JOHN BARNES defended Liverpool for putting its non-playing staff on furlough, saying: It’s a myth football is awash with money.
But the former England and Reds winger made his comments before the Reds made a complete U-turn on their original decision.
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John Barnes leapt to the defence of Liverpool – before the club dramatically changed their stance
Barnes had blamed FANS for crying foul over finances during the coronavirus crisis when they usually want clubs to splash cash on new signings.
Kop legends Jamie Carragher, Stan Collymore and Didi Hamann slammed Liverpool for their “disgusting” decision to use the government money-saving scheme like Spurs and Newcastle.
Following the fierce criticism from pundits, ex-players and supporters, Liverpool then changed their stance.
In a long statement on Monday evening, chief executive Peter Moore said: “We believe we came to the wrong decision last week… we are truly sorry.”
Liverpool have increased their turnover to £533m and announced pre-tax profits of £42m in February.
But in a social media rant, Barnes had earlier claimed the club should not be blamed and weren’t breaking any rules.
Barnes, 56, said: “The myth that football clubs are just awash with money and they’re just holding all this money back and their staff are being furloughed – that’s not the case.
“This is a strategy the government have offered to all companies.
“If the government then say companies who can afford not to do it aren’t eligible to do it – then they aren’t eligible to do it.
“I don’t see how you can offer it to any company and then criticise them when they do it.
Barnes is an Anfield legend, having scored more than 100 goals in over 400 games
“I’ll be surprised if more clubs don’t do it.
“No-one at Liverpool has been laid off. No-one at Liverpool is not getting 100 per cent of their salary.
“So the fact that it’s not coming from Liverpool is neither here nor there as far as I’m concerned.
“This whole idea football clubs are just awash with money and they have money to spend and they have money in their pockets so therefore they can afford to do this – that’s crazy.
“They make loads of money but they spend loads of money.
“That has a lot to do with the salaries they pay the players, which is a completely separate issue.”
HYPOCRITICAL TO SLAM CLUBS
Barnes scored 108 goals in 407 matches for Liverpool, and lifted two league titles during his time at Anfield.
The Jamaican-born star reckons it’s hypocritical for supporters to moan about clubs’ finances when they all scream for new glory signings.
He told FootballJoe: “We’re saying: ‘Oh football clubs have overspent, they’re spending too much money on their players.’
“And when this doesn’t happen and everything is OK every football fan demands: ‘What are they doing at Newcastle?’
“They say: ‘Mike Ashley, spend more money. Give the players £300,000-a-week so they can come and help us to win the league.’
“That’s what football fans demand. And now they’re saying: ‘Oh, we’re spending too much money.’
“They can’t have it both ways. Now obviously this is a different conversation to have further down the line.
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“From the point of view of a salary cap, managing finances better in football, only spending money you can afford.
“That’s another issue and something that should be debated in happier times.
“But you can’t look at what’s going on now, and say football clubs are spending too much money because that’s what the football fans demand.
Laura Woods doesn’t think it’s right for Premier League clubs like Tottenham and Liverpool to use the government’s furlough scheme
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
