Boss Mick McCarthy would be very surprised if he sees a better left-back than Town’s Tyrone Mings in the England U21 side which faces Portugal in a friendly at Turf Moor this evening.

The 21-year-old had been tipped to win his first call into Gareth Southgate’s squad after a terrific start to the season which has seen him watched regularly by a host of Premier League scouts with Arsenal believed to be weighing up whether to make a January bid.

However, Mings, the subject of a rebuffed offer in excess of £3 million from Crystal Palace in August, was omitted with Everton left-back Luke Garbutt and QPR’s Jack Robinson, who is on loan at Huddersfield, getting the nod ahead of him. Middlesbrough’s Ben Gibson can also play at left-back, although is primarily in the squad as a centre-half.

“I can’t believe that any of them that are in there are better than him, but maybe it’s not a bad thing,” McCarthy said.

“I’d sooner him have a few days off. He’s just got into our team this season. He’s got a new contract, he had Crystal Palace in his ear, everything’s been going for him. He’s progressing and whoever is in that squad, good luck to them.”

But the Town boss has no doubt that the £10,000 signing from Chippenham will eventually break into Southgate’s squad, who recently qualified for next June’s European Championships in the Czech Republic.

“Let Ty have a rest because I think he’ll benefit from that and he’ll get in it,” he continued. “I don’t doubt that at all because if there are any of them any better that are in that squad then I’d be interested to see them.

“But it suits me that if he’s not, and that maybe me being selfish, but it would be good for him as well.

“You can see in the games that it’s tough for him. It’s his first full season, it’s demanding for him physically, so let him have the time off with the rest of the lads and let the U21s get on with it.”

Last season McCarthy said Aaron Cresswell, who joined West Ham in the summer, was the top left-back in the Championship. Does the Blues boss believe Mings is the best in the division this year?

“I think that has to be done over more than 17 games,” he added. “I think we’ve potentially got the best left-back in the Championship, but I couldn’t go through all the left-backs off the top of my head.

“I haven’t seen them all, but somebody’s going to have to be good to be better than him, that’s what I would say.

“I still see things he has to improve on. He’s doing great but there are things that we pull him up on. He’s still learning and I think he’s still getting that stamina to play Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday.

“But he’s getting there, he’s great. We all love him. I said that before he even got in the team.

“I’ve not changed my opinion but when we talk about all the good ones in England, they end up being the total package - getting forward, setting goals up, defending, making sure that nobody gets crosses in, covering around your own centre-half, understanding the position.

“He’s getting all that and getting better and better. I think we certainly will have the best left-back in the Championship.”

Having picked up Mings from non-league two years ago, McCarthy has recently been eyeing another left-back with a similar background, Hampton and Richmond’s George Wells.

The 18-year-old, who was with the Chelsea and QPR youth set-ups as a schoolboy, played in the recent U21 games against Swansea and QPR.

“We’ve had a look at him and he’s probably going to come in and train with us for a couple of weeks,” McCarthy said.

“I know Alan Dowse his manager, he was a player with me at Millwall. He’s done OK, he’s done all right, George, but I don’t know whether he’s better than Myles Kenlock in the U18s and we’ve got Ben Wyatt.

“To do something with them they’ve got to be better than the players we’ve got, but we’ll have a look at him for a couple of weeks and see. Like I’ve said before, take them in, have a look - nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Photo: Action Images

Blue_Again added 07:46 - Nov 13 Be very sad to see mings go in January if it happens. It's hard to keep good player in this division. But if he gets in the arsenal team then good luck to him has earned it for sure.
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RegencyBlue added 08:33 - Nov 13 If Arsenal come in for him it will be as a buy for the future, there is no way he will go straight into their first team. If it happens in January the ideal scenario for us is Arsenal buy him and then loan him back to us for the rest of the season.
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SouperJim added 09:19 - Nov 13 A buy and loan back would probably be best for all concerned, as while I don't expect Mings to gamble his future by playing a waiting game, there can be little doubt that the best place for him to play football right now is at Fortress Portman Road. Nice to read that Mick is already lining the next one up for when Mings does move on. Long may that trend continue and thank goodness we no longer have a manager who only ever looks at the loan market.

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MrBloo added 09:22 - Nov 13 Myles Kenlock is a very good young prospect.
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Lathers added 09:38 - Nov 13 Southgate clearly isn't doing his job properly. The other 2 mentioned are no where near as good as Ty. We've qualified for the finals so surely as good a time as any to play him. It wouldn't surprise me if he goes on to play for the senior England side on a regular basis. He may have only played 17 games, but I don't remember seeing a player explode on to the scene like he has for years. We will lose him in January, that's a given, but a loan back arrangement and £10m+ will only help MM strengthen the team for the big promotion push.

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brazil1982 added 10:08 - Nov 13 Arsenal or another "big" club will move for him, to stockpile for a couple of years. We have got to insist on a large fee in excess of £10m.
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rfretwell added 10:17 - Nov 13 Saw George Wells play for us at Hampton & Richmond the other week. He looked competent enough when defending, didn't see enough of him going forward and he doesn't have Ty's towering physical presence. I dont think its a given that Ty will be off in January - with us he will be continuing his education in the first team in what could well be very big, high pressure matches in the run in, maybe ending at Wembley in the play off final. Tho there is no reason why we cannot grab one of the automatic promotion places Imo now.

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Palestine added 10:21 - Nov 13 I'll stick my neck out and say he will still be here past Jan. Reckon more likely to be sold in the summer. That said, agree with Brazil1982 we have to get more than £10m for him!
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karls_dad added 10:26 - Nov 13 The last player i can recall that made such an impact was the one and only ....MARCUS STEWART!!! I firmly believe he was the greatest forward that i have ever seen at Portman Rd arrrr memories!!
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TimmyH added 10:31 - Nov 13 Personally feel it will be bad business for us if we sell him in January what ever the price, as mentioned Arsenal won't play him straight away so from his point of view what is the point? - He needs to stay with us until the end of the season and if we get promoted and it's a big if we should then keep hold of him, as we'll need all the quality we can muster. But if we don't get promoted selling for a big sum will probably be the objective.

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tractorkent added 11:00 - Nov 13 don't sell him in January , wait until where we are come the end of the season
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Razor added 11:06 - Nov 13 With the greatest respect Karls Dad the best forward ever to play for Ipswich was Paul Mariner----end of.
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Simonds92 added 11:57 - Nov 13 Really can't see us selling in January at all there's no point in potentially derailing our promotion push even with a loan back it could have an affect. £10million is nothing compared to the financial reward of promotion and if he can play premier league football with us I think he'd be very happy to do so, seems like a very grounded individual.
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NSL added 12:58 - Nov 13 Tyrone is key to our promotion push and without him we have no chance. The cover and assists he provides makes him a match winner. It won't make any difference to his value whether we sell in January or the summer. We don't need money to strengthen. We should surely have some Wickham and Cresswell money left and have already proven that free signings are better than £2-£3 million signings. Selling in January will only highlight a true lack of ambition from ME - Lets be honest, our current position is nothing to do with him, rather the quality of MM and TC to get the very best out of an average squad (on paper).

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david_d added 13:26 - Nov 13 Yes Razor.....I agree our best forward was Paul Mariner...absolutely no doubt about that!
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johnabruzzi added 17:23 - Nov 13 Cheap bit of advertising from McCarthy, exactly what he did with Cresswell. Almost asking for the bigger clubs to come in for him. Money in the back pocket for both Evans and McCarthy
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nsc283b added 00:56 - Nov 14 Yes, our best forward was Paul Mariner...and Trevor Whymark (and Mr. Brazil wasn't bad either).
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