john barnes

[Stevie H]

this is great: http://youtube.com/watch?v=BZp_15TTCdQ

[Paisley]

He was as well - now if we could just add a couple of players of that quality to this squad...

[Falconhoof]

He was as well - now if we could just add a couple of players of that quality to this squad...

 

 

We'll be lucky to see another like him in our lifetime.

[Paul B]

We'll be lucky to see another like him in our lifetime.

 

 

You never saw Paul Stewart, obviously.

[Falconhoof]

You never saw Paul Stewart, obviously.

 

Did he get capped for England while he was with us ? He was an awful awful footballer. Souness has a lot to answer for but he went on to get plenty of work afterwards.

[Leo No.8]

Barnesy was one of the best footballers I've ever seen play the game.

 

How much would a John Barnes in his prime be worth in the modern game? £30m, something like that. He could do everything in an attacking sense - incredible skill, pace, goals, vision, two footed, deadly from set-pieces, he was even a very good header of the ball.

 

Add him to this current team and we'd be title challengers immediately. I think he's comparible to Ronaldinho as a player.

Edited March 16, 2007 by Leo No.8

[Falconhoof]

I think he's comparible to Ronaldinho as a player.

 

 

His all round game was better IMO because he had every bit of skill that Ronaldinho had but he was a harder worker and had a better attitude. You never saw Barnes get in a strop or a sulk and you never saw anyone get the better of him physically. Can't remember if I ever saw Barnes do anything petulant at all or get booked but he had a strength about him.

[Leo No.8]

His all round game was better IMO because he had every bit of skill that Ronaldinho had but he was a harder worker and had a better attitude. You never saw Barnes get in a strop or a sulk and you never saw anyone get the better of him physically. Can't remember if I ever saw Barnes do anything petulant at all or get booked but he had a strength about him.

 

Dead right. Barnesy may have been a flair player but you could rely on him to turn up and give as much on a cold wet league night at Wimbledon as he would in a cup final. He put up with some pretty nasty racist abuse as well and dealt with it in the best way - he just ignored them completely and got on with taking the p*ss out of their team.

 

Funny people have mentioned on another thread on here how much better Carra plays for Liverpool than he does for England - Barnes was the same. He could never quite play at the same level he did for us in general. He loves Liverpool Football Club - you only have to read his comments about us now to know that, perhaps like with Carra he couldn't muster the same desire to play for the England shirt, who knows?

 

He's a sound bloke as well - my best mate's Dad was good mates with him so I met him quite a few times when I was younger, and out in town when we first started going to clubs. Remember seeing him in the Conti a few times - the places you'll go when you're 17...

Edited March 16, 2007 by Leo No.8

[JonShar]

I feel so lucky to have seen that era - Beardsley, Barnes, Aldridge - we played some exceptionally good stuff.

 

A Spurs game in particular stands out from the ones that I went to - we won 1-0, Barnes scored right in front of me, think I was about 13. Never forget that one.

[Cobs]

Funny people have mentioned on another thread on here how much better Carra plays for Liverpool than he does for England - Barnes was the same. He could never quite play at the same level he did for us in general. He loves Liverpool Football Club - you only have to read his comments about us now to know that, perhaps like with Carra he couldn't muster the same desire to play for the England shirt, who knows?

 

think the very idea of that is nonsense

 

countless players haven't reproduced brilliant club form for their country and it has feck all to do with desire to play for the shirt

[Will]

Did he get capped for England while he was with us ? He was an awful awful footballer. Souness has a lot to answer for but he went on to get plenty of work afterwards.

No - his 3 England caps all came while he was still at Spurs

[Zoob]

Coincidentally, I watched that clip a couple days ago. I also consider myself incredibly lucky to have seen Barnes in his prime. He was absolutely awesome. If only we currently had a player like him at the club. Sometimes - particularly in his first 3 years with us - he was pretty much un-stoppable.

[Tobes Rafa]

I remember that last goal like yesterday. We played sh*te that day and were struggling to score against a below average Southampton side. Barnsey pulled that one out of the hat to steal all three points in the dying minutes.

[SkippyjonJones]

great clip - cheers.

 

so many memories of the teams he played in for us...

[Nebraska Red]

what a great team we had back then, it was a privilege to be able to watch them so many times.

[RafaShanks]

If I could pick any player from the past to our current team/squad it would be Digger. Goals, set pieces and assists from the left. More goals for our strikers as well.

 

We've been virtually playing without a left sided midfielder for the past couple of seasons.

[Mike]

my favourite ever player.

a manc once said to me that if british teams would have been in europe at the end of the 80's then barnes would have been european and world player of the year at least twice.

[floyd]

 

 

countless players haven't reproduced brilliant club form for their country and it has feck all to do with desire to play for the shirt

Barnesy coming home, after scoring "that" goal against Brazil, was on the same plane as some of the England fans, and they were all saying that they only won 1-0 as they didn't count his goal. Also the fvckin dogs abuse he got against Holland, was all their to see, so I don't blame Digger for not giving a flying f*** about England

[Cobs]

Barnesy coming home, after scoring "that" goal against Brazil, was on the same plane as some of the England fans, and they were all saying that they only won 1-0 as they didn't count his goal. Also the fvckin dogs abuse he got against Holland, was all their to see, so I don't blame Digger for not giving a flying f*** about England

but he still did

 

that's the point - you don't have an international career for nearly 10 years and 79 caps if you don't give a schit

Edited March 16, 2007 by Cobs

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

but he still did

 

that's the point

 

doesn't he say in his autobiography that he was a bit ambivalent towards England?

 

especially as he was Jamaican

[Paul]

Great clips, fantastic player.

 

If only he'd have run to the corner flag against the Arsenal in '89, we'd have 19 titles now.

[JonShar]

Great clips, fantastic player.

 

If only he'd have run to the corner flag against the Arsenal in '89, we'd have 19 titles now.

 

Or if Nicol had tackled him. Or if Brucie had saved it.

 

Stupid to blame it on Digger.

[intense enigma]

I don't care what others say but that side with Barnes, Beardsley, Aldridge, Hansen and co would out pass and out smart the Arsenal's invincibles anyday.

[smithdown]

That QPR game was one of the best days at Anfield I've ever had. Everyone could see a brand new era had started and it was all ours to be had again. The buzz around The Kop after THAT goal was incredible. The chanting of his name was as loud as its been for any player that day.

[Kindred]

One of my all time favourite players.

 

He always used to say that his greatest asset was balance - in that he could easily ride tackles and keep going the other side (which is almost frowned upon nowadays in the get-a-touch-and-go-to-ground-era!)

 

Regarding England, he maintained at the time, that the problem was Liverpool kept the ball and England didn't. For Liverpool half the time he would lay the ball off first time, doing nothing spectacular apart from playing his part within the team. With so many more touches of the ball within a game he was always bound to have more opportunities to do something special, whereas for England as soon as they got the ball it had to played forward and to have an attack at goal or lose possession. Also at that time all the non Liverpool press, largely, only got to see the highlights of Liverpool games and assumed he just did the special stuff all the time. He felt Chris Waddle suffered similarly.