TYRONE MINGS has paid a warm tribute to his long-standing team-mate and captain John McGinn before tomorrow’s Europa League final against Freiburg in Istanbul.

Former Villa boss Steven Gerrard took the skipper’s armband off Mings in favour of McGinn in 2022, but the central defender said no-one would be happier than him to see the Scotland midfielder lift the trophy at Besiktas Park.

Both players have been key to Villa’s progress since they won Premier League promotion under Dean Smith in 2019.

Mings said: “I don’t think we actually get credit maybe for how that whole situation was handled with the captaincy, because he’s an amazing person.

“I’m a big supporter of his and his own journey at this football club has been up and down.

“He hasn’t had the injury setbacks that I’ve had, but he’s had periods of doubt, and he’s had periods of lack of form, lack of confidence.

“That’s a really difficult thing to deal with when you’re the captain, because ultimately people are looking at you for the answers and you’re trying to search for the answers yourself.

“So I don’t think he sometimes gets the credit he deserves. I think he plays his role as kind of class clown and the joker really well, both to the fans, to the public and within the dressing room.

“But he takes his job very seriously and he’s a very serious leader when he needs to be.”

Mings described McGinn’s journey with the club since arriving from Hibernian in 2018 when Steve Bruce was in charge at Villa Park as “really special.”

It has been 44 years since Villa won the European Cup by beating Bayern Munich in Rotterdam, while their last major trophy win was in the League Cup in 1996.

“It will be an amazing moment mostly for the fans,” Mings added. “We are very excited, of course.

“But I think in recent years the fans certainly have seen other clubs winning trophies in Europe and domestically as well.

“There’s probably a slight jealousy among the fanbase that we haven’t been able to, with the group that we’ve got, get over the line and bring a trophy back. So I think there’s a real excitement for that.”