He made me somewhat miserable as a child. My cousin was probably the first person who really got me into football when I was a youngster, and he's 5/6 years older than I am, and he absolutely loved John Barnes. I always felt as though I was missing something out as a kid because wingers were my favourite players. I absolutely loved McManaman, he was my favourite player. I also loved watching Ginola, Kinkladze and for my sins, Kanchelskis and Giggs. Those wonderfully direct wingers who could beat a man (or three) with ease. When I went on and on about these players I was always greeted with the same old "John Barnes was better" - it stung. My abiding memory of John Barnes is the double one-two with Rush, the "Collymore closing in..." moment. It took me another 10 years to find out that this wasn't even Barnes' definitive "double one-two".
By the time I finally got around to seeing the 'real' John Barnes I'd already been told enough to know that he was on a different level to my boyhood heroes. I've seen most of the famous Barnes moments through things like Youtube now, and it's easy to see why he was so loved. Two of my favourite Liverpool goals are from Barnes. The Brentford (I think?) one where he gets the ball on the half way line and goes past two players with absolute ease, and sells one of the best step-overs I've ever seen. The other is the QPR (?) one where he wins the ball himself on the half way line and ends up almost going through two defenders before slotting with his right foot. It's the ease with which he does it that's just spectacular.
Sadly though, I know I'll never be able to 'get' Barnes the same way as people who were around to see him live. For as much as I'm able to appreciate some of the things he did, I'll never quite have the appreciation of those who saw it happen, because I know it's coming. That's the thing with only seeing clips and videos, you know you're seeing the finished article. I can't fully comprehend the speed his mind was working at, because in all these things he's making it up as he goes along. I'll never fully be able to appreciate the goal against Brazil, for example, because to me I'll always think that was his intention from the off. The reality though is that his mind was probably working at an unbelievable pace - no one sets off to beat 3 players and slot it in, that's stupidity. That goal, like Maradona's against England, probably happened in segments where he was looking for a team-mate, but the best option was just to keep on going. He's constantly adjusting to what's going on around him in that particular moment. Looking back you can never appreciate the spontaneity of it. I know, even before I see how it's done, that there's a goal coming at the end of it. It ruins the magic a little. I know what the end result is before I see how it got to that point. I would have loved to have just seen Barnes live, not knowing what exactly he was going to do. I bet for every goal that's archived, there are hundreds of little runs with the ball where he skips past 2 or 3 players and just lays the ball off to a team mate.
It's my biggest - I don't want to say regret because that would imply I had a choice in the matter - disappointment that I missed out on Barnes' first 4 seasons at Liverpool. It's clear just from watching clips that he was on a different level, but clips will never do someone like Barnes the justice he deserves. ...
*sigh*