Peter Barnes (footballer)

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Peter Simon Barnes (born June 10, 1957), was an English footballer. He made his debut for Manchester City in 1974-75 and scored in the League Cup final in 1976 at the age of 19. The same year he was voted Young Player of the Year by the Professional Footballers Association for his exciting play on the left wing. Barnes was one of the main victims of Malcolm Allison's egocentric clearout of name players in 1979. Barnes was West Bromwich Albion's most expensively signed player when he joined them for £752,000 in 1978 - a club transfer record which was not broken for nearly 20 years.

Barnes was Albion's leading scorer in 1979-80 but he made a major mistake in signing for Leeds United in 1981. Manager Allan Clarke played him upfront but Barnes failed to adapt to the new role scoring only one goal. Team mate Frank Worthington in his book "One Hump Or Two" alleged that Barnes was unwilling to listen to those who wished to develop his game.Barnes was a regular with England at the time but apparently unpopular with his team-mates who took advantage of his club troubles in pressuring manager Ron Greenwood to drop him.

When Leeds were relegated in 1982 he was loaned to Spanish club Real Betis for a season but didn't relish the climate and returned to Leeds the following season. After 27 games and 4 goals for Eddie Gray in the Second Division he was sold to Coventry for £50,000. Some good form there led Ron Atkinson to sign him for Manchester United where he was effectively understudy to Danish winger Jesper Olsen but performed well when called upon and scored his last league goals for them.

Barnes was not a favourite of new manager Alex Ferguson and according to Gordon Strachan once hid underwater in the bath when Ferguson came after him. He was transferred back to Manchester City in 1987 but soon fell out of favour there and was loaned out to Bolton and Port Vale. His League career petered out with brief spells at Hull City, Bolton again and Sunderland(1 game). He moved on to Tampa Bay Rowdies in the USA and after failing to persuade Bury he was worth a contract drifted into non-league football with Mossley.

After retiring from playing Barnes had a spell managing Runcorn FC and has since worked behind the scenes at Manchester City and for local radio.

Preceded by: Mervyn Day

PFA Young Player of the Year 1976

Succeeded by: Andy Gray