Iconic images: Digger in the dugout
Throughout LFC's 125th anniversary year, Liverpoolfc.com will retrace the club's history through the striking images that plot a fascinating journey.
Thirteenth in the series is a photograph of a resplendent John Barnes surveying his new home after joining the Reds.
After Everton had wrested the First Division title back from Liverpool in 1987, Kenny Dalglish’s response was emphatic.
Having begun the process of replacing the irreplaceable - Ian Rush’s impending departure to Juventus naturally cast a considerable shadow over Anfield throughout the 1986-87 campaign - by signing John Aldridge in January, Dalglish added two more forwards to his squad during the summer.
The result was sensational, stunning, spectacular.
John Barnes and Peter Beardsley arrived and Liverpool became irresistible.
Their league record in 1987-88 is nothing short of astonishing: Played 40, won 26, drawn 12, lost two, 87 goals scored, 24 conceded.
Barnes was at the heart of it all.
Skill, pace, finesse, power, strength, dribbling, goals, assists. Liverpool’s new No.10 seemed almost unfairly gifted.
He ended his first season at the club with a league winner’s medal. He also ended it with the PFA Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year awards.
When the iconic image above was taken, shortly after Barnes had signed for Liverpool, surely nobody could have predicted what was to come.
Resplendent in all red, he smiles while surveying his new Anfield home from the dugout - a home he would go on to grace for a decade.
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