Billy Barnes in Bilbao: A Forgotten Trailblazer of Spanish Football

In this guest post, Tom Wardle explores the impact of Billy Barnes on the history of Athletic Club de Bilbao. On 6 April, Athletic Club will meet RCD Mallorca in the Copa del Rey final, aiming to end a 40-year wait for its 24th title, a trophy the club won three times under Billy Barnes.

Today, the flow of football managers and tactical innovations tends to be from La Liga towards the Premier League, with Basque managers, in particular, such as Unai Emery, Andoni Iraola, Xabi Alonso and Mikel Arteta, earning acclaim. However, just over a century ago, it was the entirely the opposite, as fledgling Spanish clubs engaged in ‘foot-ball’ sought to embrace the latest ideas and principles of the founders of the beautiful game: the English. One such import was Billy Barnes, a seasoned veteran of English football, recruited by Athletic Club de Bilbao in 1914 to modernise their approach to the sport and bring discipline to the players but whose legacy has been largely overlooked.

William Edwin Barnes was born on the 28^th of July 1877 in West Ham into a large working-class family. His father worked as a foreman at the oil wharf whilst his mother ran the coffee shop on the North Woolwich Road where the family lived. Even by the age of 13, William, or Billy, was working as a soap maker, as the 1891 Census records. This working-class upbringing certainly influenced William’s younger brother, Albert, who went on to represent East Ham South as its first Labour Member of Parliament and later served as a minister in Clement Attlee’s post-war government.

It was in the East End that Barnes began his footballing career as a teenager, turning out for Thames Ironworks and winning the West Ham Charity Cup in 1896. A move then followed to Leyton FC with the opportunity to pursue a career as a professional footballer. After one season, Barnes travelled North to Yorkshire, to join Sheffield United, who narrowly missed out on the First Division title in Barnes’s first season. 

Barnes truly made his name in the 1902 FA Cup Final, where he scored the winning goal with 10 minutes left on the clock, playing the role of super sub, having not even featured in the initial game. Barnes’s granddaughter, Myra, recalls the story that Barnes’s cup winner’s medal had been stolen from the family home only to eventually turn up in Sheffield United’s museum, who had not been aware of the theft in the first place.

After his heroics in the final, the Cockney left-winger or inside-right returned home to East London, swapping steel for iron as he joined the recently-constituted West Ham United in 1902. Two seasons later, Luton Town proudly announced the signing of the popular winger. Barnes left Luton under a cloud in 1907 following a wage dispute. It was at QPR where Barnes enjoyed his best years, winning the Southern Football League in his first season at the club and sharing a dressing room with his eventual successor at Athletic Club de Bilbao, Fred Pentland. Barnes then went on to captain the Hoops to another league title in 1912.

By 1913, Barnes was turning out for Southend United. Although a match report from March 1914 recalls that Barnes’s abilities were on the wane and he had ‘lost much of his old-time speed’, it hinted at his suitability for management as he nevertheless ‘set his younger colleagues an example worthy of emulation’.^[1] With the outbreak of World War One in the summer of 1914, the opportunity to avoid the trenches in neutral Spain may have hastened Barnes’s decision to apply for the advertised vacancy of the ‘trainer’ of Athletic Club de Bilbao in 1914.

To this day, Athletic Club still retains a reputation for Anglophilia beyond just its name, although it only plays with homegrown Basque players. Football first arrived on Bilbao’s shores alongside the exportation of the British industrial revolution in the late 19^thcentury. With the explosive growth of football in Spain, Athletic’s president Alejandro de la Sota was eager to steal a march on rivals by energising the club with the latest ideas from England, then considered the zenith of football at the time and had advertised the position of ‘Trainer’ in English newspapers as early as 1911. Eyebrows were no doubt raised in Bilbao at Athletic’s decision to seek a manager for their team, who had just won the 1914 Copa del Rey with the players sharing leadership responsibilities, as well as a previous experiment with Mister Shepherd in 1910 ending as quickly as it began.

Barnes immediately sought to instil some old-fashioned discipline in the club by taking the radical step of holding regular training sessions for the team, beginning as early as eight in the morning.^[2] Despite all of his best efforts, Barnes, also a trained masseur, was never able to convince Pichichi, the talismanic striker of the team whose name still adorns the top scorer in La Liga, to abandon his playboy lifestyle and train and follow an appropriate diet, Jon Rivas writes.^[3]

As part of this serious, professionalised approach to football, Barnes quickly came to be known by the deferential title, ‘Mister Barnes’. Indeed, the moniker of ‘mister’, or ‘míster’, began with Barnes and to this day, continues to be used in Spanish footballers to refer to their manager.

Tactically too, Barnes sought to bring about changes with an attacking approach, based on the 2-3-5 pyramid formation, encouraging his teams to move the ball forward quickly and more purposefully. This technique was known as ‘the old 1-2-3’, with three touches from goalkeeper to the back of the net, Phil Ball writes.^[4] Years later, Barnes himself commented to Mundo Deportivo that on his arrival, “I introduced a fast game with long passing, moving the ball from wing to wing, with fast strikers in the centre.” Barnes condemned the “patient, slow game of short passing- elegant to watch but totally unpractical”.^[5] One dreads to think what Barnes would have made of Tiki-Taka. 

One local journalist, José María Mateos, (who would later become manager of Spain’s national football team), took a particular interest in Barnes’s work to begin with, remarking on his arrival that it was worth going to a match “just to appreciate the effect of the trainer”.^[6] However, Mateos’s attitude shifted when Athletic were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Arenas Club de Getxo, as he decried Barnes’s failure to “develop an intelligent, practical tactic”.^[7] Despite the criticisms, Athletic secured their place at the 1915 Copa del Rey by winning their Campeonato del Norte (Northern Championship).

After drawing the first leg 0-0 away in Galicia, Athletic comprehensively saw off Fortuna de Vigo in the semi-finals, winning 5-1 at San Mamés, courtesy of a Zubizarreta hat-trick. A week later, in May 1915, a short trip to the French border town of Irún awaited Athletic, who were to face RCD Español. Pichichi put the Barcelona-based side to the sword with the first ever hat-trick in a cup final, crowning off his best goalscoring season, with 22 goals in just 12 official matches. Despite the initial misgivings, Barnes won the cup at the first attempt with his direct style certainly adding goals to the front line.

Perhaps suffering from a cup hangover, Athletic started sluggishly in their second season under Barnes, including a humbling 3-0 defeat at the hands of minnows Jolastokieta. Nevertheless, they recovered and eventually finished the season on the same number of points as perennial rivals Real Sociedad, albeit with the same amount of goals scored and critically, one fewer goal conceded.

In the 1916 Copa del Rey, Athletic bizarrely qualified directly for the final by virtue of the withdrawals of the champions of Andalusia and Galicia.  This year, Athletic faced Madrid FC in Barcelona. Barnes’s side strode to a comfortable 4-0 win with a pair of goals in each half, topped off with another hat-trick, this time from Zubizarreta.

Upon winning their third consecutive Copa, Athletic were rewarded with a triumphant conquering return to Bilbao. The Gaceta del Norte records that the crowds tried to carry Mister Barnes on their shoulders to the trophy reception. That same account describes Barnes as being visibly moved^[8] and such emotion may well be explained by the fact that this was to be Barnes’s farewell to Athletic. 

With World War One in full swing and conscription coming into effect in 1916, Barnes “came home to do his bit”.^[9] In September 1917, Barnes and his wife had their third child, Eileen. Records show that Barnes was accepted into the newly-established Royal Air Force, enrolling in April 1918 and eventually rising to the rank of a 2^nd class Air Mechanic four months later. Football and war historian Clive Harris notes that Barnes stated his profession as a ‘packer’ and was subsequently posted to a Stores Distribution Unit near Edinburgh.

Back in Bilbao, Athletic were suffering in the absence of their trainer, with the club failing to win the Campeonato del Norte for the first time in 1917. Athletic were unable to regain their regional title in 1918 and 1919. This meant that Athletic failed to qualify for the Copa del Rey, the very competition they had won three years in a row under Barnes. Amidst this crisis, rumours began to surface in the summer 1919 of a possible return to Bilbao for Billy Barnes. Eventually, in the summer of 1920, having been officially released from his military service, the West London Observer announced that Barnes was ‘returning to Spain to resume his position as coach to the Bilbao Football Club.’^[10]

Upon his return, the Míster immediately re-instated his firm methods and demands of the players. “They will not stop training, they will gain cohesion and they will not lack enthusiasm,” the Gaceta del Norte confidently declared on Barnes’s return in September 1920.^[11] To Mundo Deportivo, Barnes bemoaned that Athletic had neglected the direct style of play that he had previously instilled, whilst their rivals had appropriated it.^[12] Barnes’s techniques clearly had an effect as in his second spell, Athletic put their drought behind them and walked their regional championship, winning all but their final game.

In the 1921 Copa del Rey, Athletic overcame Sporting de Gijón in the quarter finals. Athletic appeared to have been knocked out by Sevilla FC in the semi-finals but, following a dispute that typifies the Copa del Rey of the early 20^th century, the Andalusian outfit were disqualified for fielding four ineligible players. In the final, held at San Mamés for the only time ever, Athletic Club de Bilbao were to face Athletic Club de Madrid, previously a branch of the same organisation. There were to be no hat-tricks this final but instead, Laca and Acedo both managed to bag braces in a 4-1 victory, which will have undoubtedly delighted the San Mamés crowd.

Mister Barnes decided that this was to be his last hurrah (Pichichi similarly announced his retirement), ensuring a remarkable record of winning the Copa at each of his three attempts. Barnes had been in England drumming up support for English clubs to come to Bilbao to face Athletic in friendlies. Just a week after the 1921 cup final, Billy Barnes welcomed his boyhood club, West Ham United to Bilbao, presumably for a benefit match.

Billy Barnes made it back to England in time to be recorded on the Census in June 1921, living in Vange, Essex, near Southend, with his wife and three children. Notably, Barnes recorded his profession as ‘Professional Coach of Football’ but presently ‘out of work’. Although Billy Barnes returned home with three cups and three leagues under his belt, he was unable to find any work in management in his homeland. Instead, Barnes took up work as an insurance agent before his eventual death in January 1962 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire at the age of 84.

Whilst the story of Mister Barnes has been largely relegated to an addendum of the story of his former QPR teammate and successor at San Mamés, Mister Pentland, who largely disavowed Barnes’s direct style, Billy Barnes subtly left an enduring legacy in Bilbao and beyond. Barnes popularised the term ‘Míster’, which is still given to football managers in Spain to this day. His direct English style took root in the Spanish game when they saw its effectiveness and brought out the best of Pichichi, the most revered of strikers. With Athletic Club de Bilbao now awaiting their 40^th Copa del Rey final next month, seeking to end a 40-year drought, they can proudly look back at Billy Barnes, their first cup-winning manager.

For more on Athletic Club, check out our podcast with the peña (fan group) Mr Pentland Club and grab a copy of Christopher Evans’ new book Los Leones.

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^[1] Luton Reporter, 23/03/1914

^[2] Una cuestión de orgullo, Jon Agiriano

^[3] ‘La leyenda de Pichichi’, Jon Rivas https://jrivasalbizu.com/?p=1511

^[4] Morbo, Phil Ball

^[5] Mundo Deportivo, 04/11/1920

^[6] La Gaceta del Norte, 21/09/1914

^[7] La Gaceta del Norte, 16/11/1914

^[8] La Gaceta del Norte, 11/05/1916 https://liburutegibiltegi.bizkaia.eus/bitstream/id/338895/b1126214x_1916_05_11.pdf

^[9] West London Observer, 27/08/1920

^[10] West London Observer, 27/08/1920

^[11]La Gaceta del Norte, 21/09/1920   

^[12] Mundo Deportivo, 04/11/1920