He was out of contract with Watford. Had he been in contract, the fee would have been considerably more.
The record fee at this time was Ruud Gullit at £6million, Maradona had been £5million a couple of years previously. At that time, the big money moves had involved Italian sides.
I’m guessing that an in-contract Barnes would have cost between 2-3million. Of course, this was all pre-Bosman. Today, he would have signed for free.
Really depressing all this doom and gloom…watching Rival fans and pundits mock us across YouTube and media …Just need to arrest this slide and things will be up again.
So posting something positive to look for…as all this “we are not good in anything” and over analysis of every small detail just seems hyperbolized at this stage of the season. Not even 10 games in yet !!!
So, Here’s something positive to still look forward to… especially for those already writing off this season.
We have 15 points from 9 games. Let’s suppose the target is 90 points this season.
We need what…like 75 points more from 29 games remaining.
which means it’s definitely achievable, with 87 points still to play for, we can afford to lose 12 points and still get the target of 90 points.
So, we can still afford like either of :
(90 points - best case scenario)
4 defeats - united(away), city(away), arsenal(away) and toffees(away)
(89 points - acceptable)
3 defeats and 2 draws - lose at united(away), city(away), arsenal(away) and draw to toffees(away), chelsea(home)
(87 points - worst case scenario)
3 defeats and 3 draws - lose at united(away), city(away), arsenal(away) and draw to toffees(away), chelsea(home) ,spurs(away)
So, it’s not all is lost and we can still salvage this season with a bit of grit and hard work 
.
Let’s back this group of players collectively…They need us …Come on Redmen !!!
He was largely viewed as a mercurial talent who couldn’t be trusted. See Robson not using him in 86 until we needed a Hail Mary to salvage the qf game. It was an attitude likely as much down to racist attitudes as any real football evaluation, But Kenny was viewed to be taking a bit of a risk. Fergie had previously been given the inside lane on signing him by Taylor, who’d told him Barnes was the player he could his new team around and fergie famously turned it down because he already had better players.
Barnes’ start at Liverpool was so impressive and instantly successful that everyone pretended they never doubted him or Kenny, but all the happened was the stupid “why doesn’t he do that [the Maracana goal] every week? He’s got an attitude problem” stuff he’d dealt with at Watford turned into “Why does he only do that for Liverpool”
Reagardless, the fee was unremarkable. The Million pound barrier had broken nearly a decade earlier and lots of players had moved for values above that in the interim. As a frame of reference utd payed 1.5 for Robson in 81 I think having paid only a fraction less for Birtles a year or two earlier
We just did that in our last four games.
It’s better not watching them but I have seen a lot of posts seem to over analyse.
Michael Laudrup was a real shame to miss. He would have been brilliant at Liverpool. From memory I think it fell down over the length of deal, he wanted 3 years we wanted 4, something like that.
Yep the Barnes fee was solid, but the same summer we signed Beardsley for more than double in a record transfer. Beardsley was a smashing player but few reds would say he was better than Barnes.
Bobby Robson was a statesman of the game, and he came across as an all round good bloke, but he wouldn’t be the first or last England manager to not play some of his best players.
I remember in 1986 screaming at the TV for Barnes to come on sooner. When Robson eventually put him on a switch was flicked and all of a sudden England looked so much more threatening, and Barnes was close to retrieving it. I think with a bit more time he would have done, but obviously we’ll never know that.
Just a note on the injuries…I hope Frimpong isn’t a sicknote player…or is he just unlucky.
It was definitely an unlucky situation where he picked up the initial niggle at a difficult time for us and we kind of forced him into making it worse.
He was our only fit RB In the first game and he complained of tightness at half time seemingly not used to the number of sprints that was required of him. Bradley was not fit and Gomez’s fitness meant he didn’t have more than about 20 mins in him so they asked him go again but be sensible about spending energy to get forward but tweaked it shortly anyway.
Maybe united fans have been in over last 2 weeks? Im sure they have some good stuff in here for them , might of even quoted some of you! Like we have over the last 2 years Quoting heads falling off , its puke
Babies
Quoted Roy keane
What?
Have you read any previous posts I have put in regards to this game and why I agreed with the selection?
I have made all the points you have put and was probably the 1st to mention all the injuries we have had!
In previous rounds apart from when we were in the Club World cup in Qatar, Klopp and Arne have had some 1st teamers on the bench, but again i understood why he didn’t in this game.
So you are barking up the wrong tree by quoting my post.l
As I said I can understand match paying fans being irked and why if I had travelled all that way, how I may have felt.
Resting the players was right but a result today is massive otherwise, for many, it will feerd their Ire even more.
So before you go on the attack check someones posts in regards to their stance or follow topics!
I’m replying to the point about the hypothetical fan.
Such a fan who’s dedicated enough to make the antipodean journey should know that an early-round League Cup game is always going to feature such a team.
I didn’t say that you personally felt that way, apologies if that’s how it came across.
As a fan travelling that far, you would ‘normally’ expect at least a few of the stars to be on the bench.
Edit, so why go on about other points that I have labored to other posters and in several threads.
Really? I’m fairly certain that’s not a given, especially when we have a few injuries.
I can understand why a casual looking to get a cheap ticket to Anfield to see Salah and other “big names” might be upset, but I’m not sure a fan dedicated enough to make that trip would expect to see many first team regulars, if any.
I have no idea what you mean by this, but frankly I’m not going to bother. I didn’t come here to pick a fight with you, I was just commenting because I keep seeing the recurring sentiment that some “fans” (what sticks in my head is someone’s post about someone writing into one of the BBC live pages or whatever it is commenting about it) that the lineup was a disgrace.
I’ve only popped in here to skim how bad the atmosphere is, won’t be staying long.
And yet you keep coming back?
Its a bit toxic at the moment, I’ll give you that…but if its as bad as you alluded to earlier, then you won’t ever return.
See you in a few days or weeks.
Miss you
Yeah truth be told I actually came back to see what the situation in Ukraine was like, then I read about the ongoing genocides (shoutout to @Magnus for keeping us informed, the main reason I come back really), then the masochist in me thought I might skim the football threads.
I say “thought”, but it was a feeling, a whim, one which I wonder why I indulged. I gotta say though, I was too curious about the munt cuppets.
“I live by the mantra: if you don’t have something kind or constructive to say, it’s better to say nothing at all.” In regards to Slot, I made up my mind months ago. But will continue to support team and Him as long as he stays in charge.
Tactically, as with his many half-time tweaks last season that got us over the line, I think AS must be quite astute with his knowledge of the game.
That said, I am hoping he is also astute with his motivational, man-management skills…
Looking at the team sheet for the Villa game, I’m confused with Wirtz being side-lined again for a game we really need to take all 3points from… We do have RM in midweek which might be a major factor though. Anyway, will be interesting to see how the forthcoming weeks pan out regarding the team selections, and just hope, the confidence and self-belief Wirtz had when he arrived, isn’t being slowly eroded
What a différence 90 minutes make, eh? 
Not perfect but better from us. Defended with determination at the end however at 2-0 a couple of times we shouldn’t have overcommit.