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John Barnes left Watford on the 9th June 1987 in a £900,000 deal for Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool, joining at the same time as England team-mate Peter Beardsley and linking up with John Aldridge and then Ian Rush to form one of the most formidable attacking lines of Liverpool's illustrious history. Barnes made his debut for the Reds, along with Beardsley, on the 15th August 1987 in the 2-1 league win over Arsenal at Highbury, it took just 9 minutes for Barnes and Beardsley to show just what was in store for the Anfield faithful, as they combined to set up Aldridge for an excellent team goal. Barnes' first strike for the club came a month later on the 12th September as the Reds beat Oxford United 2-0 at Anfield, Aldridge had already scored against his former employers in the 13th minutes before Barnes scored in the 37th minute to make the game safe.

In his first season at Anfield, Barnes was outstanding as Liverpool coasted to the League title, remaining undefeated for the first 29 games of the season and ending up with just two defeats, though again he would suffer FA Cup disappointment when Wimbledon surprisingly beat the champions 1-0 in the final. Barnes had performed a memorable (not necessarily for the right reasons) rap on the club's traditional Cup final song Anfield Rap, which got to No.3 in the UK charts.

Barnes, like everyone else at Anfield, was given a nickname, what with Dallas being one of the leading TV programmes of the time and one of the characters names being Digger Barnes, it was an easy call to give him the nickname 'Digger,' this has stuck with him and is also how the Liverpool fans affectionately refer to him.

The success and disappointment of the '87/88 season were reversed a year later, with Liverpool winning the FA Cup with a 3-2 defeat over Merseyside rivals Everton, with Barnes instrumental during the extra time period, but losing the title to Arsenal with literally seconds remaining.

Barnes,in his early years at Liverpool, was having to deal with racist abuse from opposing supporters and far-right groups — a famous photograph was once taken of Barnes, in full Liverpool kit and mid-match, casually backheeling away a banana which had been hurled at him. In his early England days, he and fellow black player Mark Chamberlain were subjected to threats from racist groups. Notably, Barnes was abused by supporters of the National Front on the plane back from South America in June 1984; the racists claimed that England had only won 1-0 against Brazil because Barnes' wonder goal "didn't count".

Barnes played in the 1990 title winning side at Liverpool and scored an amazing 22 league goals from the left wing. Liverpool striking legend, and colleague, Ian Rush also had a great season but managed 4 fewer league goals than Barnes, putting into a larger context just how prolific and important Barnes was to Liverpool at the time. He then appeared in the World Cup for England. He sustained a groin injury against Belgium shortly after having a magnificent volleyed goal wrongly disallowed for offside. England went out to Germany on penalties in the semi-final. Barnes had again supplied a rap for a tie-in song, "World In Motion" by New Order, which was a UK No.1 and is still regarded by many as the best football song ever made.

Barnes continued to play for Liverpool and England, and started the 1990-91 season in scintillating form, despite frequent barracking from opposition fans who were frustrated with his lack of product in an England shirt. His response was frightening though as the likes of Aston Villa, Manchester United, Wimbledon FC and Leeds United found out as Barnes scored spectaular goal after goal for the Liverpool cause. The resignation of the legendary Dalglish however was a blow that Liverpool did not recover from for more than a decade. The great club suffered a demise as Manchester United supplanted Liverpool as the dominant English team, and it was more than coincidence that Barnes' own demise can be traced back to this point. He did however win the FA Cup again in 1992 despite missing the final with an Achilles injury. Around this time, he was booed by a section of England supporters at Wembley after a poor performance by the whole team - somehow, Barnes' own perceived underachievement throughout his international career was seen as a symbol for England's own ineptitude as a team that evening. It was also this pre-season (in 1992) where constant injuries would eventually take their toll and rob Barnes of the lightning acceleration and pace that was once his hallmark.

By the mid-1990s, Barnes knew he was facing the end of his playing career and looked to make up for the underachievement at International level with his club side. He publicly stated that he would stay at Liverpool and nurture promising young talent that needed his leadership instead of leaving the club as it went through turbulent years under Graeme Souness, before Roy Evans took over at the helm in 1994. Under Evans, Barnes and his young proteges like his favoured successor, Steve McManaman, fellow central midfielder Jamie Redknapp and striker Robbie Fowler won the League Cup with Liverpool in 1995. Barnes had now been converted into a holding midfielder where he, Redknapp and McManaman would pass their way through teams and set up countless goals for the likes of Fowler. However, it is probable that a lack of a tough-tackling central midfielder at this time prevented Liverpool from ever winning the league championship under Evans, and it is in some quarters considered probable that Evans (formerly Kenny Dalglish's number 2) had stayed loyal to a fault - to the ageing Barnes. However due to an injury to fullback Rob Jones it is also considered by other sections of Liverpool fans that it was Evans subsequent tactical formation of a 5 man defence with wing-backs behind and beside 3 midfield players, that was the real and only flaw in what was technically a very good side, one always revolving around the Barnes, Redknapp, McManaman fulcrum.

After 12 years of international recognition Barnes won the last of his 79 caps on the 6th September 1995 in the memorable 0-0 friendly draw with Colombia at, fittingly, Wembley. The goalless friendly will always be remembered because of the eccentric Colombian goalkeepers, Rene Higuita, 'Scorpion Kick.'

He managed one more FA Cup runners-up medal before narrowly losing out on the FA Premiership title to Manchester United a year later in 1997. On the 13th August that same year, after 407 appearances and 108 goals, Barnes decided it was time to leave Anfield and joined up with former boss Kenny Dalglish at Newcastle United. He reached yet another FA Cup final (defeated again) during his short period at St James' Park Barnes made 41 appearances and scored 7 times before ending his playing career at Charlton Athletic where he played just 12 times starting twice.

John Barnes is an Anfield legend.