Vinnie Jones names Man United star as Premier League's current 'tough' hardman
Vinnie Jones has named his pick for the Premier League's toughest player who epitomises being a "hardman".
Jones is known for being the ultimate hardmen in the history of English football, doing whatever it took to win and receiving a staggering 12 red cards in his professional career before he made a successful transition to Hollywood.
The current game is not comparable to the era Jones played in, with tough tackling almost eradicated from the game - particularly with the addition of VAR.
The aren't too many who play with the same fearless mentality that brought Jones, a vital cog in the Wimbledon 'Crazy Gang' FA Cup-winning team, in his entire career.
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However, in an exclusive interview with SPORTbible, Jones revealed that he does relate to Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez and has an admiration for the aggressive approach which he adopts.
'The Butcher' was described as a "tough little lad" by the Snatch star, who believes being a hardman simply requires being someone who "doesn't think about the consequences" when they put their body on the line for the team.
“When you talk about hardmen, there are all sorts of hardmen," Jones said ahead of the official release of his Netflix 'Untold' documentary.
"I can tell you loads of tough lads. Some of us were pointed out and got the cards and got the limelight for it.
“Ben Thatcher in my time was a lad. He got in a bit of trouble.
“Billy Whitehurst is another one. Jimmy Case was a tough lad. There was a lot of tough lads in my time.
"It's who throws their heart on the ground, who wears their heart on the sleeve. I think it's a lot more difficult now with all the cameras.
“You've got to bear in mind we had one or two cameras. If you had an argument or a fight with someone off the ball, there were no cameras looking at it and the referee never saw most of it.
“There was lots of niggles off the ball and stuff like that which which they can't do now because they get punished so severely and I think it's been rung out of them like an old tea towel.
“There used to be proper full-blown fights in our time but I mean there's a bit of pushing and shoving and a couple of handbags now.
“The lad, the little centre-half at Man United, he’s a tough little lad. He doesn’t mind, he’ll go in."
He continued: “A hardman to me is who goes in and doesn't worry about the consequences.
“I had some of my players say to me, ‘Bloody hell Vin you’re going to get your legs broken one day the way you tackle’.
“You went in for a tackle and didn’t for once think about the consequences.”
Billy Whitehurst, Stuart Pearce and Jimmy Case are some of the players that Jones has regularly talked up as the toughest but he also shouted out Ronnie Whelan, Bryan Robson, Graeme Souness and Steve Nicol - all immensely successful players who had no issue getting stuck in and putting themselves about.
"In that era there were loads of players, loads of tough lads that threw themselves into tackles. Portsmouth had a load, Millwall had a load.
“Ronnie Whelan and Bryan Robson, the best teams in the country had players like that.
“The Whelans, the Robsons, the Souness’, the Stevie Nicols - you look at Leeds in the 70s. They had some tough, hard players.
“You couldn’t have a team in those days that didn’t have players that got stuck in.”
Before he became a superstar, Jones got his break in football with Swedish side Umea, living there for a year and believing he would have stayed there for the rest of his life had he not been handed a trial at Wimbledon.
With such a love for Scandanivia and its people, it's no surprise that Jones is a huge of fan of Manchester City star Erling Haaland, who is set to win the Golden Boot for the third time.
He said: "They’re beautiful people, they’ve got beautiful souls and they want to save the planet.
“I think I played against his dad Alfie and I love that connection he’s got with his dad. There’s a real proudness from his dad and he’s done it right, Erling.
“You don't get big stories about him and he's not got ridiculously carried away and he's so good that he's let his football do the talking.”
‘Untold UK: Vinnie Jones’ is available only on Netflix from 26 May
Topics: Vinnie Jones
Josh Lawless