Barnes

[Capt. Pants 4,246]

1 hour ago, canarybubbles said:

He was signed to provide experience and guidance to our young players, not to teach them how to get into fights and wrestle opponents to the ground. In theory he is there to teach players like Sainz not to be stupid and lose their head, but then behaves even more stupidly than they do and effectively condones their behaviour by example. He turns the second half of yesterday's game into a war, which did nothing to help our chances of getting something out of the game. He is a technically limited, unintelligent, third-rate thug who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near our promising youngsters, and probably not our first team either. That we are reduced to signing someone like him shows how much our club has declined over the past two and a half years.

Not sure he is a 'thug' as such, just a bit thick. Typical footballer. The game has moved on and players like Barnes no longer thrive at top level and I'll include the Championship in that. It just seems so strange that NCFC went for a player of his ilk when you consider the nature of the infrastructure we have developed at Colney. Players like Rowe, Sargent and Idah must think 'just get out the way and let me play'. If we have younger players that need to be trained into 'thugs' and taught sh1thousery then the future doesn't look very bright imo.

[kenfoggo 247]

My personal opinion is that Barnes brings absolutely nothing to the side. Nothing. He is two yards too slow and half a brain short of professional. What was he thinking against Millwall ? Brawling on the pitch like a drunk in a pub car park? His legs will not allow him to be a target man up front where lots of running is required, he is 34 years old. 34! What was the Club thinking of signing him ? For two years! For a salary of a reported £30,000 per week (£1,560,000 per year). Outrageous!

[Olano 100]

I don't think there are clubs out there that will sign players like

 

Barnes, Duffy, Long, Hanley, Stacey, Batth, Fassnacht, Onel and Forshaw on the same salary as we are. 

 

I do like Giannulis but have a feeling there is no club outside Russia that wants to give him the same wages thet we are

 

I would love to see Placheta at Bodø/Glimt, have a strange feeling Knutsen would find a great player in there 

 

[RobJames 881]

2 hours ago, canarybubbles said:

That we are reduced to signing someone like him shows how much our club has declined over the past two and a half years.

No, it shows what happens when you face parachute payments ending

[JamieNorfolk 62]

9 hours ago, Capt. Pants said:

Legs have gone; can't run can't jump. Seems to have one or two issues going on in his head as well.

Needs time away from the first team squad to reflect and get fit or get out.

I agree with this, I also think he's incredibly boring to watch. 

[horsefly 4,301]

Drop Barnes. Sara at 10. Kenny in midfield. Hanley left centre back.

[The Real Buh 3,444]

Just now, horsefly said:

Drop Barnes. Sara at 10. Kenny in midfield. Hanley left centre back.

Just like the current foreign secretary, amiright, eh?

guys? Guys? Come back guys!

#SundayPolitics

[Making Plans 936]

Never should have bought him.

Complete waste of time and can't hit a barn door from 6 yards.

Yet another of the so called "experienced" signings last summer that many on here said they were exactly the type of player we needed to quickly propel back to the PL.

Jesus, imagine this lot in the PL next season. Laughable.

Barnes, Stacey, Batth, Duffy, Forshaw - they are all totally usless.

Our recent recruitment strategy obviously has "if they're warm and breathing" as the number one priority and anything after that is regarded a bonus.

Not sure why so many fans (circa 80% I believe) continue to believe, and buy into, the utter **** put out by our Club.

It's tragic.

[Ken Hairy 3,773]

3 hours ago, Creedence Clearwater Couto said:

Why pay up his contract and release him? He’s far more use to us than that! 

Give him a break. Some of the comments about him are shocking. 

Not only is he miles past his sell by date, he's also a dreadful example to the younger players. Doing far more harm than good,  get him gone. 

[Creedence Clearwater Couto 1,286]

2 hours ago, Ken Hairy said:

Not only is he miles past his sell by date, he's also a dreadful example to the younger players. Doing far more harm than good,  get him gone. 

Not true. He was on form at the start of the season, on the back of a fine season last year. He’s never really had a long term injury, until this year with us (surprise, surprise), and I think he’s struggling to get fitness and form back. 

Yes he’s 34. But you don’t become rubbish over night.. and back in August and September he was far from that! 

 

[daly 504]

11 hours ago, Midlands Yellow said:

Him and Hugill would have been a good partnership. 

We’d be in Div 2 at best

[daly 504]

5 hours ago, Creedence Clearwater Couto said:

Why pay up his contract and release him? He’s far more use to us than that! 

Give him a break. Some of the comments about him are shocking. 

He’s your local thug but on a football pitch

[Petriix 2,839]

I'm not a fan of Barnes and thought his signing had striking parallels with Naismith's in that they were both no longer capable of playing at the required level at the point they arrived. Exactly the wrong kind of signing for what we were trying to achieve in the medium term.

I'll accept that his early performances exceeded my expectations and I'm sure that his... let's call it 'enthusiasm' has (or had) a positive impact on the team. However he's very much reverted to what I imagined he would be like with his attitude seemingly quite negative. He seems to want to be afforded a kind of cult hero status without having actually done anything to deserve it.

The biggest concern for me is that his presence in the team is totally unbalancing us by making us too top-heavy while not really offering enough threat to cause our opponents any problems. He doesn't hold the ball up well, nor does he pull defenders out of position to create space for his teammates. I'd much prefer playing with a deeper 10 to give us that crucial extra body in midfield. 

[Fen Canary 829]

5 hours ago, daly said:

We’d be in Div 2 at best

Which i is a something we’ve missed for a long time

[canarybubbles 1,923]

For me, he is everything that was wrong about last summer's recruitment (with the exception of Sainz): old, slow, lacking in technical ability, limited in vision, admirably committed but far from bright, a willing workhorse but little else, a classic mid-table Championship hoofer for what has rapidly become a classic mid-table Championship team.

If Wagner had much say in the recruitment, he should be taken to court under the trades description act: he talks a high-energy pressing game based on physical fitness and buys a load of old cloggers for a 46-game season which often involves three games in a week. If he didn't have much say and it was all Webber's doing, I wouldn't be surprised. Thank God he is out of the door and cannot do any more harm to our club. Sadly, the harm he has done will take a long time to reverse.

[Sufyellow 222]

14 hours ago, Ken Hairy said:

Not only is he miles past his sell by date, he's also a dreadful example to the younger players. Doing far more harm than good,  get him gone. 

Gone where? He is ours for another season and a half. 

[Number9 272]

12 hours ago, daly said:

We’d be in Div 2 at best

We are in Div 2

[Sufyellow 222]

12 hours ago, Creedence Clearwater Couto said:

Not true. He was on form at the start of the season, on the back of a fine season last year. He’s never really had a long term injury, until this year with us (surprise, surprise), and I think he’s struggling to get fitness and form back. 

Yes he’s 34. But you don’t become rubbish over night.. and back in August and September he was far from that! 

 

The problem isn't barnes being on form , he hasn't changed from the beginning of the season,  he doesn't score goals he relies on lots of goal scorers around him , that will be Sargent and Rowe. Without them and the same at Burnley he is a very average player. 

[Creedence Clearwater Couto 1,286]

47 minutes ago, Sufyellow said:

The problem isn't barnes being on form , he hasn't changed from the beginning of the season,  he doesn't score goals he relies on lots of goal scorers around him , that will be Sargent and Rowe. Without them and the same at Burnley he is a very average player. 

Agreed, in that Barnes is a player that fits a team rather than leads one. Sargent and Barnes worked.. let’s see what happens when that partnership is restored before being overly critical.

I also heard a stat prior to Millwall, that our points per game is significantly higher with Barnes in the team. 

[Sufyellow 222]

4 minutes ago, Creedence Clearwater Couto said:

Agreed, in that Barnes is a player that fits a team rather than leads one. Sargent and Barnes worked.. let’s see what happens when that partnership is restored before being overly critical.

I also heard a stat prior to Millwall, that our points per game is significantly higher with Barnes in the team. 

That's Great,  but I said Rowe as well, and that makes barnes a luxury player when the 3 aren't playing or the other 2 are not on form.  But we knew what we were signing so barnes can't be blamed. 

[Creedence Clearwater Couto 1,286]

5 minutes ago, Sufyellow said:

That's Great,  but I said Rowe as well, and that makes barnes a luxury player when the 3 aren't playing or the other 2 are not on form.  But we knew what we were signing so barnes can't be blamed. 

Can’t agree re Rowe. Barnes will improve when Sargent is back. Rowe, Fassnacht, Sainz, aren’t the missing link like Sarge is.

[Sufyellow 222]

4 minutes ago, Creedence Clearwater Couto said:

Can’t agree re Rowe. Barnes will improve when Sargent is back. Rowe, Fassnacht, Sainz, aren’t the missing link like Sarge is.

As I said players have to score goals round him , he doesn't score them,  if you think Sargent can score all the goals on his own then great , that isn't what happened at the start of the season,  it was Rowe. Its like Emi, pukki, Cantwel, one missing and its nowhere near as good. 

[Canarywary 106]

There really is some excessively negative dross on this board sometimes. Some people are commenting on him like he stole all their Christmas presents or something. Let's be honest, how much are our midfielders offering our strikers at the moment? Who is realistically expecting Barnes to have banged in goal after goal since he came back from injury with this service? Give him a break. And people slagging him off for getting wound-up by a Millwall team literally elbowing him then persistently surrounding him like jackals. Which team do you actually support?

[Worthy Nigelton 1,051]

His form is bad no doubt, but he's being asked to play too many minutes immediately after being out injured for ages. He needs taking out of the starting eleven and resting for a few games. If he then comes back and is useless, get rid, but I'd like to see him reintroduced correctly and with Sargent also in the team with him.

[kenfoggo 247]

Please stop making excuses for Barnes being over the hill. He is 34,  legs have gone,  desire has gone , fluffs almost every chance he gets and is a poor example to any aspiring striker. Millwall should have been his last appearance for Norwich City.

[kingsway 94]

Barnes is no doubt past his best and his legs have gone but then again his career hasn't been based on being quick or for being a prolific goalscorer! - Plus add in the fact Norwich don't out a lot of crosses into the box which are Barnes' bread and butter doesn't help.

 

That said he does a lot of dirty, niggly stuff that doesn't always get noticed and his niggly aggression makes its hard for defenders at times. Norwich have more often than not in recent times been very soft and lightweight so I can see where signing him has helped.

 

He should have been sent off the other night and isn't in a good run of form, like the team, but hes not a lost cause by any means and can and already has made a contribution to the team during his contract period. 

Edited December 31, 2023 by kingsway

[lake district canary 4,533]

I do hope some of you will eat your words when he strikes form. He is not past it. His legs haven't gone. He hasn't lost the desire. He simply needs to be in a team that is functioning well.

A team with him, Sargent, Sainz and Rowe in would help. Hasn't happened yet (I don't think), but when it does, we will see much more what he has to offer. 

 

Edited December 31, 2023 by lake district canary

[Ken Hairy 3,773]

3 hours ago, Sufyellow said:

Gone where? He is ours for another season and a half. 

Don't care where, rip up his contract 

[norfolkngood 1,087]

18 hours ago, Olano said:

 

 

I would love to see Placheta at Bodø/Glimt, have a strange feeling Knutsen would find a great player in there 

 

i would like Knutsen here to make Placheta and others Great players 

[yellowrider120 764]

1 hour ago, kenfoggo said:

Please stop making excuses for Barnes being over the hill. He is 34,  legs have gone,  desire has gone , fluffs almost every chance he gets and is a poor example to any aspiring striker. Millwall should have been his last appearance for Norwich City.

Agreed - his form does not merit a starting place and he has neither pace nor aerial threat to come off the bench. It was a dud signing.