IS THIS MAN LIVERPOOL’S LAST HOPE?
Anfield fans banking on Barnes, but his son is praying for City!
ASHLEY BARNES is an unlikely kingmaker in the Premier League title race. The rough and ready Burnley forward learned his trade in non-League football and has been hailed as king of the wind-up after getting under Chelsea’s skin, scoring the equaliser in Monday night’s 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Yet Barnes is the man all Liverpool fans are pinning their hopes on now. They need Manchester City to drop points in one of their remaining games in order to be champions and have identified today’s trip to Turf Moor as the likeliest bananaskin.
Thousands of Koppites have been changing their profile pictures on social media to feature Barnes, who has an outstanding record of scoring against the Big Six.
The 29-year-old has also been inundated with messages from friends who are Liverpool fans. In contrast, his seven-year-old son Flynn is a big City fan and will be cheering his favourite team rather than his dad when he attends the match this afternoon.
‘I know what winning the League means,’ says Barnes. ‘All of us would go down in Liverpool history if we helped them out against City.’
And he adds mischievously: ‘Jurgen Klopp has even sent a sly text to say if I score he might sign me for next season.
‘I’m aware of the profile pic thing, it’s part of the craic. But Flynn isn’t happy. I’m telling him I’ve got to do my job against City and he’s like “Come on Dad, serious”. He won’t be supporting Burnley that’s for sure. He will probably try to wear a City kit underneath his Burnley one. He loves all their players and Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane are probably his favourites. I don’t think I am his favourite at the moment. He is City mad and if I score he’ll be kicking me after the game.’ Barnes could well score. Though best known for antics including laughing at Chelsea’s Mateo Kovacic and twice kissing Cardiff City defender Joe Bennett, he is a formidable technician and has scored goals against all the Premier League’s Big Six, one of only two players to manage that for the same club, since he signed for Burnley in 2014. ‘I can definitely play — I am not just that battering ram or Kevin Davies-type style player that people say I am,’ he says. ‘I am a lot better than that technically and I do back myself so much. But I also give it my all and leave everything on the pitch. Everyone sees I am a strong, physical kind of guy and I won’t come away from that. I don’t take no prisoners, even in training. I do like to wind up the big teams, and sometimes they fall for it, sometimes not. Of course I enjoy playing the villain. They’re 10 times better than you on the pitch so you’ve got to try and bring them down, or try some tactic to get the upper hand.
‘It didn’t work against Liverpool with Virgil van Dijk, though, he was just way too strong and powerful and I couldn’t get near him. The guy is a machine and completely deserves Player of the Year.’
Raised in the West Country, he spent his teenage years on loan from Plymouth at football outposts such as Salisbury, Eastbourne and Torquay.
He was nearly 21 when he achieved his breakthrough move to Brighton and then moved on to Burnley where he’s become the club’s record Premier League goalscorer.
Success hasn’t changed his personality. He and team-mate Ashley Westwood have bought a Viano minibus and they drive the other Burnley players who live in south Manchester into training every day.
‘We all chip in for petrol, all pay our fair share. If you need a lift to the airport, give us a ring,’ he laughs. ‘I’ve come up the Jamie Vardy way from non-League and the lower divisions so I appreciate it that bit more. I always said I wanted to reach the top and I have done that.’
From stepping on toes, literally, to running the ball into the corner, Barnes will try every trick against the millionaire superstars of City today.
Already a Burnley legend, today he may only be a goal away from becoming a Liverpool one as well.