John Barnes Article in Times

[Whelan]

Originally Posted by Peflecan

Love him as a player and as a man, and of course his legendary rapping skills haha, one quick question though.....where did he pick up the "Digger" nickname?

Dallas.

[peggers]

What a brilliant article a really good read quite refreshing to hear a intelligent view on this case rather than some no mark journo jumping the let's bash liverpool band wagon!

Out of interest does anyone have link to John Barnes on talksport!

[J-V]

Originally Posted by Section_31

Fantastic article, a true legend and a hugely intelligent and articulate man.

Whilst the PFA have a mong like Clarke Carlisle who pauses for 20 seconds after every word so he can attempt the say the next word in a forced posh accent.

[Skully]

Originally Posted by peggers

What a brilliant article a really good read quite refreshing to hear a intelligent view on this case rather than some no mark journo jumping the let's bash liverpool band wagon!

Out of interest does anyone have link to John Barnes on talksport!

Here you go - you should view the ESPN clip is well, on another thread, very good watch - he's came out with so many good things in last few months, should collate them all & send to mongs in media / FA & maybe even our owners to highlight you can argue coherently against the tide.

Radio: Barnes: 'Racism within football is not being dealt with properly' | Radio talkSPORT

[LFC64]

Originally Posted by Trumo

Superb stuff, yet it's a shame seemingly nobody outside of Liverpool fans is really interested in what he has to say. He doesn't do easy soundbites. He doesn't blindly follow the herd. He tries to engage people in thoughtful and rational discussion which is much harder to accept when you're frothing at the mouth.

Messrs Ouseley, Powar and Roberts, THIS is how you engage in debate about racism.

Absolutely. Powar and Roberts would no doubt retort with an inytelligently thought through coconut jibe

[Jack the Sipper]

Great read, with some cracking historical references. And, yes, he should be given an ambassadorial role at the Club. In fact, he should've got one a while back, long before this recent blow-up. The irony now, is that, if he was offered the role tomorrow, the media vultures would call it a token gesture.

[Faustus]

Digger's opinions throughout this whole affair have been solid gold nuggets of intelligence and rationale. Shame they've often been swallowed up in the vast sea of shite that is 24 hour news culture and flashy, hollow soundbites.

An absolute legend of a player and an absolute legend of a man.

[TheResonator]

How consummately eloquent and dignified an article, standing proud against the massing waves of sensationalistic bullshit. I was too young to see him play in his pomp, but what a fantastic orator to have as a representative of LFC. People like him are the lifeblood of the club and understand our core values better than anybody.

[Razoray]

Originally Posted by TheResonator

How consummately eloquent and dignified an article, standing proud against the massing waves of sensationalistic bullshit. I was too young to see him play in his pomp, but what a fantastic orator to have as a representative of LFC. People like him are the lifeblood of the club and understand our core values better than anybody.

If you think he is a fantastic orator (and he is), you would have been blown away watching him do what he was brought on this earth for. Jesus, he was a magician.

[sparta7]

He was on Today on Radio 4 yesterday morning. Justin Webb said Cameron was organising a meeting about racism in football at No10, and asked JB would he like to go he said he would "love to but hadnt been invited".

God only knows what sort of troll has been invited.

[Koptimus Prime]

Seems the difference between Barnes and other rent-a-quotes that have flooded the media for previous months is that he wants to change things and make racism talked about and not just used as an excuse to get some air time or beat certain individuals/clubs with there own personal agenda's.

Nice to hear that snide cunt barclay put in his place aswell.

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by sparta7

He was on Today on Radio 4 yesterday morning. Justin Webb said Cameron was organising a meeting about racism in football at No10, and asked JB would he like to go he said he would "love to but hadnt been invited".

God only knows what sort of troll has been invited.

[Iceman]

The FA are cunts. They knew for years and years that Ingerland games were a meeting point for some of the most racist bastards in the country. These same cunts were abusing Barnes when he played. What did the FA do? Nothing.

Now all these years later they come down hard on a foreign player to show how non racist they are.

What did they do about the EDL wankers wearing footy shirts just recently? Any of them get found out and banned?


Complete bollocks.

[Iceman]

Barnes knows more about this issue than they could ever know. I feel for him in that interview. It sounds a bit like a police interview from the 70's actually.

We need to hire him and get him out there for us. Sort it out Henry.

[liverpoolsno9]

I was lucky enough to meet Digger a couple of months back at a club function, loads of people wanting to see him, photos, autographs etc, but he had time for everyone. Had a chat with for a while, showed genuine interest in what my lad was upto, his schoolwork, what he wanted to do etc. My lad was over the moon, he's only 12 but thinks Digger is his BFF now! He told me about his 7 kids, 1 was only a couple of months old & i think his eldest was studying to be a doctor. He was just so down to earth & normal! It was like talking to a long lost friend, lovely fella. Shouldn't have been surprised really as even when he was playing i'd heard loads of stories about him having time for fans & what a great fella he was. Incidentally, i recommend people have a listen to My Sporting Life interview. Good listen

Radio: My Sporting Life - John Barnes | Radio talkSPORT

[Liverpoolway]

Originally Posted by Tommy Lawrence

Digger would make an excellent ambassador for the club.

As Section says,he's "a true legend and a hugely intelligent and articulate man".

What more could we want?

I think Barnes is an excellent ambassador for the club, but he could (and should) be much more. I'd love for him to be involved at the academy, the way Dalglish used to be.

It would be great if one of his kids could follow in his footsteps (some of them are obviously too old, but I think the youngest is only two years old).

[shanks69]

Originally Posted by Whelan

I can remember John Barnes being booed playing for England! First time that I have ever heard a player being booed whilst playing for his country. Legend, and a fucking ridiculously talented player.

Very intelligent man and as Nick Davies argues, Journalists really don't have a great knowledge of the subject that they are working on, they find the information and ask 'experts'. But of course if you hold your chin in your hands, and no sagely at a point made slowly, you can fool quite a few people! Isn't that right Patrick?

when he scored that goal against brazil on the plane home there were some shitbags saying england only scored one goal,as they don't count the other because it was scored by a blackmanand these were on the same flight as the players.

[niallers]

Originally Posted by Peflecan

Love him as a player and as a man, and of course his legendary rapping skills haha, one quick question though.....where did he pick up the "Digger" nickname?

i'm pretty certain that its because his middle name starts with a C (charles) so his initials are JCB

[SwindleThis]

I have little doubt that barclay et al were thoroughly confused by a black man not wanting to play the race card, and indeed telling them it's a load of old bollocks anyway.

Apart from the excellent points made by Digger in his article, we should also remember that race laws in this country have had the oppositie effects of what the social engineers thought they would.

As Digger quite rightly points out, we should concentrate on what makes us the same, not what makes us different. The race laws as they stand are divisive, as theoreticians who have probably never been much further than whatever cloistered hall they inhabit come up with one madcap idea after another, let alone lived in the real world.

The idea that "only white people" can be racist is a ridiculous notion, as I know from first hand experience, and this is just one of the stupid theories promulgated by academics and adopted by trendy lefties who love to jump on the newest bandwagon.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm a bit of a lefty myself, but I cannot abide those who have made a career out of using "race" by continuing the divisions we should be seeking to get rid of. The type who are unable to string a coherent sentence together, because it is filled with all the latest buzz words to the extent it becomes meaningless.

As an aside, I posted Diggers talksport destruction of various muppets on FB and was amazed at the amount of people who actually thought he was wrong, with one even calling him a traitor to "his own kind" the obvious reply being "you mean human?"

[aiyic]

Oh that was vintage Barnes. Barclay was nutmegged and turned inside-out. Ha!


''You stuttering prick!

[LFC64]

Originally Posted by Whelan

I can remember John Barnes being booed playing for England! First time that I have ever heard a player being booed whilst playing for his country. Legend, and a fucking ridiculously talented player.

Very intelligent man and as Nick Davies argues, Journalists really don't have a great knowledge of the subject that they are working on, they find the information and ask 'experts'. But of course if you hold your chin in your hands, and no sagely at a point made slowly, you can fool quite a few people! Isn't that right Patrick?

Bang on. I would go further and say that most of them don't have a genuine concern for the subject either. They simply know how to feign moral outrage.

Barnes was regularly booed for Ingerlund because the majority of this sceptered isle held the inherently racist view that since he was born in Jamaica and had a caribbean lilt to his accent he was deemed to be lazy and (because the generic stereotype of Jamaicans was and still is such) and unpatriotic (which explained for them why he wasn't as impressive for Ingerlund as he was for LFC). They always used Stuart Pearce as the benchmark - wonder why?

In Italia 1990 despite the losing semi-finalists coming home as moral victors, Barnes was scapegoat again and continued to be booed.

First game of the season at Anfield v Villa the Villa fans (as a lot of clubs did that season) tried to start off an ' If you all love England clap your hands' around the ground despite having been booing Barnes and was met by a thunderous 'YOU CAN SHOVE YOUR FUCKIN ENGLAND UP YOUR ARSE' from the Kop. I'll never forget the stunned silence from the gawps.

i

[LFC64]

Originally Posted by shanks69

when he scored that goal against brazil on the plane home there were some shitbags saying england only scored one goal,as they don't count the other because it was scored by a blackmanand these were on the same flight as the players.

Jesus I'd forgotten all about that story

[xerxes]

Originally Posted by Iceman

The FA are cunts. They knew for years and years that Ingerland games were a meeting point for some of the most racist bastards in the country. These same cunts were abusing Barnes when he played. What did the FA do? Nothing.

I stopped going to England games in the 80's which had become little more than a paltform for the prejudiced, xenophobic and dispossesed, only recently have i returned ( and it is better).

You are right to point out the FA's spineless response to England hooliganism and bigotry right up to the turn of this century.

Barnes does speak eloquently about racism, and from first hand experience. I do think however that it is important that as Liverpudlians we show some humility on the race issue. Liverpool in the eighties, was institutionally racist, Everton resisted signing black players for a long time, and our handling of the race v suarez balance has been poor.

There is still a reluctance generally to discuss racism in the game generally. Retired players who suffered abuse and now garner sympathy are not enough, nor are modern multi-millionaires who are happy to use it as a publicity platform.

What is, and is not, acceptable as banter needs airing without fear or favour. Luis revelaed that he calls Glen negro in training, as do other Man U players of Hernandez, is that ok? If Alan Hansen were to address either as negro on a match of the day interview would that be acceptable?

Why have proportionately so few black managers and coaches come through?

Too many are happy to swear allegiance to the anti-racism cause- and then dive for cover.

The debate is more nuanced than some would imagine, and being black alone does not make for a good advocate of the matter - in my view Garth Crooks has set back the cause of black media pundits by being hopeless, but the likes of John barnes, Dion Dublin and jason Roberts should be encouraged to debate this.

[VladimirIlyich]

Originally Posted by xerxes

I stopped going to England games in the 80's which had become little more than a paltform for the prejudiced, xenophobic and dispossesed, only recently have i returned ( and it is better).

You are right to point out the FA's spineless response to England hooliganism and bigotry right up to the turn of this century.

Barnes does speak eloquently about racism, and from first hand experience. I do think however that it is important that as Liverpudlians we show some humility on the race issue. Liverpool in the eighties, was institutionally racist, Everton resisted signing black players for a long time, and our handling of the race v suarez balance has been poor.

There is still a reluctance generally to discuss racism in the game generally. Retired players who suffered abuse and now garner sympathy are not enough, nor are modern multi-millionaires who are happy to use it as a publicity platform.

What is, and is not, acceptable as banter needs airing without fear or favour. Luis revelaed that he calls Glen negro in training, as do other Man U players of Hernandez, is that ok? If Alan Hansen were to address either as negro on a match of the day interview would that be acceptable?

Why have proportionately so few black managers and coaches come through?

Too many are happy to swear allegiance to the anti-racism cause- and then dive for cover.

The debate is more nuanced than some would imagine, and being black alone does not make for a good advocate of the matter - in my view Garth Crooks has set back the cause of black media pundits by being hopeless, but the likes of John barnes, Dion Dublin and jason Roberts should be encouraged to debate this.

They call the players Neg-ro because its spanish culture to do so and until this smear campaign most footballers were happy to be tolerant to other nationalities and cultures,even Evra.

Great statement by Diego Lugano saying England is still colonial and embarrassed by racial debate.

[xerxes]

Originally Posted by VladimirIlyich

They call the players Neg-ro because its spanish culture to do so and until this smear campaign most footballers were happy to be tolerant to other nationalities and cultures,even Evra.

Great statement by Diego Lugano saying England is still colonial and embarrassed by racial debate.

Extreme caution should be exercised on the nuances of the use of negro.In South America and Spain black people are subject to racism, and the term can be as abusive, or literal, as it is here. I'm certainly not taking race relations lessons from a Uraguayan.

I do agree that the debate on race should be more open, and the lynch mob on Hansen for using the word coloured was embarrassing.

Luis', and our, mistake, was that if you are in a foreign country, and cause unintended offence, the first thing you do is offer a profuse apology.
Sadly ego ,and the Manc v Scouse bile,quickly overwhelmed what should have been a minor incident.