Liverpool Legend John Barnes Speaks!

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John Barnes tells Liverpool fans: Forget a top-two finish

By Administrator on Aug 7, 08 11:18 PM in Journalists

John Barnes believes Liverpool will still struggle to challenge for the Premier League title this season despite "the signing of the summer" - Robbie Keane.

Rafael Benitez completed the signing of Keane from Tottenham last Monday, for a fee which could rise to more than £20million.

The Republic of Ireland striker will spend the next four years at Anfield and will hope to repeat the success he enjoyed at White Hart Lane, where he scored 80 Premier League goals in 158 starts.
Benitez pulled off what was arguably the transfer of last summer when he persuaded Fernando Torres to part ways with Atletico Madrid, the club he had played for since he was a youth.

The Spanish international repaid the faith Benitez had shown in him by finishing his first season in England's top flight as second top goalscorer with 24 goals, second only to Cristiano Ronaldo.
Barnes, who scored 84 goals in 316 games during his 10-year spell at the Merseyside club, hopes Keane can repeat Torres' scoring feat next season.

The former England international told PA Sport: "Robbie Keane is the best signing the club could have made. Anyone would want him in their team, he's the signing of the summer."
Despite an impressive first season from Torres last year, Liverpool's other strikers struggled in front of goal.

The Spaniard's fellow strikers - Dirk Kuyt, Andriy Voronin and Peter Crouch - could only manage 13 league goals between them.

Steven Gerrard weighed in with 11 league goals to ensure Liverpool finished fourth in the Premier League, earning them another crack at the Champions League.

Former Celtic manager Barnes said he was sure that Keane would succeed where Kuyt, Voronin and Crouch had failed.

He also said Keane's signing would reduce the pressure on Gerrard and help balance the side by pushing the Liverpool captain back into his familiar midfield role.

Barnes explained: "Liverpool needed a striker so that Steven Gerrard could go back in his favourite midfield position.

"We needed a creative and a hard-working forward who can link midfield and attack and Robbie Keane is perfect for that role," he said.

Barnes said that despite Keane's arrival, Liverpool would not be able to finish in the top two this season.

He continued: "I'm confident they'll do well but I don't think they'll win the league.

"I think they are closer to the top but it will still be between Manchester United and Chelsea, they are the favourites.

"At one point we were 30-odd points off the top but last season they were only 11 off.

"I think you can't expect Liverpool to just jump up there all of a sudden like the fans think they can do.

"You have to be realistic and I think getting closer to the top and finishing third would be a success."

Barnes added that he would like to see Liverpool owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks give Benitez a more money and sign at least one more player before the start of the season.

"You always want to see more investment in the club and I'm no different. We'll just have to wait and see.

"I'd like to see Gareth Barry at Liverpool. He's a good player but signing Keane was more important.

"We needed a second striker but Barry is a good holding midfielder so he would be the icing on the cake."

Barnes was speaking ahead of an England v Germany legends match at Sheffield United's ground, Bramall Lane, in aid of the people of Sichuan, the area of China devastated by a massive earthquake in May.
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The Keane/Barry comments are interesting.

I would love for the lads to ignore the bulk of the comments. We can win the League.

That's garbage.  Favorites don't mean anything....we certainly haven't been favorites in 2005 champions league or 06 F.A. ,  I think this is an embarrassment.

John has is opinion and he knows his football but at the end of the day it's only an opinion. He also knows that the first title this team gets will be the hardest and as Chelsea and MU have done it for the last 5 years they know what to expect but where I differ from Barnsey is if we buy Barry and have the little luck that's needed we will be in with a shout. Last season we came a lot closer than it looked and when you Analise the season our biggest hurdle was MU and if we had won both games against them we would have been champions and if we had won 5 of our draws we would again have come close. A lot of if's but games are won on the small details so I am led to believe and if that's the case we have a manager who prides himself on small details and so there is no reason on this earth why we cannot win the title this season.......

You can understand where he's coming from in that at least if we were involved in the scrap and closer than last season that it would be an improvement.

Nobody ran away with the league last season, the winning points total wasn't as big as it had been in recent years, and we were still 11 points off.

Still, I hope he's wrong.

Im sure we all hope he is wrong.

I think we can win this year we came fourth last season because of too many silly games drawn against teams we should have beaten.
We lost less games than the scum, our attack looks really good this year with so many options, i think we in with a big shout this year.

Get some F***ing hope in the club! Stop being analysts and support the F***ing club that made you who you are today.

Sick of this sh*t. The only person you see who still sticks up for the club is Phil Thompson. He actually shows emotion when Liverpool are involved and is first to defend us.

YNWA ring a bell? You'll NEVER walk alone, not you'll partially be apart of our club!

Get some F***ing hope in the club! Stop being analysts and support the F***ing club that made you who you are today.

Sick of this sh*t. The only person you see who still sticks up for the club is Phil Thompson. He actually shows emotion when Liverpool are involved and is first to defend us.

YNWA ring a bell? You'll NEVER walk alone, not you'll partially be apart of our club!

Well said mate , YNWA.

I don't know of any other club where their old players dismiss the clubs chances of success before a ball has been kicked.
If anything this will knock a players morale, for gods sake, get behind your old team, like the fans have done through thick and thin and beleive, if not f##k off and shut up.
"Third would be a success", which world are you living in? only 'cos it delivers a CL place, if it did not then 3rd would be 3rd. We want first and we will strive to get 1st, and when we get it we will strive to keep it.

Get some F***ing hope in the club! Stop being analysts and support the F***ing club that made you who you are today.

Sick of this sh*t. The only person you see who still sticks up for the club is Phil Thompson. He actually shows emotion when Liverpool are involved and is first to defend us.

YNWA ring a bell? You'll NEVER walk alone, not you'll partially be apart of our club!

Calm down lad!!!..

So what your saying is that he should lie about his opinion, create huge expectations and contribute to the sacking of Raffa if we don't win the league?
He like myself share the idea that were never completely out of it and have a slight chance of winning the prem but are more than likely going to improve and get closer..
I don't see that as being negative, i simply see it as being realistic.
I think Raffa has bought for the future and layed down some strong foundations which will eventually pay off.
A few fans think were a couple of quality signings away and i agree, but i believe we have those players already in our squad and when they blossom into world class players is when we'll make our assault AND stay at the top for a while..

I understand the philosophy behind the way of thinking that you'll never win anything unless you believe you can, but that's for the players to think that way.

I don't believe people should question Barnes's love for the club just because he thinks we'll improve but not win THIS season..
Don't put him in the category of other ex legends who have publicly undermined Raffa's ability, signings and size of cahoon's because i feel Barnes isn't being overly negative at all..

Calm down lad!!!..

So what your saying is that he should lie about his opinion, create huge expectations and contribute to the sacking of Raffa if we don't win the league?
He like myself share the idea that were never completely out of it and have a slight chance of winning the prem but are more than likely going to improve and get closer..
I don't see that as being negative, I simply see it as being realistic.
I think Raffa has bought for the future and layed down some strong foundations which will eventually pay off.
A few fans think were a couple of quality signings away and I agree, but I believe we have those players already in our squad and when they blossom into world class players is when we'll make our assault AND stay at the top for a while..

I understand the philosophy behind the way of thinking that you'll never win anything unless you believe you can, but that's for the players to think that way.

I don't believe people should question Barnes's love for the club just because he thinks we'll improve but not win THIS season..
Don't put him in the category of other ex legends who have publicly undermined Raffa's ability, signings and size of cahoon's because I feel Barnes isn't being overly negative at all..

Having former player after former player after former player coming in and giving their 2 bob worth on how we wont win the league is not giving our chances any hope.

Sometimes you just have to look past being realistic and say, we can do this. Istanbul ring a bell? Being realistic would have been, 'sh*t, just go out and enjoy this night coz we are going to lose' but the team and Rafa looked past that and we performed the comeback of comebacks. Its what we do, do it the hard way. Arsenal in the CL last season, FA Cup v WHAM and of course Istanbul along with Athens where we gave Milan a scare late on.

Be positive about our chances of bringing it home, we can do it. Support is what we need, look at the reports from our players where they say the support lifts them to bring it home. Being realistic about some things is all well and good but this is a very important season.

If losing our record to Scum is not big enough reason to win it this season, i dont know what is.

Having former player after former player after former player coming in and giving their 2 bob worth on how we wont win the league is not giving our chances any hope.

Sometimes you just have to look past being realistic and say, we can do this. Istanbul ring a bell? Being realistic would have been, 'sh*t, just go out and enjoy this night coz we are going to lose' but the team and Rafa looked past that and we performed the comeback of comebacks. Its what we do, do it the hard way. Arsenal in the CL last season, FA Cup v WHAM and of course Istanbul along with Athens where we gave Milan a scare late on.

Be positive about our chances of bringing it home, we can do it. Support is what we need, look at the reports from our players where they say the support lifts them to bring it home. Being realistic about some things is all well and good but this is a very important season.

If losing our record to Scum is not big enough reason to win it this season, I dont know what is.

What!

You also have to be a realist and look at the facts - which is what Barnes has done.

We've not proved we can compete in the Prem over the long distance - that's the facts.  Until this side proves different,then we have to be scepticle of our chances.

Every season - we say,this is our season and it never happens.

Remember.  The Mancs and Chavs will be stronger this season - so nothing is guranteed.  We can be positive, but don't think Istanbul means anything when it comes to the Prem Title!

i hope all of the players do actually read everything hes said!because if i was one of the players ore staff i would now be using his comments as motivation to prove him wrong!
i am a bit upset by what hes said but i don't see why we cant challenge for the title.i think our biggest problem is our record against the three teams above us.if you look back and see how unlucky we were against Chelsea in anfield with the penalty,arsenal equalising against us late on(without nando)and man u taking their only chance in the game against us!if we could take two wins out of those games would be a massive psychologicall boost!especially if its against man u as early as our fourth game of the season!
with Kean & torres up front next season,two match winners & a bit of luck i don't see why we cant put up a challenge at least!

I think past LFC players, especially the ones we call legends, need to get behind the team or S.T.F.U! This is the second time within a six-week period that a Liverpool FC legend will tell the team to forget about winning the league! That is retarded! I doubt if 3rd place is what we are looking for! We want No. 19 - The best thing to do is encourage the lads and the manager!

bloody hell, legends wanting rafa sacked, saying we wont win the league next season, what next

What!

You also have to be a realist and look at the facts - which is what Barnes has done.

We've not proved we can compete in the Prem over the long distance - that's the facts.  Until this side proves different,then we have to be scepticle of our chances.

Every season - we say,this is our season and it never happens.

Remember.  The Mancs and Chavs will be stronger this season - so nothing is guranteed.  We can be positive, but don't think Istanbul means anything when it comes to the Prem Title!

Of course he's looked at the facts. But we've improved league wise year in, year out.

The squad has a depth we've never experienced before, even with our reserve players knowing what it is like to win something big.

I'm not saying we're going to win the league this season. But I'll be a lot more dissapointed in May '09 if we don't than in previous years. This is our best opportunity for a long time.

With regards to United and Chelsea, I'm not going to write them off of course but they're still saddled with a touch of adversity each (with a lack of strikers for the Scum and a new manager for the Chavs) It's not a gauranteed advantage for us, of course, but we can all hope it goes some way to giving us a little push towards number 19. A slow start for them could mean a 3 or 6 point gap in our favour at the end of the season.

i would personally prefer the champions league title this year......as its in our second home Rome

and

its probably more glamourous than the league...., in a perfect world we could win them both though...why not weve done it before.....and if we get barry we will have a massive squad..

barnes is talking through his arse