What's he saying?
What's he saying?
According to Naylor, Barnes got sent off for trying to trip the ref. If so what a stupid thing to do.
For the first time I'm starting to lose patience with Barnes. I will still defend him to the hilt as a player because on footballing ability, and tactical ability, he is still wildly misunderstood and undervalued by the Albion support. But his petulance is a problem; you need a player or two like him in a squad, with a bit of fight and a 'nastier' edge to them, or in games where it's a bit spiky or when you're losing you just get rolled over. But it needs to be a balance and there's a difference between going into tackles hard when needed, or standing your ground when argy bargy is going on, and the fact he keeps getting himself booked/sent off for mouthing off or retaliating when a decision goes against him. That isn't bite, that isn't ferocity or determination, it's stupidity. Sparrow and Vincelot (who I still think got unfair treatment from us) were shown the door for a lot less, and it's only Barnes' versatility and unselfishness (tactically) that is keeping him at the club now - he's walking a very fine line and I would not be surprised if Gus comes down on him like a ton of bricks. He needs to grow the f*ck up and see that what he's doing is costing us. The result today was not his fault, it sounded like we absolutely battered them from start to finish; but now with only one first-team striker available, who still isn't 100% match fit to play 90 week in week out, Ash has let everyone down.
All I'm going to say is I remember a similar reaction when Murray when through that phase of stupid red cards, and look what happened then....
Endless "Why did Gus sell him?" threads?