Barnes: ‘the Bath Benzema, the Burnley Bergkamp’

FEW ALBION players of recent years divided opinion among supporters more than Ashley Barnes.

It might even surprise the sceptical to recall he scored 10 minutes into his Albion debut and his goalscoring ratio for Brighton was virtually a goal every three appearances (57 in 178 games) at League One and Championship level.

Any doubters about his ability were rather made to eat their words by virtue of him going on to play seven seasons in the Premier League with Burnley, scoring 42 of his 55 goals for the club at that level.

He became a cult hero for Clarets fans over nearly 10 years in Lancashire and began to create a similar aura at Norwich City, where he moved at the age of 33 on a two-year deal in the summer of 2023.

Barnes was only 20 when he joined the Seagulls, initially on loan, from Plymouth Argyle in March 2010. The Albion were the fifth side he’d been sent on loan to by the Pilgrims – he also had spells at Oxford United, Salisbury City, Eastbourne Borough and Torquay United.

Albion had a vacancy up front after the somewhat acrimonious departure of Nicky Forster to Charlton Athletic and Barnes scored within 10 minutes of his debut in a 3-0 Withdean win over Tranmere Rovers after he’d gone on as a sub for opening goalscorer Glenn Murray. Andrew Crofts scored Albion’s second.

After netting four goals in eight appearances by the end of the season, Barnes joined on a permanent basis.

“Ashley quickly adapted to our style of football last season,” said manager Gus Poyet. “He is strong and can score goals, and is the type of character we are looking for in a player. He will be a great addition to the squad.”

Barnes added: “I loved every minute of my loan spell last season, and was desperate to come back.

“Working with Gus and the other coaches was unbelievable. They really improved my game, as well as helping me with the mental side, and I can’t wait to get started now.”

In his first full season at the club, he found the net 20 times to help the Seagulls clinch the League One championship.

Indeed, it was he who went on from the bench and netted the decider as Albion sealed promotion with a 4-3 win over Dagenham & Redbridge.

At the time, he described it as the highlight of his career, and told the Western Daily Press: “It’s fantastic to get promoted and a brilliant thing to have on your CV.

“You couldn’t have scripted it better, to come off the bench and score the winner to get us promoted.

“My future ambition is to play in the Premiership. If it could be with Brighton that would be brilliant.”

After promotion was won, previous strike partners Chris Wood (returning to parent club WBA) and Glenn Murray (transferred to Crystal Palace) left the club.

It meant Barnes having to strike up a new understanding with Craig Mackail-Smith, with Will Hoskins also providing competition up front.

“For the start of the season it was Macca and me playing together and it just clicked straight away in pre-season,” he said. “We’ve had a fantastic partnership ever since.”

Barnes had previously played at Championship level for Plymouth, but he admitted in a matchday programme interview: “Back then I was very raw and inexperienced, whereas now I feel physically and mentally more ready for this level.

“I’ve gone away, learned a lot about the game, and I’ve come back in a better position to give it another go in this league.”

It was possibly the fact Barnes was asked to play in different positions for Albion that meant some didn’t appreciate him.

In one of several programme interviews, he said: “I’ve played up front, I’ve played on the left, on the right, as part of three in midfield and just behind the strikers, all sorts.

“My natural position is up top but I’ve really enjoyed playing these different roles and I’m learning all the time.

“As a striker you are judged on your goals but people need to see that I’m helping the team out in different positions now.”

There were other occasions when fans were left scratching their heads about Barnes; like the time in a post-match interview after a cup win he said how important it had been to get the three points!

Then, of course, there was the occasion at Bolton – which I witnessed from behind the goal – in March 2013 when the aggrieved Barnes (believing he should have been awarded a penalty) chased after referee Nigel Miller and deliberately tripped him up.

Not surprisingly, he was instantly shown a red card and the football authorities took a dim view of such a petulant act that he was subsequently handed a seven-game ban.

Barnes was hammered in the press and by fans but on his return he scored twice as Albion thumped Blackpool 6-1 and earned the man of the match award.

“I was so hungry to get back after being out of the team for so long, and I think that showed in my performance,” he said. “The frustration of being sidelined was finally released and I could just get out on that pitch and prove to everyone why I’m here and what I’m about.

“I’d trained hard while I was suspended, and trained as if I was playing on a matchday, and I think that helped me because I was still sharp.”

Having tasted the success of promotion from League One with the Seagulls and the disappointment of two near-misses in the Championship play-off losses of 2012 and 2013, it was in the January 2014 transfer window (with only six months left on his Albion contract) that Barnes was snapped up by promotion-seeking Burnley.

Nevertheless, he reflected on his time at Brighton in an interview with Tyrone Marshall of the Lancashire Telegraph, and said: “It was fantastic, I loved every minute there.”

Meanwhile, boss Sean Dyche said on signing him: “Ashley is a robust, hard-working centre-forward with an eye for goal.”

Dyche had Sam Vokes and Danny Ings leading the line in their bid for promotion, but he said: “I can assure you Ashley is not here just to supplement the group and support the front two, but to make sure we have a real challenge up front.

“He has a will and desire to improve and affect football matches, as strikers do by scoring goals.”

Five months after his move to Turf Moor, he was celebrating promotion to the Premier League having scored three in 11 starts plus 10 sub appearances.

Looking back on his time with the Clarets in August 2019, Reuben Pinder wrote an appreciation of Barnes for joe.co.uk.

“Despite incomings, from Andre Gray to Jon Walters, Peter Crouch and now Jay Rodriguez, he has remained a constant in Burnley’s front line ever since their promotion in 2014 – and subsequent relegation a year later,” he wrote.

“He provides the energy, solidity, graft and guile necessary for a team of Burnley’s style and stature to survive in such a cut-throat league.

“A powerful yet nimble dribbler, and a battering ram in the air, he possesses a skillset that is becoming increasingly rare at the top level. He’s the Bath Benzema. The Burnley Bergkamp.”

Pinder continued: “Barnes is not the most glamorous of players and that’s fine – he is all the more charming for it. This is a man who played non-league football while he was still at school, giving most of his income to his parents.

“This is a man who drives seven of his teammates to training in a minibus they all chipped in for. This is a man of the people who made it to the top the hard way, and on that journey developed a sharp edge that often comes to the fore in the heat of the moment.”

Born in Bath on 30 October 1989, Barnes grew up in the village of Dunkerton, five miles south west of the city, and went to the nearby Writhlington School at Radstock. A goalkeeper until he was 14, he declared himself a Man Utd fan at the time because they had Peter Schmeichel in goal.

As a youngster, Barnes played for Bath Arsenal alongside Scott Sinclair, the former Chelsea, Swansea and Celtic winger.

He was on the books at Bristol Rovers as a kid but was released when the club ran into financial difficulties. He played for Welton Arsenal and Welton Rovers under 18s before being snapped up by Southern League Paulton Rovers.

As a youth player at Paulton, he started in central midfield and, when he made the first team at 16, he moved up front. His goalscoring exploits there caught the attention of Ian Holloway, who signed him for Argyle in 2007.

In a 2011 Western Daily Press article, Barnes said he was still regularly in contact with former Rovers boss Andrew Jones and looked back with fond memories at his time at Winterfield Road.

“It was brilliant at Paulton, they were good times,” he said. “I had a fantastic time with the manager Andrew Jones, he was great to me. I still speak to him at least once every week and I get on really well with him.

“To leave Paulton was obviously a bit disheartening but to go from there to a Football League club was amazing.”

Forever grateful to ‘Ollie’ for giving him his break at Plymouth, he said: “His madness is not an act, that’s how he is every day in training; a crazy man, and everyone loves him for it. He gets his players playing for him because of that.”

Barnes also famously played one game for Austria under 20s, qualifying because his grandmother was from the country.

After scoring seven times in 26 appearances (plus 19 off the bench) as Burnley returned to the Premier League as Championship champions in May 2023, Barnes left Turf Moor to join Championship side Norwich City.

Head coach David Wagner said: “We’re delighted to welcome Ashley to the club. He is a player I’ve come across on a number of occasions and he knows exactly what it takes to be successful in this league.

“It was very clear from our conversations that he has a real hunger and desire to continue to perform at the highest level. It was a feeling that we both have, the determination to do whatever it takes to win football games.

“There was a lot of competition for his signature, which says a lot about how he is respected and valued in the game.”

In a September 2023 interview with Samuel Seaman in the Norwich Pink Un, Barnes said: “You know you’ll get 110 per cent from me, putting in a shift every game. That’s what I’ll try to do. Once I do that, I can go out there, create something for the team, be a force to be reckoned with.

“Work rate is one, that’s first and foremost. Every player in this changing room, the boss, us older ones, that’s what we have to instil, that demand we have on each other.

“We’re all fighting in this together to get out of this league, that’s something that we want to do.”

Always wanting to connect with supporters, Barnes began building a rapport with Canaries fans by impressing at a fans’ forum event in the city shortly after signing.

“They’ve been tremendous,” he said. “A huge amount of credit to them for making me feel so welcome straight away, making me feel loved.”

Unfortunately, injury deprived Norwich of Barnes’ services for several weeks after he’d played in each of the team’s first seven league games, when they earned 16 points from a possible 21.