“When you are a manager and you decide to take the captaincy from someone, that is as bad as it gets for that individual.
“You know you’ve lost him forever. There’s nothing you can do.”
A startled White, cut in to ask: ‘Forever?’
Souness replied: “Yeah forever, to get him back onside. So to do it is a major step. You would have to have a good reason to do that.
“There is something in Tyrone Mings’ makeup that Steven Gerrard doesn’t fancy. Forever.
“I’m putting myself there, I’m a player, the captain of the football club and someone takes the captaincy off me.
“I’m done with the manager. In fact MY personality, I couldn’t stay at the club, I’ve got to go now.”
Souness went on to repeat his offer to Mings to follow up his offer to call him …. live on air if necessary.
“I’ll come back to it,” said Souey. “Tyrone Mings, bring it on son.
“If you want to have a conversation with me about football – I’m not sure what I’m going to learn – phone talkSPORT. We’ll have the chat.”
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White threw Souness’s gauntlet at Mings and said: “Tyrone I think we need to do that. We’ll need to get Tyrone on to have a chat with Graeme.
“It’s probably safer for Tyrone over the phone!”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
