World class, I agree. But we’ve had many seasons since about 1999 where we’ve had two players in each position who were good enough to play for Liverpool.
The formation that Barnes played in wasn’t a million miles off a 433. Houghton would often support the centre mids, and Barnes had more freedom to support the attackers.
I don’t think we do have a buyback. And anyway, if we buy him for the 2027-28 season, he’ll be about to turn 29 and I don’t see our fellas going for that.