“I come from Jamaica, my name is John Barn-es. When I do my thing, the crowd go bananas.”
So rapped the Liverpool winger on the seminal 1988 hit ‘The Anfield Rap’.
But such was the impact of Barnes having moved to Merseyside the previous year, nobody really needed informing of his identity. Not opposing fans. Not opposing players. Certainly not the Reds faithful.
And most definitely not his team-mates.
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“The best player I ever played with, bar none,” said Peter Beardsley. “For three or four years at the end of the 80s, John was possibly the best player in the world.”
It’s 35 years ago today that Barnes completed a £900,000 move from Watford. Along with Beardsley and John Aldridge, he would go on to form one of the most potent and devastating attacking trio in Liverpool’s illustrious history. Only the celebrated modern-day triumvirate of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane can seriously challenge for top slot.
Barnes was ahead of his time. And that he managed to shine brightest during an era when the Reds were sweeping all before them domestically speaks volumes of his talent. It blows the mind to imagine peak 'Digger' - that was his nickname - playing in this Jurgen Klopp side.
“For me he was one of the best three players ever to play for Liverpool, with Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard, which is high praise given the great players we’ve had,” says former Liverpool captain and assistant manager Phil Thompson.
Incredible to think, then, that many were unsure about the signing of Barnes. Yes, he’d famously scored in the Maracana and almost single-handedly kept England in the World Cup the year before with an explosive cameo from the bench against Argentina. But there were concerns over his consistency. Oh, and the small matter, in those less enlightened times, that he happened to be only the second black player in Liverpool’s history after Howard Gayle.
However, it didn’t take long for Barnes to justify his purchase – although he owed some of it to a collapsed sewer under the Kop.
That meant the Reds had to being the 1987/88 campaign with three away games. Barnes took only nine minutes on the opening day at Arsenal to cross for John Aldridge to score, and by the time Liverpool played their first home game against Oxford United, the Anfield faithful were desperate to see the new man. Barnes scored in a 2-0 win. He didn’t look back.
Barnes’ highlights from that season were numerous. The goal against then-leaders Queens Park Rangers - famously winning possession from Kevin Brock, as John Motson's commentary declared - one he regards the best of his career. Being told Steve Chettle would have him on toast in the FA Cup semi-final – then tearing the Nottingham Forest defender a new one as the Reds reached the final. Taking part in the 5-0 league demolition of Forest four days later that’s widely considered one of the best-ever Liverpool performances.
Barnes ended the season with a league title and the PFA Player of the Year and Footballer of the Year awards.
It says much about his influence that, despite the quality around, when Barnes was absent with a hamstring injury for a spell during the following campaign, Liverpool struggled. They recovered to win the FA Cup final against Everton – Barnes creating the winner for Ian Rush – but were denied a double by Arsenal.
This, though, was overshadowed by the Hillsborough disaster, with Barnes attending several funerals and visiting the injured in hospital. It underlined the bond the player had formed with the Merseyside area, where he still lives today.
Barnes then enjoyed possibly his best season, scoring 22 goals ostensibly from the left wing to top score as Liverpool again won the title and he was once more named Footballer of the Year. The goals continued the next season with 17 in 44 appearances – including a memorable strike in the 4-4 FA Cup draw at Everton – but Dalglish’s subsequent resignation signalled a change in fortunes.
The league was lost and, after being injured in the second game of the next season under new boss Graeme Souness, he was out for four months. Another injury meant he missed out on the FA Cup final win over Sunderland, but the real blow came when he snapped his Achilles tendon in June 1992 in Helsinki when on England duty. On his return to fitness, his electrifying pace had gone, much to the frustration of Souness.
Barnes, though, remained a regular, and when Roy Evans became boss in January 1994 he was eventually switched to a central midfield role from where he could dictate the play, winning the League Cup in 1995 before losing his place towards the end of the failed 1996/97 title campaign when Liverpool infamously finished fourth in a two-horse race. By the time Barnes left for Newcastle that summer, he had scored 108 goals in 407 appearances.
Every Liverpool fan has their own favourite Barnes memory, from the free-kick against Arsenal, his curling strike against Aston Villa, his Old Trafford brace, the backheel at Crewe Alexandra, his overhead kick at Blackburn Rovers, netting from almost the halfway line at Southampton and setting up Stan Collymore for THAT goal against Newcastle United.
“I’d still say that he was my favourite Liverpool player,” says former team-mate Jamie Redknapp.
“You speak with the players from those great Liverpool sides and ask them who the best player they played with was,” recalls Jamie Carragher. “They all say John Barnes.”
The final word, though, belongs to somebody who, while not a Liverpool player, had judgement that couldn’t be questioned. Said England great Tom Finney: “Players like John Barnes come along just once in a lifetime.”
Liverpool fans in the late 1980s and early 1990s were fortunate it happened to be during theirs.
A version of this story was first published on June 9 2016.
