I really don’t think any Liverpool supporter has the right to call out John Barnes for his opinions. He was a truly great player for our club and you should be more respectful, whether you agree with his views or not. All players from the 1960s onwards will have got paid more than the average person. Are you going to call out all those players as well?
The key point about football in this country before 1992 was that the income was shared with all 92 members of the Football League and this ended when the Premier League was formed. So, anybody going on Sky to defend the pyramid is a complete hypocrite.
In this context, John Barnes is fundamentally correct. The fans have won nothing and they will continue to be exploited by those people who were on the winning side in this battle between elites - ticket prices will increase, merchandising prices will increase, TV subscription prices will increase and games will continue to be scheduled at times and places to suit TV channels. Supporters views will not be considered by either side.
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Bosses generally don’t get their hands dirty giving the tasks to others who tend to be just as bad if not worst. The bosses then blame those they entrusted sith any failure and this was almighty embarrassing. I would have expected more rumbleings over this than I have seen. The lack of heads rolling indicates that the apologys have little meaning. A boss doesn’t sack himself but others. Don’t get me wrong I understand your POV all I am saying is I would have expected some movement on this, it’s the way to indicate that they have been humbled and I doubt very much that the bosses were those with the idea or those who did the ground work. The ground work was tottally insufficient normally someone gets blamed for that.
I agree with you and any other former player who comes out and slags off the very institution that allowed them to earn tens of thousands per week I’ll slag off too.
All I am saying is Barnes and any other ex pro are entitled to their opinion it’s just hard to hear somebody who has benefitted from the cash cow that is the premier league slag it off and say how the cash has ruined everything when he along with 100s of other professional footballer who was playing when the premier league started and became awash with cash helped create the problem
I’m really not sure John Barnes is a good example of a beneficiary of the increasing wages of the Premier League era, he finished playing by 1999 and most of that was with us and we were very slow off the mark bringing in the increased revenues and increasing the wages. Strange stance.
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I would prioritise United/Chelsea/Arsenal/City over a group game Vs RB Salzburg as well. So I don’t personally agree with the point that continuously playing big teams takes off the shine from those games.
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I think it is better to debate the issues rather than the person. Why have you singled out John Barnes and not any other ex-players who have appeared on the media in recent days to defend the current position? Many other players will have taken far more out of the game than John Barnes ever did.
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And he was well past the peak of his earning power by the time the riches really started rolling into the Premier League.
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Premier league players in 1992-1999 would have still earned huge sums of money.
It would have been a pittance compared to the contracts nowadays but still scandalous money compared to your average man in the street.
I am not too precious about it if I am being honest but hearing ex pro’s who themselves earned hundreds of thousands or millions from football (largely from the premier league) slag that system off is complete bollocks.
You telling me he wasn’t on what 10k per week?
Sounds small change in football now but in the 90s still massive
I’ve “singled out” John Barnes because a few posts up somebody posted a video of him slagging the premier league and the money involved off.
We all get it, we all agree but I don’t need to hear that of somebody who has accumulated hundreds of thousands/millions from that system.
Yet weren’t you happy hearing from Gary Neville when it suited over the Super League. Maybe someone who has had a glimpse behind the curtain is someone to listen to?
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I know people have throw all their ills on UEFA, and attached things not even mentioned by Perez on to this super league, but if you think any alternative is Perez then I’ve got some magic beans to sell you.
Firstly he seems to still believe it exists, secondary he then comes out and suggests exactly what UEFA have just proposed just with more slots for those who are highest on the co-efficient, like now effectively this is a choice or him or UEFA.
Finally he then lambasts the fans who turned up at Chelsea claiming they are “actors”, yup I’ve heard that rhetoric somewhere before.
I’m sorry but if this idea springs up again with him anywhere near it I’ll still be against it even if it was to remove every criticism I had.
The guys a cancer and who frankly cares if Madrid can’t bully Dortmund into selling Haaland, I think that sums up this idea in one quote.
Also he can’t wear a mask properly the Cnut.
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Also Nadal vs Federer, he does know why those games at Grand Slams are special and at the ATP finals, if those two players happen to play at the Rome Masters, the world wide viewing figures barely touch 4m.
Same with golf, the majors are the majors, you can create other tournaments but no one is saying the Texaco trophy is on par with the Masters even though it’s got a majority of the same players.
I can just imagine it being viewed in the same way as the world club cup if like the vast majority on here said they wouldn’t watch it. I don’t prioritise a Liverpool game against Madrid over anyone, I’d prioritise a Liverpool game that matters. I know it’s a mute point the Palace game before we won the title but I watched that, I hadn’t watched Liverpool before the first game back from lockdown since the Watford game, I had parents visiting, my partner with me and so on.
However I watched both games and then the Chelsea game because things were riding on them, and I would have made sure I could watch them. I’ll watch Newcastle at the weekend because we are fighting for top 4, if we lose I’ll probably watch the Man Utd match but then if we lose that and drop out of the race for Europe I’ll probably just stick text alerts on my phone.
Gary Neville and Carragher weren’t slagging off the PL. granted they were slagging off the Super League which again is Money Money but at least the PL was never a closed shop and void of competition.
So, you only attack ex-players if they speak out against the current power brokers but you are fine with the likes of Carragher and Neville because they defend the structures that they have benefited from? I have to say I find your reasoning hard to understand.
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“How are we supposed to sign Mbappe and Haaland without the super league”
I don’t wanna mention PSG and their money but Dortmund got Halaand without the super league.
Maybe Madrid should concentrate on scouting in small league rather than spending stupid sums of players like Hazard
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Let’s be honest we’ve been in the same boat as Dortmund with those two Spanish cnuts, only last week with the Salah stuff.
Guess he isn’t going there this summer.
Actually another point bar Golf and it’s not always, when do all the big teams play each other weekly in any sport, F1? Snooker? (But even then you can see the motivation of say Trump in the world championship and his motivation in the Malta Masters) The way the CL throws up draws you often get one or two ties of the round, they similarly usually have little riding on them because both teams are drawn in a group with poorer sides (then again we seem to always draw the up and coming sides).
In fact I’m wondering with the remaining 5 sides plus some really odd sides that you just wouldn’t get the same situation.
You are unlikely to have both Barca and Madrid in your group, same goes for Italy and you’d get three English teams (a reason why I expected you wouldn’t see any further English sides in it). So the Madrid game might come up twice or Barca and a nice tie against Juve or Inter but then you’d be mostly playing what you were playing on a Saturday and other teams you’d face anyhow.
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Towards the end of his career he was probably on about that but not for the majority of his career.
I remember John Fashenu talking about what he was earning around 88/90.His club were paying him about a grand a week which wasn’t hugh but he negotiated his contract himself where he could get paid on goals he scored, if they were winning goals etc. He ended up averaging about 3 grand a week and he was more than happy as most players weren’t on that much at the time.
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Watch the John Barnes interview.
Quite frankly being told “the premier league has ruined the game, ruined the pyramid, ruined grassroots” by somebody who has taken hundreds of thousands out of the game and therefore helped get us to this position is not something I think football fans want to hear.
Maybe I am wrong maybe we can get a load of ex professional who are now millionaires talk about how bad the money has been for the PL.
Again not just picking on John Barnes, the blokes a legend and I agree with all he says, just a bit odd that’s his views when he benefited from it
Ye but wouldn’t you like to “only get paid a grand a week”.
I know I would
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