Peter Barnes (footballer)

Peter Simon Barnes (born 10 June 1957) is an English former international footballer, and the son of renowned coach and scout Ken Barnes. He is one of a small number of players to have played for both Manchester City and Manchester United.
He was named as PFA Young Player of the Year after scoring in the 1976 League Cup final victory for Manchester City. He won 22 England caps, and became West Bromwich Albion's record buy at £748,000, but found that his career faltered in the mid-1980s. He played for Leeds United and was also a rare English export to La Liga with Real Betis. He played briefly for Coventry City, and was signed by Ron Atkinson at Manchester United in 1985, before being one of the players that Alex Ferguson released after his arrival in the 1986–87 season. Over the next few years he struggled for opportunities as wing play went out of fashion, despite trying his hand at clubs throughout the English Football League and in Portugal, Australia, Malta, the United States, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Born in Manchester, Barnes began his career at Manchester City. He scored in the 1976 League Cup final at the age of 18, as the "Sky Blues" beat Newcastle United 2–1. In 1976 he was voted Young Player of the Year by the Professional Footballers' Association.

Barnes was sold by new boss Malcolm Allison in 1979, and joined West Bromwich Albion for a fee of £748,000 – a club transfer record that was not broken until Kevin Kilbane broke the £1 million barrier over 18 years later. He finished as the club's leading scorer in 1979–80 with 15 goals. The "Baggies" finished fourth in 1980–81 under Ron Atkinson's stewardship. Barnes signed for Leeds United in 1981 for £750,000 plus £180,000 "tariffs". However Leeds manager Allan Clarke played him as a striker, and Barnes failed to adapt to his new role, scoring only one goal in 30 top-flight games as Leeds were relegated into the Second Division in 1981–82. Assistant manager Martin Wilkinson remarked that "We are not asking Peter to run his blood to water, but we do want to see him get a bit of a sweat occasionally." Barnes handed in a transfer request, and in February 1982 was given a £750 club fine following comments he made to newspapers. Clarke attempted to trade him to Nottingham Forest for Garry Birtles, and then to Manchester City for Trevor Francis, but was unsuccessful.

Barnes spent 1982–83 in La Liga with Real Betis, before returning to Elland Road for a run of 27 games and four goals in 1983–84. He was sold by Eddie Gray to Don Mackay's Coventry City for £50,000, and scored two goals in eighteen First Division games in 1984–85. Ron Atkinson subsequently signed him for Manchester United, where he was effectively an understudy to Danish winger Jesper Olsen. An unused substitute in the 1985 FA Charity Shield, he fell out of the first team picture in mid-November of the 1985–86 season, only returning to the starting eleven in October and November of the following campaign. His time at Old Trafford was limited after Atkinson was replaced as manager by Alex Ferguson. Barnes took to hiding in the communal bath waters in the dressing room to avoid Ferguson's famed 'hair-dryer' treatment.

He was transferred back to Manchester City in 1987, but soon fell out of favour and was loaned out to Bolton Wanderers, Port Vale and Wimbledon. After leaving Maine Road in 1988, he embarked on a remarkable tour of global football, playing a handful of games for Hull City, SC Farense (in two spells), Bolton Wanderers, Sunderland, Stockport County, Footscray JUST, Bury, Drogheda United, Tampa Bay Rowdies, Stafford Rangers, Northwich Victoria, Wrexham, Radcliffe Borough, Mossley, Hamrun Spartans, and Cliftonville. This took him to Portugal, Australia, Malta, the United States, and both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Barnes scored two goals in nine games for the England under-21s, both against Norway. He made his full England debut at Wembley on 16 November 1977, in a 2–0 win over Italy. However the Italians qualified ahead of England for the 1978 FIFA World Cup. He scored against Wales in the 1978 British Home Championship and against Scotland the following year. He went on to play five of England's eight qualifying games for UEFA Euro 1980, scoring in a 3–0 win over Bulgaria at the Vasil Levski National Stadium, but was not taken to the tournament itself. He featured in two qualifying games for the 1982 FIFA World Cup, defeats to Norway and Switzerland, but was again not selected for the tournament itself. He played his last international game on 25 May 1982, in a friendly with the Netherlands. He won a total of 22 caps, scoring four international goals, and also represented the England B team.

After retiring from playing, Barnes had a brief spell managing Gibraltar and Runcorn, and has since worked behind the scenes at Manchester City and for BBC Radio Manchester, summarising with commentator John Hunt when City were in the second tier.

Since August 2010, he has been based in Kuala Lumpur, working as a Premier League pundit for Malaysian network, Astro, and its thrice-weekly FourFourTwo TV programme. On the night that his former club Manchester City clinched the 2011–12 Premier League title, the normally reserved Barnes sang a rendition of Blue Moon during the post-game show in Astro's studios. He also continued his father's legacy, running soccer schools for impoverished local children.

Club statistics

• Sourced from Peter Barnes profile at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)

International statistics

Individual

• PFA Young Player of the Year: 1976

with Manchester City

• Football League Cup winner: 1976