PAUL Barnes is the latest conscript in Adrian Heath's Turf Moor revolution. But, as NEIL BRAMWELL discovered, there is more to the £375,000 record Burnley buy than mere footballing prowess.

PAUL Barnes would look on the positive side of a holocaust.

Whereas some strikers from Leicester enjoy fame and fortune only to gain a reputation for accentuating the negative, Barnes is still very much Mr Nice Guy.

But do not mistake his personable nature for the mundane.

That positive disposition is reflected not only in an energetic and bustling style of play, but in forthright and incisive opinions.

It is no great surprise to learn Barnes has already achieved an FA coaching qualification.

Management beckons as surely as the Six O'Clock News follows Neighbours.

But there is the small matter of playing ambition to settle first.

And, typically, the record-breaking move from First Division Birmingham City to Burnley is viewed as a step in the right direction towards his goal of Premiership football.

"I'm the kind of person who wants to achieve a lot in life and wants to achieve a lot in football.

"I have still got a lot of ambition left in football.

"Potentially, Burnley are a very big club and if you look through the Second Division at the moment there are not many clubs you can say that about. "If it had been anyone other than Burnley, the move would have been very difficult.

"I was taking a step backwards to come forwards again and that didn't bother me at all," he enthused.

It will not have bothered wife, Wendy, either.

Though such disruption with a five-month-old baby, Megan - the apple of daddy's eye - is obviously not ideal, there are benefits.

Paul Barnes, squad member and spectator, is no bundle of laughs.

The lure of bulging bank balances in the higher divisions could never compensate for missing the buzz and thrill of regular first team action, starting just 15 games at Birmingham.

"I would have loved the chance to do it at Birmingham.

"Trevor Francis said he didn't want me to leave but he was under pressure to raise money.

"There's nothing worse for a professional footballer than training hard all week and then watching the game in the stand.

"That drives me mad. It annoys me and for the rest of weekend I am an ogre. My wife knows to stay out of my way.

"There is no crowd at reserve team football and it is difficult to motivate yourself. "I don't think you can beat reading the Sunday papers if the side is winning or you are scoring goals.

"No amount amount of money would make any difference at this stage of my career.

"I do not want to look back when I am 35 and say I had 200 reserve games at such a club.

"If I had been 33 it might have been different.

"People have got to realise that Second and Third Division players are not on glorious money and cannot retire at 35.

"If you are money-motivated it becomes very easy to sit back and say that you have a comfortable lifestyle. That's crazy and I would be very surprised if there are many players like that," said Paul.

Money, though, is at present very much on the minds of Nationwide League players the length and breadth of the country.

The Professional Footballers' Association is to ballot members on possible strike action over a dispute on how the spoils of a new TV deal is split.

The sums involved are as alien to the average spectator as champagne and caviar at the terrace kiosks. A realistic and matter-of-fact perspective on such matters is another endearing quality of Barnes.

"Our union is strong and rich. The issues affect us all in later years when you have a pension fund.

"There are times when we have all used the union, so I think it is important to back them and I think 90 per cent of people would say the same.

"But I couldn't ever see it coming to games being cancelled.

"Modern players couldn't have it any better with freedom of contract and this new Bosman rule.

"Potentially the earnings are sky-high. People like Tommy Lawton must not be able to believe what the top players earn.

"Players in those days were earning an average wage and living in an average house next door to their supporters.

"I think it's the best living in the world," he confessed.

And it is a living he chose from the word go, brought up in a country village outside Leicester.

He was in the same class at school as Wendy, but not classic "childhood sweethearts" until a chance meeting after they had left school. Paul, whose father was a boxer and his mother a county-standard athlete, also represented Leicestershire at junior levels in rugby, cricket and athletics.

He was taken on by Stoke City, relentlessly and eventually successfully pursued by John Ward at York, before being sold for £350,000 to Birmingham provoking outcry amongst the Bootham Crescent faithful.

A honeymoon in the Maldives, a recent holiday in Montego Bay and a planned trip to see his brother, a swimming instructor married to a teacher in Penang, are some of the tangible benefits of his career to date.

The pursuit of those rewards is not, however, without pressures.

Barnes has failed to score in his first six games going into today's home tie against Bristol City.

His analysis is candid: "You have to perform - but it is that pressure that keeps you going. "It's very difficult to switch off and let it go when the game is finished and the whole weekend you are still playing things back in your head.

"I would probably worry about my lack of goals straight away but I'm not the kind of person to be bothered to the extent that I will hide.

"It bothers me because I want to do it, so I try even harder."

Effort is never a commodity in short supply from Paul Barnes.

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