Ashley Barnes

[SittingbourneSeagull]

At the start of the season his three main problems were his first touch, his lack of strength on the ball and his petulance. He has improved in all of these areas and hence he has improved as a player as the season has gone on. He is still very young and inexperienced at this level and in my view will be a top player next year.

Thats assuming he is offered and signs a new contract. I think he will be offered a new one but I am not sure he will sign it. I wouldn't the abuse he gets. He will get plenty of offers from other clubs.

 

[SittingbourneSeagull]

By the way he is my favourite player. Has played out of position all season, is top scorer, a good instinctive finisher (not so good when he has time to think about it) and his workrate is second to none.

 

[Rugrat]

Thats assuming he is offered and signs a new contract. I think he will be offered a new one but I am not sure he will sign it. I wouldn't the abuse he gets. He will get plenty of offers from other clubs.

He'll sign ... the most important thing is having the support of his Manager which he's got in bucket loads. All players get the occasional slagging off, he's a pro and it won't phase him. Not sure he could find a better club right now ... reckon we'll come out and say we're aiming for Prem next season and it's difficult to see how he does any better than that

 

[JCL666]

I like him.
Works hard. Not scared to shoot.

Like others have said, his technique is a work in progress, but he is definitely an instinctive footballer with talent.

Sometimes he is capable of really neat, incisive play, but can on occasion make mistakes. If he can get more consistency in his passing and also have more opportunities to play in a central role then I think he is capable of becoming a really good player in the mould of someone like Sherringham.

 

[stevedx]

I think he is a good player, think gus has worked wonders with him, does occasionally make mistakes and has off days but so does everyone.

 

[Drumstick]

Has made the step very well, Plays a tough roll well (almost retrained posistion) and chipped in with the most goals albiet some from pens.

Love him think he will only get better and next year he will be replacing noone on my shirt. Bright future.

Sorry El-Noonio.

 

[Eggmundo]

Sometimes he looks a bit out of sorts and is without a doubt the most contentious figure in the Albion squad but, you can't argue with his goal tally this season.

Personally I think he'll definitely improve as the years go by. If he doesn't get peed off with all the moaners before and bugger off to Palarse that is!

Captain of the future.

 

[withdeanwombat]

There's me thinking it's Friday the 13th and it turns into Groundhog Day.

Quick,somebody start a thread about crap movies.

PS, Barnes is superb,and with the national team's current lack of strikers.....................

 

[Landgull]

Good all round player who has improved thoughout the season. Better first touch than CMS.

 

[Acker79]

Thats assuming he is offered and signs a new contract. I think he will be offered a new one but I am not sure he will sign it. I wouldn't the abuse he gets. He will get plenty of offers from other clubs.

He signed an extension last summer, his contract expires next june. So it depends on if someone comes in with an offer for him the club and he can't refuse.

 

[Beach Hut]

Had a brilliant season in my view

 

[les dynam]

best forward at the club. surprised gus hasn't played him as the central forward much this season, perhaps a better bet than CMS or Vokes right up top.

improved massively as the season has progressed, don't write him off as next season's top scorer

 

[Acker79]

In my opinion, he's a player who is focused on too much. Most people who criticise him are far too harsh, criticising him more for the things other people do just as frequently as he does and taking hypothetical extrapolations to worst extremes even when they don't fit with what has actually happened his poor performances are rated far lower than the deserve, and his great performances are not rated as high as they merit, especially in comparison to other players. Most people who defend him refuse to see his faults overstating his good points. Unfortunately the discussion tends to get taking over by these extremes.

I think his first touch is not as bad as people think, he does have bad touches, but he also has a lot of good touches, and it's probably in the same ratio as most of the team. He can be petulant, but so far this season he has not overstepped the mark in talks with the ref, despite what some of his detractors will tell you. He does go down far too easily, though. His position is really good, but he isn't given the ball in these positions enough for people to realise how often he gets into them.

I don't think it's fair to separate his stats from the discussion (or any discussion about any player). Most things in football are stats - assists, passes completed, percent to team mates, distance covered on the pitch etc. are all stats that tend to be discussed as "work rate" or "poor passing/losing the ball" etc. just with numbers of shots and percentage of passes to team mates etc. it's a more definitive assessment than "it seems like all his passes go astray". And given how poor our penalty record has been recently (except in shoot outs), and how a scored penalty means as much as an open play goal to results, so it's also unfair to ignore the goals he scores from penalties. You can't just dismiss someone's positive contributions just so you can make him out to be bad.

He is our top scorer and has been involved in 10 other goals, whether direct assists such a CMS's two v Leeds, or in the build up such as pressuring the peterborough keeper who then scuffed his clearance to noone to score, or winning the free kick v peterborough that Harley scored or the one v Millwall that Lualua scored. These all count.

 

[Arthritic Toe]

Favourite player. Great partnership developing with Vicente. Ash seems to be one of the few players on the same wavelength. I hope both are here next season.

 

[mattislost]

i would like to see him play the main striker role instead of CMS

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Nice guy and useful player! Definite keeper

 

[leigull]

Saw a Palace fan on Twitter this morning saying he was hoping/expecting Palace to be talking to Barnes' agent about a free transfer in the summer. Also that Barnes and Murray together would reignite their great goalscoring partnership of last year.

 

[GingerBeerMan]

Definite keeper

Please, no! He's bad enough on the wing please don't play him in goal

 

[Acker79]

Saw a Palace fan on Twitter this morning saying he was hoping/expecting Palace to be talking to Barnes' agent about a free transfer in the summer. Also that Barnes and Murray together would reignite their great goalscoring partnership of last year.

Not likely to happen, because he signed an extension with us last summer, keeping him contracted to BHA until next summer. I can't see why we would give palace our top scorer for free. (Remember, Murray wasn't ours to give when he chose to go to palace, his contract had expired, so it's not the same)

 

[leigull]

Not likely to happen, because he signed an extension with us last summer, keeping him contracted to BHA until next summer. I can't see why we would give palace our top scorer for free. (Remember, Murray wasn't ours to give when he chose to go to palace, his contract had expired, so it's not the same)

Did he really sign a new deal? I thought he was out of contract this summer too and Gus didn't want to open negotiations until the season was over. Missed that completely!