da leao： Leaving Watford in 1987 for the lofty climes of Anfield, Barnes was departing a club where he was a big fish in a small pond to one where he was one of many big fish – and expectation couldn’t be higher.
da fazobetai： Joining the likes of Peter Beardsley, John Aldridge and Ray Houghton, as well as Ian Rush within a year, Barnes joined not only a formidable Reds front line but a formidable team altogether – who had won four domestic league titles already in the 1980’s.
A £900,000 signing, worth many millions in today’s money, Barnes not only met the world-class standards expected of him, but exceeded them as he scored 61 goals in first six seasons – guiding Liverpool to two First Division titles and an FA Cup trophy in his first three years.
Speaking to FootballFanCast on behalf of Bonus Code Bets, Barnes recalls the dominant attacking quartet of which he was a part – while comparing them to Liverpool’s current crop of forwards who are trying to win the club’s first domestic title in 28 years:
“Ian Rush, Peter Beardsley and John Aldridge were all very quick very dynamic. Mane and Salah are very quick but they’re not as technical – not just in comparison with ourselves but with the current Arsenal front line or the Manchester City front line.”
“They score goals, but they’re not winning the league like we did .”
“Also you have to look over a period of time – our front three were consistent over seven to eight years – if Liverpool’s forwards continue to do this in five years then you can start comparing them.”
Mo Salah is the second-highest goalscorer in the Premier League this season with 23 goals, but Liverpool have conceded more goals than any other top four side and Barnes thinks the Reds need a more well-rounded blend between attack and defence to go to the next level:
“I’d much rather have a well-balanced team. Maybe they score fewer goals, maybe they concede more – because it doesn’t matter if Liverpool score 150 goals if they finish fourth.”
Barnes was a prolific England striker as well as an outstanding club player, with 79 caps and 11 goals to his name, including what has been dubbed as ‘England’s greatest ever goal’ against Brazil at the Maracana in 1984.
As with Liverpool, the Jamaican-born winger believes the attacking prowess that his England sides had at their disposal outstrips that of the modern day equivalent heading into this summer’s World Cup:
“Harry Kane is in absolutely wonderful form but is he in a team that’s going to be able to create enough chances to make England win the world cup?
“It’s a cup competition and you don’t know who you’re going to play, but if they get through the group and play against France chances are they are going to lose.”
“When you are a sportsman, that is not your life. You may love it because you love playing football, but that is not your life.”
Barnes also thinks that comparisons between Kane and the strikers of his generation are futile, despite Teddy Sheringham yesterday describing the record-breaking England forward as ‘world class’:
“We’re talking about the consistency of a player like Gary Lineker, who could do what Harry Kane is doing over a long period of time.
“Kane is in fine form but Lineker did it for 10-15 years, as did Alan Shearer.”
Attacking ability and world cup chances aside, Barnes also thinks that the style of play has substantially changed from his time as an England player:
“When I played as a winger for England, we went down the line and put crosses in.
“England don’t play like that anymore. Raheem Sterling doesn’t go down the wing like a winger, he cuts infield and he scores goals.
“Kyle Walker and Danny Rose probably put in more crosses than Sterling.”
Our conversation with the two-time PFA Player of the Year then takes a sharp turn, as we discuss the more philosophical aspects of life beyond football.
After hanging up his boots in 1999, and then the managerial whiteboard in 2009, Barnes has made the most of a number of TV opportunities in recent years – ranging from cameo guest appearances in BBC’s Waterloo Road, to punditry on ITV and ESPN and most recently as a housemate on Channel 5’s Celebrity Big Brother.
Barnes, though, thinks that carving a life outside of football is just as important when you are playing as it is when you have finished your career in the sport:
“When you are a sportsman, that is not your life. You may love it because you love playing football, but that is not your life.
“It’s important for me to have had a full life while football was going on. I knew that football would be over soon and I would become a normal member of society and do normal things, so I did normal things when I played.”
Part of being a normal member of society for Barnes means involving himself in politics, and the ex-Liverpool forward tries to look at political issues from the ground level.
The Kick It Out campaign, for example, has in recent years tried to remove racism from English football, but Barnes thinks race is a much wider issue which cannot be addressed by simply targeting problems within the sport:
“Until we get rid of racism in society we’ll never get rid of it in all walks of society of which football is one.
“Football bears the brunt of the responsibility but if you look at racist fans, they’re members of society before they are racist fans.”