An Irish U19 international appeared off the bench in Aston Villa's latest loss at home to Southampton last weekend. The man charged with supervising Aston Villa's relegation reckons Kevin Toner has the 'mentality and desire' to make it in football.
He says you don't see the like of such moral fibre in football too often these days. Not at Aston Villa in 2016, anyway. Eric Black spoke about why he had thrown him in and his prospects in football.
It involves watching him in the U21s, speaking to his coaches about his mentality, looking with the analysts at how physical he is, (asking) can he cope with a certain level of football. And then bringing him into first-team training, giving him a good week to get involved with that. And at that point, you’re still not 100% sure.
He deserves enormous credit. I’ve been really refreshed by his mentality and the desire to be a football player. It’s something that’s sadly missing at times now. So to see a young man who’s so passionate about being a football player and will do anything to be a football player is wonderful.Whether he goes on to play for Man United, I’m not sure, but with the attributes I’ve seen in the past two or three weeks, he’ll have a career in football.
The 19-year-old Toner is from Ashbourne in Meath and joined Villa from Home Farm a few years back. He has been capped for Ireland at U15, U16 and U19 level.
