Ashley Barnes "not the best..." S.Times feature

[Paul Waine]

Love this feature on Ash in today's Sunday Times. Hope he can "ruffle some feathers" at the Emirates this afternoon.

Ashley Barnes: ‘I know I’m not the best at this level but I work hard and managers can trust me’

Before facing Arsenal today, the Burnley striker might pinch himself to make sure it’s not a dream

I always dreamt,” says Ashley Barnes, “of one game. Just one game. Everyone wants to play in the Premier League and I just dreamt of one game to show what I could do.” He is one of the revelations of the season. At 28 and in his third top-flight campaign, Barnes is breaking Burnley scoring records, hitting goal-of-the-season contenders, even drawing Chelsea interest. Premier League games? Today should be his 99th. “It’s been nice,” he grins, “to show people I’m not just the battering ram.”

Barnes’ two secrets are training with the attitude that he still has everything to improve, and playing — charging, bustling, striving — as though every game is still that single, 90-minute dream chance. He is surrounded by brothers in mentality; the Burnley dressing room, where keeping each other honest has been perfected to art-form level. They all love “Barnesy”, but before this interview Tom Heaton comes over to show an embarrassing hair treatment advert Barnes starred in, and Phil Bardsley interrupts the interview. “Sunday Times? You’re not clever enough,” Bardsley hoots. “It’s what I read now. I’ve gone up,” replies Barnes in self-mockery.

He is not the first striker to climb from low down to the heights in England’s top flight. There have been Rickie Lambert, Grant Holt, Kevin Phillips, Jamie Vardy, Glenn Murray, Troy Deeney — suggesting that in an increasingly difficult league, those who lead attacks need mindset and to have learnt their craft. Barnes’ Cinderella story compares with any. He grew up in Bath, where scouts are thin on the ground. Until his early teens he was a goalkeeper. His dad, Gordon, played the position and he was a Manchester United fan who idolised Peter Schmeichel. His boys club was Bath Arsenal but he was not the star. “We used to win everything. We had Scotty Sinclair [now at Celtic] and as long as I could save them, you just gave him the ball and he did the rest.”

Barnes had to play rugby at school — he was a fly-half, who “just kicked it all the time” — was released by Bristol Rovers, had an unsuccessful trial with Southampton and was offered football scholarships at a couple of schools, including Millfield, but turned them down. He tells his son, Flynn, who is six, about the importance of education, but school never interested him.

His tale can be told in car journeys. An indelible memory is, after going to Cardiff but rejecting an offer to join their academy, being driven back over the Severn Bridge by his dad, crying his eyes out. Much happier is his recall of travelling home from Eastbourne, where a loan spell in the Conference rebooted his career after a new manager at Plymouth [Paul Mariner] just didn’t fancy him.

Barnes car-shared with another loanee, Dan Smith, and often they took their girlfriends along: Zan is now his wife. “I’d travel on a Thursday, it’s five or six hours, you drive all the way along the coast. I’d train in the evening, chill in a hotel Friday, play Saturday then drive back to Plymouth, buzzing all the way if we’d done well. I enjoyed every single minute. Amazing memories. Me and my wife look back on them now.”

Barnes would have been a farmer if he had not made it in football, he reckons. He became a striker at Paulton Rovers, for whom he played in the Southern League at 16. He earned £60 per week, though sometimes the manager gave him a goal bonus out of his own pocket. Those experiences fuel Barnes, who keeps talking about “beyond the dream” games — Arsenal today, the Europa League next season — with the caveat: “If I’m selected.”

Sean Dyche lets no player take things for granted. “He wants us to play with freedom, be ourselves and the rest will follow, and he’s magnificent as a man-manager. He will give you the brutal truth,” Barnes says. “I had one of those conversations at the start of the season. I didn’t start a game for two months. I was frustrated but he was frustrated with me and I took it on board — he wanted me to work harder.”

Barnes got back in and after a goal at Manchester United on Boxing Day, his season built and built. During a run of five goals in eight games he became Burnley’s leading all-time Premier League scorer and scored stunners in consecutive matches: a curled drive into the top corner against West Ham and an improbable overhead kick against West Brom.

He is talked about differently now. “It’s nice to hear people appreciate you and think I’m not just a battering ram. I’ve worked at it and I have to keep working: I knew that from day one. I know I’m not the best in terms of ability at this level so I have to keep improving and striving.” The biggest thing you have to work at in the Premier League, he says, is concentration. “You see the superstars at Man City and they can switch it on just like that. Whereas we [at Burnley] have to be switched on from the first whistle, and have to win differently — it’s about game management, knowing how to win.

“I always had the football brain as a kid. I’m not the fastest, I’m maybe not the best finisher, but I’ve worked so hard on those things and every manager has known they can trust me. They bring people in, but in the long run I’m the one who comes out as a first pick because managers know what they’ll get from me, how I will fight for them tooth and nail.”

This brings us to Arsenal. Is there a renaissance of the big striker in elite football? You look at Roma hitting Edin Dzeko and Patrik Schick against Liverpool and think of Romelu Lukaku, Harry Kane, Gonzalo Higuain, Robert Lewandowski and wonder. Arsenal’s defenders seem to yield against aggressive, meaty No 9s. Barnes watched Diego Costa torment them in the Europa League, with interest. “He used his abilities and upset them and caused all sorts of problems. We’ve been looking at how Arsenal play and I’ll be trying to ruffle some feathers.”

UTC

[burnley007]

Hero

[Lord Beamish]

Fast becoming my favourite Burnley player of all time. Sorry Billy Hamilton.

[No Ney Never]

Proud of the players who wear our shirt.

[Bertiebeehead]

I’m probably hungover and a bit emotional but that brought a tear to my eye. Hope he scores today.

[IanMcL]

A Claret hero.

[vinrogue]

My smile broadens, Ashley Barnes what a hero, what a superb article. I do think as Dean Marney leaves Ash will be taking his place as my favourite current Claret and getting that place in my heart for his honesty and endeavour. UTC

[jedi_master]

Love Barnesy, LOVE.

[ecc]

He tells it as it is. If he's where he is today it's thanks to his own attitude and commitment but huge credit must go to his manager.

[Steve-Harpers-perm]

What a player a proper hero!

[SlidingTackle]

'Bashley Arnes'.

Top bloke.

UTC

[RalphCoatesComb]

He tells it as it is. If he's where he is today it's thanks to his own attitude and commitment but huge credit must go to his manager.

He's a Sean Dyche Man !

[brigante]

I wouldn't have had him down as being so self aware and self deprecating. What a great article, another dimension to a great Burnley player.

[sox8595]

Love this guy

[Steve-Harpers-perm]

Who is the poster who openly despises Barnes?

[sox8595]

Who is the poster who openly despises Barnes?

The one with depleted brain cells

[Lord Beamish]

Who is the poster who openly despises Barnes?

That would be Walton. I was teasing him in person about it at the Supporters’ Club do last Monday.

[fungus_the_bogeyman]

It’s impossible not to love this man! A true Claret and Blue hero who epitomises everything that isgreat about this team.