Leicester City fans give their final verdict on Harvey Barnes
Harvey Barnes looks to be on the verge of leaving the King Power in search of a new challenge and some shiny Saudi banknotes.
As he heads off to oil fields new, how will our writers remember Barnes’ Leicester career?
Harvey Barnes. A product of the Leicester Academy who made his first team debut in the Champions League, and who now seems destined to sign for Newcastle to play European football once again. This bookend to his time at the club comes after his best season for us, scoring 13 from 34 league games and ending up as our top scorer.
His final goal was quintessential Barnes, the player I’ll remember: burst down the left, one-two to keep the defenders guessing, take the ball onto his right foot and hit it across the goalkeeper into the net.
However, Barnes' place in the starting XI has always been a conundrum, as you can't play a system with two up front with him in the team. He’s an out-and-out winger who provides an attacking outlet but doesn't track back, so he’s wasted in a 3-5-2. Despite his goals, Leicester needed a combination of Jamie Vardy/Patson Daka playing off Kelechi Iheanacho up front for much of last season, and Barnes didn’t fit into that.
Therefore, I’m left wondering whether Barnes is a one-trick pony? If so, it's some trick, but there are parts to his game that lack star quality and prevent him from being the complete player we hoped he would be. Ultimately, his strengths also brought limitations along with them.
Adam Hodges
I think Barnes has been an excellent player for us and, like a few from the recent era, his reputation and our memories will become better the longer we're outside the Premier League. If the great Enzo revolution flounders and we get bogged down in the Championship, I'm very sure we'll all look back wistfully at the time we had Harvey Barnes rampaging down the wing.
His stats stack up with anyone outside the absolute top tier, like a Mo Salah. There's lots of players ahead of him in the England reckoning that are nowhere near him goal contribution wise. I'm sure Harvey may have looked at that and thought about a move, even before we were relegated, as for some reason he's very much under the radar. There are flaws in his game, dribbling past opponents being the main one, but double figure goal returns are not to be sniffed at.
He is, though, the one exception to my rule of not hanging on to players. With two years left on his contract, we should rebuff anything south of £40m. Selling for less than that really will be a slap in the face. Regardless, I genuinely wish him well and I hope he is a huge success at his next club if/when he does leave.
Iain Wright
First and foremost, positively. You can probably pick the amount of truly successful academy graduates on one hand in my lifetime, but Barnes has been the best by a long way.
He joined our squad at a tricky time under Claude Puel, but was here – and integral to – the resurgence under Brendan Rodgers; regrettably injured for the FA Cup final, but ultimately key to our most sustainably great team in Premier League history.
I can’t say he’s one of those players you love watching, because he’s not especially exciting – but Barnes was very effective and posted consistently good numbers. I’ll always remember the stretch in 2020-21 where it felt like he was digging us out of holes on a weekly basis – his goal at Crystal Palace springs to mind, but… well, that’s about it.
As David Bevan wrote on this site before, it’s the lack of memorable moments that get you on reflection. We’ll know he was great in future years – we just might not remember what for.
Joe Brewin
If this is the end, then I'll remember Harvey Barnes fondly with a twinge of wondering "what if?". In any season where you fluff everything up and subsequently get relegated, something has to give and it's a shame that that would be giving up Barnes. It's not been perfect and he's not always been the star player but the potential is always there. A Barnes in form is a fine sight to behold. Exciting, dynamic, and the type of player I like.
I wouldn't begrudge Barnes a move, I believe he is a Premier League player and that the right manager, or just a manager who hasn't given up on his job, would be able to glean some more consistency from him and help take his performances to the next level. Maybe I'll take some flak for saying it but you won't see another Harvey Barnes for us. That's not to imply he's irreplaceable, merely that wingers like him aren't so abundant these days. They probably don't get trained the same way these days, with the expectations of the modern style.
If you took Barnes' numbers at statistical value, his output has been pretty good during his time with Leicester. It's always preferable to have a player come through the academy, especially one who seems likeable. He isn't a James Maddison character (publicly, at least) so perhaps he doesn't excite people or makes people assume he doesn't care, but he's always seemed admirably mature and level headed on the pitch.
I wish we could see him in Leicester blue for another year, as it would be a lot of fun to see him in the Championship, but he's a player whose career I would keep an eye on. I'll choose to remember some of the runs, crosses and goals. Always a soft spot for the archer celebration too.
Helen Nutter
Going into the 2019/20 campaign, I was so convinced that Barnes was a phenom-in-waiting that I bet a Liverpool-supporting friend of mine he would outscore every one of their non-Salah players that season.
Sadio Mane went on to score 18 times, while Barnes had managed to rouse himself into one goal before the New Year.
All of which is to say that he never quite lived up to my expectations. Some people might say I was duped by the sexy hexagons of the StatsBomb radars that told me he was the next big thing. Because contrary to what they suggested, it’s hard to deny that his capacity for long-range smashers and terrorising full backs and winning games on his own had faded to virtually nothing by the end.
He definitely became a more effective player every season in a goalscoring sense, but for me he lost a lot of his explosiveness and star power along the way. I wonder how much the knee injury that did him in against Arsenal in 2021 changed his trajectory from scintillating winger to ‘just’ a finisher.
And I just wanted a bit more.
James Knight
