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Barnes could be back within weeks
Friday 5th February 2010, 11:22AM GMT.
Albion new-boy Giles Barnes could be back playing within weeks after vowing to rediscover the form that made him a £7million man.
The former Derby winger spoke for the first time about his fight to regain full fitness and revealed his ruptured Achilles has now fully healed.
Barnes believes all of the serious injuries that have blighted the last three years of his career are now behind him and is now striving to regain his general fitness, after signing an 18-month contract at the Hawthorns.
He said: “I’m there or thereabouts. I am short of game practice and I’m not going to hide that but as soon as I get one or two game practice games behind me I would be thinking I’d be ready to enter the first team if selected.
“My Achilles feels fantastic. I don’t have any pain or any swelling from it, so I suppose that’s a good thing.”
The 21-year-old was once one of English football’s brightest talents and attracted a £7million bid from West Ham in the summer of 2007, after helping Derby reach the Premier League at Albion’s expense. That move broke down, partly because of his luckless run with injuries.
But Barnes in no doubt of his ability to recapture the form that led to Premier League interest and a loan move to Fulham – a switch that ended without any match action as his injury curse struck again.
He said: “There is no doubt in my mind. I was probably playing better football than ever when I went on loan to Fulham, even though it was in reserve games. In training I was sharper than I had ever been before.
“Even though I got my Achilles injury from that, I didn’t lose my football brain and thank God I haven’t lost any pace or anything like that.
“You come back stronger from things like that and if you keep watching football you learn things as well.”
Despite foot, knee and Achilles problems since 2007, Barnes never feared for his career.
He said: “That is one thing that never came into my head – not even an echo. I am that eager to get back. If anyone had turned around to me and said ‘we’re not too sure,’ that would have been a big shock to me.
“But not playing again is not something I ever contemplated.”
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Sounds good to me,can’t wait to see him in full flow again.If this comes off thre will be a lot of red faces from other clubs who didn’t want to know.
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Great player, very quick when fit
only problem
he thinks hes Pele
even worse, so does his dad-agent
good luck
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I can’t wait to see this lad in the famous blue and white stripes.
I probably sound like a stalker or something with how much I’ve been raving about him, but having seen him make the goal that led to the worst day of my life at Wembley, take the mickey out of us in the last 20 minutes at Pride Park, and various times on TV, I honestly think this guy has the potential to be a fantastic player!!
I’m going to stop going on about him now though, as I don’t want to curse him. Giles, I’ll leave it to you to get fit and show everyone what I’m talking about.
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On another note, he really needs to sort out that jaundice in his left arm though! :-)
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I remember when BRIAN ROBSON was with us he
broke his foot twice.Look at the career he had.All the best Giles.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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Post 3″.Another dingle trying to emulate one of our regulars.His jaundice is’nt half as
harmful as the fat in your head.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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It’s a joke!
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Sorry,NEDBALL.
I will endevour to observe the picture
next time.
I will also do a hundred lines.
Hope we win today.Come on you BAGGIES.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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THIS BOY BARNES CAN BE THE REAL DEAL I HAVE SEEN HIM PLAY A FEW TIMES AND HIS UNCLE BOBBY BARNES PLAYED FOR WEST HAM HE WAS OK AS WELL GOOD LUCK GILES YOU WILL BLOSSOM WITH WBA BOING!! BOING !!
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My nephew bought Bobby Barnes house in New Wanstead a few years ago.
Not a lot of people know that!
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Come on Giles!
Cant wait to see you back (soon) in action again.
Malta Baggies.
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5 – No mate, that’s honestly me that posted that. I was just trying to make light of Mr Barnes’ garish yellow skin tight training top.
Sorry for the rubbish attempt at humour, I’ll go to the corner of the room and rollock myself for it.
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Nedball, I don’t care if he dresses like a banana, if he puts the ball in the back of the net, that’s good enough for me. You can come out from the corner now. :-)
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Much appreciated, I thank you Mr. Convert. :-)
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Ned.
I recognised your slightly off kilter sense of humour straight away. No apologies necessary, keep up the good work.
On a more serious note. It may be a long time, if at all, that he gets back to where he was. Hope people don’t expect too much too soon from the lad.
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You keep trying Ned.
I thought it was funny.
There ought to be more humour on here.
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Thanks everyone, I’m glad that after explaining that it was a joke some of you enjoyed it.
I’ll keep adding side notes to all of my humourous efforts from this moment forth just for you JTH ;-)
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You need to be careful Ned.
I’ve heard that rollocking yourself can make you go blind!
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NEDBALL,
We can always rely on a true BAGGY to come clean.I respect you for your honesty.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
SORRY dingle.
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Well I thought it was funny – but not as funny as Nathan’s blogg over on the darkside…. a more depressing read would be hard to imagine – cheered me right up :-)
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Yhanks Happy. I’m there now. Can’t wait, not just for the blog but the replies as well.
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Happy.
Just back, considerable gap due to uncontrollable laughter. Best is Shadrag at, I think it’s 101. He makes a list of his statistics to prove what a great job Mick has done then says that they should sack him at the end of the season whether or not they stay up. Divine.
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No4 Jack, I think you’ll find Robbo broke his leg aer kid. I was standing down near the wall at the time and heard the crack like a pistol shot. He was about 18 or so at the time and hadn’t played much for the first team. If Barnes is half as good as Robbo, (as a player), there’ll be mass suicide at Pride Park. Still rankles with me that ‘The Fat One’ came in for him after defecting to Man.U.
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Cyril – I was at the Man City game when Robbo broke his leg – I cried all the way home (I was only young). Although I am looking forard to seeing Barnes and he is a real talent I will be gobsmacked if he reaches the heights of Robbo – he gets a bad press here now following his stint as manager – but he was a legend !!
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Happy.
Hate to disagree with you but he gets a bad press from me for the manner in which he left us for Man Ure.
In the Gospel according to St Ron, the board couldn’t resist the money on offer. We all know the reason they sold him was down to the fact that Robson more or less went on strike, I remember him still, wandering around the centre circle, totally disinterested, until he got his move.
A fine way to repay the club that had developed him from a scrawny kid from the North East and paid his wages through two broken legs. I still can’t see Robson without getting a bad taste in the mouth, great player but with feet of clay. Nothing at all to do with him being a rubbish manager.
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Bully – I too remember the way he left us… but I also can’t forget watching him get into the team as a scrawny kid at left back and grow into a tremendous midfielder…. and to be fair to him he left for pure footballing reasons to join the biggest club in the country (unlike some who couldn’t wait to get to Fulham or Wigan) and he also joined his mentor BFR.
I’m not saying its right – but I sort of understand it.
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Happy.
While I understand your points, I still can’t agree. By today’s standards this sort of behaviour wouldn’t get a second glance but back then contracts meant something. Like I said, he was picked up by us as a kid, looked after and paid through long lay-offs. He was happy to sign a five year contract when no one else was looking at him, then dolly out the pram when the fat man came calling, also as Cyril points out further on, even with all that money Atkinson won virtually nothing, Ferguson was Robson’s mentor. Which club comes in doesn’t really matter anyway, it’s about integrity. You’re obviously a bigger man than me, I’ll never forgive him.
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I realise my last answer may stink a bit to some.
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Bully – its something that spilts a lot of baggies fans… and I can wholeheartedly see where you are coming from – Robbos departure (along with us losing BFR) started the decent that we had to edure through the late 80s and 90s – you can directly link the events so I have no problem with fans who can’t forgive.
I think what made me more forgiving was the friendly we had against Jamaica a few years ago with an “old boys” 11 as the warm up game.
Robbo played and it was a joy to watch – and I realised that he probably had to leave to get the outstanding career he enjoyed – even after he retired he oozed class and it was fantastic to see him.
I’m not trying to be moral or saintly – I just “got over it” that day.
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I can see both points of view.Who put this fence under my backside?.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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Yes.
Took our midfield with him.
Remi Moses went as well.
Does anyone know what happened to Remi and where he is now?
I remember they would’nt look at Robbo for England but when he went to United suddenly he was in.
Up to then, nothing.
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Cyril,
Sorry I thought he broke his foot on two different occasions.Dorrans reminds me of
ROBBO,I also think one day he will Captain
Scotland the way he is progressing.Cyril,Giles will save us a packet
when he reaches peak fitness.Can’t wait for
the pitches to dry out a lot of teams will be
footballed off the park.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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I think its more of a bandage where `KES`
must have pecked his arm.
“CRAIG DAVID”
bo selecta!
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Nah DLB,
Ar think Is bin daen LOW ILL CITY and ad Is
ond stuk in thet custud boul.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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Just a thought,Giles and Barnes,what a combination of names.Two of our greats rolled into one.
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Wow another recycled player do we have a spar
in Halfords Lane after JT took the remedial
treatment after being turned down by Mick it
looks like weve unearthed another diamond. You have to say we must have great powers of
awareness somewhere on the staff.
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Shame to hear of the death of Gil Merrick. I remember as a kid in the playground, if you made a good save you’d get ‘who do you think you are Gil Merrick (or Bert Williams?)’ although we’d seen neither of them play, they were legends.
Nice to see on the news that Birmingham have a Gil Merrick Stand. One of the things I still hold against JP is that we don’t have a Jeff Astle, Bomber Brown, Ronnie Allen or Ray Barlow Stand. Or perhaps to accomodate more ex players we could name blocks within stands after our greats. Still time Jeremy.
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I think we should call the East Stand the Tont brown stand and Halfords lane the Ian Hamilton stand
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Cannock.
Ian Hamilton? A decent enough player for us when times were a bit lean but name a stand after him?
I mentioned Allen and Barlow as the stand-out players in a great side, likewise Astle and Brown but also for their loyal service to our club.
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My Idol was DEREK “The Tank ” Kevan.
Frightend the Russians to death he did when he played for ENGLAND.I
remember playing EVERTON at home,We
were two-nil down after twelve
minutes.Derek scored five goals of
which three were headers.David
“Juggler”Burnside Scored the other
one Albion winning SIX-two.Saw Dereks last game for us against
Sheffield Wednesday.the pitch was
white over and had patches of ice,It
was marked out in blue chalk and we
had to clean the ice off our seats.
there were only two matches on that
day in the whole of the British Isles,ALBION being one of them.This was also the last match for Peter
Swan,”Bronco”Lane and ? .Forgot
the other player,Help.They were banned for life for accepting
bribes.The Russians
also named him”LOCOMOTIVE”.I never
met him but DEREK where ever you
are thanks for the memmories.
Where was I?,Oh,Yes,I thing should be named after him.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
Sorry I got carried away.
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Jack.
I caught the very tail end of Derek Kevan’s career when I started going up. Lovely to hear your memories of a amn who was a real heroic type in the good old days. How would he get on nowadays? As Tommy Smith says, ‘he’d probably get sent off in the tunnel.’
The more I think about it the more I like my idea of naming blocks of seats after players. Doesn’t seat C124 in Derek Kevan block sound better than C block? And it still leaves the naming of stands open to money making sponsorship if the club really feels that’s the right way to go.
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TRBH,
I always said Derek could score a
penalty with his head.He used to make NAT LOFTHOUSE look like a
pussycat.Yes to your idea,The ALBION
HEROS shoud be named around the ground.It prompts the youngsters to
inquire about them and knits the club together more.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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RBH, quite right about Robbo. Once he wanted Man.U. we were sunk and yet under Fat Hatpins they only won the FA Cup. One season they began by winning about 12 on the trot. Ron was ecstatic and milked the press. Then they went about another 12 without a win. Oh dear!
I saw Gil Merrick play on several occasions and ONCE FOR US during the last war year as a guest player. Superb goalkeeper he was. I know I’ve said this before but I think Bert Williams was even better than Gil. The same war year he came with Walsall and he beat us 2-0, almost all on his own. And he was onny a babby. I stood behind his goal at the Smethwick end in absolute awe. Walsall attacked twice and got two goals. We hadn’t got a defence, they were all trying, with the forwards and half backs, to get one past Bert.
Waste of time. He was unbeatable. A bit later, Wolves bought him. Now why the heck didn’t we?
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Cyril.
That’s another interesting point. How many Walsall players have we missed out on over the years. Phil Parkes is one that springs to my mind I’m sure others can think of loads more but he was a great keeper at a time when we were struggling in that position.
I’m wary of being accused of pinching their best players but surely better they come to us than end up in London. Matt Fryatt was surely worth a punt at the price he went for.
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TRBH,
Another one,Alan”Sniffer”Clarke.
~~~~BOING~~~~BOING~~~~JtH.
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