BY PAUL EREWUBA
Former England and Liverpool player, John Charles Bryan Barnes (MBE), believes that Nigeria and by extension, Africa has the talent that could win the World Cup.
But as much he would want this hope to become a reality, he points out that maladministration; lack of respect for players and the inability to develop the local league are the clogs in the wheel of their progress.
Speaking in Lagos during a recent visit to Nigeria, Barnes, from a Jamaican origin, who currently works as a commentator and pundit for ESPN and SuperSport, also spoke about Nigerian players, and the craze for the EPL.
How has it been as a pundit on Supersport?
I’ve been with Supersport now for up to six years. I started with the 2010 World Cup and things went well. At the end of it, they made me a proposal to do the Champions League which I accepted.
So I’ve been in the Champions League since 2011 and of course here we are now in 2016.
It’s been a fantastic experience because, not only do I go to South Africa often, where they have the Champions League studios, but I get to travel around Africa. I have been to Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and many others, so it’s been quite an experience.
As a former footballer, how can you describe your punditry style?
Well, I try not to be too critical. I try to be constructive, but I think football has changed. We tend to blame managers for everything. The point I’m making is that we have to start putting pressure on players to perform and not the managers, because we can see managers getting fired often. I think if the players take responsibility for performances not just the manager, it will be good for the game.
What you criticise players for are for effort, commitment, desire and also humility because football is a team sport and that is what every player and super star players should know. I grew up in Jamaica and Jamaican style is very similar to Africa.
Were you affected by what pundits said during your playing days?
Not really, because when I played we didn’t have the constant scrutiny that we see today. We’ve got the premier league, Champions league and more. Football is changing daily. Of course it was in the newspapers, but I didn’t pay too much attention to that because I think that the most important person for me then were the managers. They let you know how well you’re doing; they were your biggest influences, whereas now, managers aren’t your biggest influences.
The media, agents, fans influence players more than the managers, whereas when I played they may criticise or praise me, and even when they do I didn’t take it to heart because the manager will let you know how well you’re doing and that is why managers were much more influential on players and teams then than they are now. For me it’s a bad thing.
What do you think about Jose Mourinho?
He won the league the year before; he can’t be a bad coach three months later, which shows how powerful the players in the English Premier League have become.
As a former Liverpool player, what are your expectations for the club this season?
For me the measure of a team is how well you do in the league. Now with this, can Liverpool win the league? I believe Kloop is the right man for the job.
He is a very good manager, but you have to look at the quality of players,which is where we still need better quality. What you can ask any manager to do is to maximise the potentials of the team. So if Kloop maximises the potentials of Liverpool, yes Liverpool can win the league.
Any star player in the current Liverpool side?
I think it is Daniel Sturridge, but is he going to be fit enough to play the games, to score 30 goals this season? He already has injury problems. Can he consistently play well over 40 games to actually win the League? Now, everybody is talking about how Paul Pogba is going to be. It’s not Paul Pogba being great that Manchester United is going to win. I think that Paul Pogba is not our Lionel Messi or Ronaldo, why he got that money is because he’s going to be a great team-player, he’s great for the team, he’s got good energy, he’s not as individually brilliant as Ronaldo and Messi but he can be as valuable for the team, which is the most important thing.
Why are you still yet to coach an African team?
Well, first of all you need an opportunity. I coached Celtic for one year. I coached the Jamaican national team. And the Jamaican national team reminded me or gave me an insight as to what it would be like to coach an African team because Jamaicans are Africans.
Football wise, Africa is similar to the Caribbean. I didn’t continue my contract, but that showed me what you can do with black players who have got the right attitude, commitment, desire and ability.
Because African players have as much ability as Portugal, Italian, French, German players and physically they are stronger, faster, that is why Pele said he could see an African team winning the World Cup. What he didn’t take into consideration was the mentality and that is what I focused on with the Jamaican team.
How do you rate grassroots football in Nigeria and Africa?
It’s difficult to compare with Europe in developing grassroots football because Europe has the infrastructure and the money. The continent has the capacity and has an end product of young players coming up to play in leagues but funding is critical to help them develop.
In Nigeria, clubs do not readily pay players, so it is difficult to keep the players at home when they are young.
Nigeria is better than most African countries but the young players are often burdened by the need to feed their family and as such don’t have time for football. There are no infrastructures to help them develop, so I suppose you lose a lot of your young footballers at a young age because of poor funding of the league and poor players’ welfare.
What are your thoughts on Nigerian football?
The future is very bright because you have players and as long as you have the talent the future is bright.
What is left to be done is to change the players mentality and the infrastructure, which means that the harmony has to be right. I know a little bit about African football playing with the Hiroc in Jamaica. The most important thing is to make the players feel good.
Before I went to Liverpool in 1983, I was with Watford and on a pre-season to China, I recall that the players, staff, chairman, the chief executive, the owners of the team were in the same plane.
They had to make the players feel good.
In Nigeria can we see the same situation, whereby the administrators of the higher ranking view the players as more important? That is what has to change because if you want the players to perform, you have to treat them properly. I’m not just talking about financially, I’m talking about in terms of the way they feel about themselves.
Now, if you look at all the top European players when they’re with their clubs, there’s a way they are treated. Does it happen when they come back to Nigeria? Or does it happen when they go to Jamaica?
Predictions for the 2016/17 premier league season
In my opinion, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea are my picks and that’s because of the managers and the players they have. I will say Manchester City first, Manchester United second and Chelsea third.
But I think the fourth spot is what everybody wants in terms of qualifying for the Champions League. The race would be between Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham. I think Leicester will also be among the top 10 maybe 9th or 10th. Everton will also be strong and are likely to be the in the top 6.