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| LEGEND SPOTLIGHT A series of three special interviews featuring Liverpool legends who were good enough to spare us some of their time during the 2007 Soccer Sevens here in Hong Kong. John Barnes  The last in our series of Legends interviews at the 2007 Soccer Sevens features John Barnes. Digger spoke of having Steve Coppell as a role model, being a gangsta rapper and being stuck in a lift with a gorilla. No, really... So how does it feel to be back in Hong Kong? You were here a few years ago weren’t you? It feels very hot! Just like I remembered it! No, it’s fine. It’s always good to come. You see old friends. You have a good time. We get looked after very well. And everyone’s always welcoming. So it’s good to be back. How are you feeling after the Athens final? Well, I didn’t even see the game. I was on a plane coming here! That’s how committed I am to the cause! Have you had a chance to see the game since at all? Yes. It was disappointing. Liverpool had some chances. You could argue that they were the better team. But that’s football. They’ve done well to get there and now we have to look forward. That’s the great thing about football – no matter what happens, there’s always next season. So hopefully we can improve, particularly in the league. That’s what we want to do. So, I’m looking forward to next season. Which players do you see staying and going during the close-season? Well, I think Steven Gerrard will stay! Jamie Carragher! No, you can never tell. You can never tell. Because the thing with Liverpool is that they have lots of good squad players who are worth their place in the squad. Maybe not necessarily the starting eleven – but that’s what we have to improve. So, I don’t think there’ll be that many going because I think that [Benitez] will keep a lot of people who may play less games – because they’ll be there for the squad – and he’ll bring in some first team players, especially with the investment and the money now available. What Liverpool need to do is not bring in squad players any more. They need to bring in first-team players. So I don’t think there’ll be that many people leaving but I expect there’ll be three or four coming in. With regard to the type of player you were, Jermaine Pennant is probably the closest thing we’ve got to an out-and-out winger at the moment. Do you think the Premiership has become too athletic for the more skilful players? Well, I didn’t consider myself to be an out-and-out winger, that was the thing. I never used to hug the touchline. I used to come in-field – I was the top-scorer one year. Increasingly, those days are gone. Football has become much more tactical – you could argue much more technical – but the tactical side of football means now that you’d much rather have four midfield players and play some of your midfield players wide, rather than having wingers. Manchester United are probably the best team at that in terms of having Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo who can play wide but also come in off the line. Chelsea when they play 4-3-3 have two wide men. So, I think that not many teams now are playing with out-and-out wingers – which isn’t a problem because football moves on. Everything evolves and I’m not one to think that in my day it was better because we had wingers. I suppose back in the old days football was probably more attacking because you committed more players forward, you probably took more risks, you gave the ball away more because you were attacking whereas now, you look at the recent FA Cup final between Manchester United and Chelsea and see that teams keep the ball for three or four minutes at a time and they don’t really get forward that much or score many goals and attack with a lot of players. But that’s football. So forget about what went on in the past. This is now. Modern football has evolved into a much more tactical game and that’s where managers are much more important now in terms of earning their corn, if you like. Now look at Benitez, Mourinho. Ferguson has now brought in Quieroz who does a lot of [tactical work] and Wenger. These are now managers who determine the success of their teams, rather than the players. In terms of management and your own experience, would you fancy yourself against some of these guys now? Oh, I’d love the opportunity. I’d love to go back in. I’d love to go back in. And my model for football would be Steve Coppell. Steve Coppell? Really? Because you don’t need the best players to compete. Now obviously with the better players you have the better you can actually do. But for Reading to finish where they finished and if you look at the players Reading have and you say would any one of them get into [a top-four team, the answer would be] no but they’re competitive, they’re organized and if you can tactically organize your team you can be competitive. The higher up you go obviously the better players you have and the more you can achieve but Reading have been competitive against all of those teams in every game they’ve played home or away. So I would love to get back in, yeah. Would you see yourself in England as a manager or possibly… Oh no, I would love to manage in England. I mean, put it this way – if I get a job in England, it’s definitely not going to be in the Premier League because that doesn’t happen these days a) for English managers and b) for inexperienced managers. You’re going to have to start in the Championship, Second Division, wherever. So those days are over, in terms of the Kenny Dalglishes and Graeme Sounesses managing Liverpool and Glasgow Rangers. That’s not going to happen. But I mean, if you love football, that’s what you want to do. I’d be willing to do that. When you were growing up, who was your idol? Wolfgang Overath from West Germany. I grew up in Jamaica and my dad went to the Munich Olympics in ’72 and there he bought me my first pair of football boots, Adidas Gerd Muller. So I loved West German football and Wolfgang Overath, being left-footed and number 10, was my favourite player. Best player you’ve ever played with? Peter Beardsley, Ian Rush, Alan Hansen...take your pick! Any one of them. With England, Gazza or Bryan Robson. Who’s the worst player you’ve ever played with? Too many to mention! We haven’t got that long! Don’t be diplomatic! No, there are too many to mention! The thing about it is that, in all seriousness, there are no bad players. I’ve never played with bad players because you don’t play with bad players in [what was] the First Division. The clubs I’ve played for didn’t have bad players. Look at Jon Dahl Tomasson at Newcastle, for example. People didn’t give him an opportunity, the fans didn’t like him, so it didn’t work out. He went to AC Milan and won a championship medal. For some players, you have to find the right environment that suits them. If somewhere it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad player. You don’t go to these clubs if you’re a bad player. Even if you look bad and don’t play well there it just means that that club is not for you. But you in yourself are not bad. I’ve never played with bad players. I’ve played with players who maybe the way Liverpool played or the environment or whatever did not suit them but that doesn’t mean they’re bad players. In footballing terms, what would you consider to be your greatest achievement? Winning the league. There are always great accolades for winning the Player of the Year twice, the Players’ Player of the Year and things that you’ve done but the only way you can be successful as a footballer is if the team’s successful. And that’s the thing for managers. And that’s the thing for fans to recognise – the fact that as much as you have your individual heroes and individual players can be successful, they can’t get success without the club being successful. So, I always look at what the team has achieved first and if I have done well in that team then I’m happy. But the team being successful is the most important thing for me. And Liverpool winning the league was my greatest achievement. How far do you think this current Liverpool team is from winning the league? Well, they’re not that far but it’s like when Pele said [in 1982] that an African team would win the World Cup in the next 25 years. But they haven’t. When you look at the improvement African teams made to regularly qualify for the World Cup his thought was the progression would mean that in 25 years they could win it. [Despite] that progression in such a short space of time, it’s going to take them a much longer period of time to make that jump again. So while Liverpool is not far away, in terms of not being far, that last 5% or 2% is the hardest thing. And the consistency that they’ve shown in the Premier League leads me to believe that with the squad they have and the way they actually play they are quite a distance away. But obviously, new season coming, new players coming in, different strategy – then hopefully they’re not going to be far away. Obviously the squad is one aspect, but in terms of the manager is Benitez the man to win the league? Well I think he can if anyone can. But I think what he has to do is he has to differentiate between European football and league football. I think his philosophy on football, the way he actually plays, and his method suits European football. Completely. Whereas if you understand the nature of the league, the fans will not accept the way you play in Europe in the league. You are Liverpool, you are at home, you have to attack, you’ve got to get players forward. They accept that in European competition where it’s a one-off you have to defend and Liverpool have defended well against all the teams and caught them on the counter-attack, whatever and they’ve won. But with playing at home against Sheffield United and these teams, you have to be the aggressor, if you like. And that really is not a Benitez philosophy. And that’s not his method. So, I think that he has played the European type of football also in the league which doesn’t suit the league. Given the way his teams performed at Valencia, is he more limited by the players he’s got rather than his own philosophy on football? Well, a little bit of both I think. I think at Valencia he was always fighting against Barcelona and Real Madrid in terms of getting the quality of player but with his philosophy that was fine because the Valencia public accepted that way that Valencia played. The top scorer may have scored 12 or 13 goals a season, they didn’t score many goals and they won the league. Whereas the English league is different and the Liverpool public are different. It’s a bit both of him being hamstrung by a) the quality of player and b) in terms of his philosophy on football. Now for the important stuff. What was the last CD you bought? A Tupac compilation, I’m sure. Are you sure? That sounds far too cool. It wasn’t Kylie Minogue or anything? No! I’m a gangsta rapper! Favourite food? Chinese. What would you stick into Room 101? Er...nothing really. You’re far too nice a guy. There’s nothing! I mean, it’s all about perspective and [asking], “Are things bad?” They’re not bad – that’s the way I see them so I’m quite accepting! If you hadn’t have been a footballer, what would you have been? Igot offered a scholarship to Washington University. It was a football scholarship. So I’d have gone there and of course when you go there you’d have done a degree in something. I don’t know what! So I have not got a clue what I would have been doing! Because I’ve no interest in anything else. Apart from Kung Fu movies. So I could have been a Kung Fu movie actor! Paris Hilton or Scarlett Johansson? Scarlett Johansson. Who would you least like to be stuck in an elevator with? Er...(long pause)...Oooh, who don’t I like? Who don’t I like? A gorilla? Does that count? Or a bear or something? Or has it got to be a human being? Let’s go for a human being. You’re not in a lift in a zoo... Er...(another long pause)...Oooh. I don’t know. Imelda Marcos, maybe? I don’t know. No one. Three people you’d most like to invite to a dinner party? Jesus Christ, Mohammed and Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. Fair enough. It’d be a religious conversation, though? Well, spiritual rather than religious. Religion was created. They weren’t religious at the time. They were spiritual. But we created them into religious entities. You’d save on the booze... No, Jesus drinks wine! Yeah, that’s right! You wouldn’t run out either, would you... Final question – three things you’d take to a desert island? Water. My family, all of them. And McDonald’s! A McDonald’s store. John Barnes, thank you very much. I quite like McDonald’s... We’d never have guessed. We just thought it was a bulky shirt... |
| Features and Submissions Original writing by Club members Peter Thompson - On a Wing and a Slayer 50,000 and Counting! A Greek Odyssey! We welcome submissions from our members. Send your contribution to: info@hongkongreds.com The Big Red Quiz All the questions and answers from our previous quizzes Chelsea v Liverpool - 17.09.06 Everton v Liverpool - 09.09.06 Sheff Utd v Liverpool - 19.08.06 Supporter Spotlight Find out more about our members Roger Shuttleworth Jon Wharton Ken Abela Meko Oh Lily Lam Chin Ian Agass Jason Li Rob Kelly Simon Betterton David Thomas Legend Spotlight Interviews with LFC heroes Mark Walters Alan Kennedy John Barnes Steve McMahon Referee Spotlight Focusing on the men in the middle Mike Riley Hong Kong Reds Around the World Our members in glorious technicolour Kiki Hon |
