‘Serial winners’ can help England finally celebrate silverware – Tyrone Mings

Tyrone Mings has backed England’s “serial winners” to deliver silverware.

The Aston Villa defender believes the squad have enough experience to end their trophy drought.

Jack Grealish, Phil Foden, John Stones, Kalvin Phillips and Kyle Walker linked up with the squad on Tuesday after Manchester City completed the treble following their Champions League win over Inter Milan on Saturday.

Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw helped Manchester United with the Carabao Cup this term while Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson and Kieran Trippier have won league titles, with Declan Rice winning the Europa Conference League with West Ham.

England face Malta on Friday before hosting North Macedonia in Manchester on Monday in two Euro 2024 qualifiers as they aim to go one better following their Euro 2020 final defeat by Italy.

Mings said: “The manager always talks about your club experiences and adding to the group and we have a squad full of serial winners.

“When you look around the European competitions and domestic competitions and the amount of players that were involved in those it can only help.

“For sure (England can win a trophy) and that’s not just down to talent.

“Talent gets you so far, but everything that the team experienced in the last few tournaments, everything we do in training and the level of consistency the team has shown these past few years, it all adds up and points in the right direction.

“I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be looking at winning. There’s a nice blend of experience and youth, people coming into their peak years.”

And the 30-year-old has no issue with Grealish – and his City team-mates – celebrating their 1-0 win over Inter.

He said: “It is wild. The only thing he (Grealish) needs to do is do it at the right times and he’s just won the treble so I don’t think anybody can begrudge him going out and letting his hair down – those luscious locks of his now he has taken the hairband out. He’s certainly had a good few days.”

Mings’ return to the England squad ends a season which started with him losing the captaincy at Villa after he was left out of Gareth Southgate’s squad for the Nations League games last summer.

He returned to help Villa reach the Europa Conference League play-offs after finishing seventh in the Premier League with form which earned him an international recall having also been left out of the World Cup squad.

“I guess it started being left out of the England squad but that was a whole summer of strange times really,” he said, when asked to assess his season.

“Then sitting on the bench at Bournemouth and thinking, ‘I don’t know how all of this has happened in such a short space of time’.

“From the captaincy to not starting first game of the season but then I look at the scenes at Villa Park on the last day of the season and to see how far the club have come and how far I’d come in terms of my personal journey over the course of the season was impressive.

“I find I learn way more in times of uncertainty or disappointment compared to when it is going well and there isn’t much to think about because things are easy.

“Did I need it? Probably. I think there is always a plateau in people’s careers where things are coasting.

“I had been in every England squad for three years, two and a half years, and these things are sent to test you.”