Aston Villa manager Dean Smith has claimed that Tyrone Mings has been the victim of a ‘witch hunt’ following his collision with Reading forward Nelson Oliveira last weekend.
The new Villa man caused considerable injuries to the Portuguese striker’s face when he stood on it in an incident that both he and his manager have insisted was not deliberate, as reported by the BBC.
The 25-year-old will not face action over the event, but has been involved in a similar incident in the past when he stood on Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s head in 2017, as reported by The Guardian.
As quoted by the Express and Star, Villa boss Smith has not been happy with the reaction to the incident.
He said: “It felt to me like it became a bit of a witch hunt for somebody who was assumed to have stamped before because he got banned by the FA.
“Nobody knows if he stamped then. But for me this was a total accident.
“Sometimes in any contact sport accidents happen and that was one of them. I am absolutely convinced [it wasn’t deliberate].”
OPINION
Like Smith says, only Mings knows if he meant to stamp on Oliveira or not, but it would be a dreadfully cynical move ill-befitting of the player’s character if he did. There is, of course, the argument that he has been involved in this kind of incident before, and that is true, but to assume that he is automatically guilty because of that is a poor precedent to take. That being said, given how dangerous the collision was and the dangle it caused, there is a strong argument to be made that Mings should have faced some kind of ban regardless of whether or not the referee saw it during the match. That doesn’t mean that there was intent, but it would at least acknowledge the severity of what he did. He can be innocent of any malice and still face some kind of punishment for his actions. Things could have been a lot, lot worse for Oliveira, and a couple of disgruntled fans on social media giving Mings a hard time, as out of order as it may be, is hardly a fitting punishment for the injury inflicted.