Cardiff City must enjoy Premier League experience, says Leon Barnett
On loan defender tells his team mates to make the most of their big Premier League adventure.
Leon Barnett knows about the pressures of stepping up to the Premier League and insisted: “Cardiff must enjoy the experience for what it is.”
Centre-half Barnett, who had already been promoted with West Brom, and Norwich, made it an outstanding automatic treble by also going up with Cardiff as champions. He started this season playing Premier League football for Norwich, joining the Bluebirds on loan in March. City have kept five clean sheets in the eight Championship fixtures Barnett has played in.
“The Championship is a crazy division which is great to watch and hard to get out of, but it is great when your team succeeds,” said Barnett. “Any success is based on consistency and a key factor is how you respond to a setback. Cardiff have done really well in ensuring they have bounced back quickly when things haven’t gone as well as they hoped. Norwich, West Brom and Cardiff have each had that consistency. The manager here in Cardiff has kept us playing at 100 per cent every step of the way.”
Cardiff still have two matches to play in their Championship season, but staff are already planning ahead for the top-flight challenge in 2013-14.
“First off, Premier League football is great to be involved in and is where every player rightly wants to be,” says Barnett.
It’s hard for any team making the step up, dealing with expectations and so on. With the greatest respect, it is a completely different prospect to the Championship. There is more pressure, more exposure and games against talented international players who are household names.
“There can be times when you get a purple patch to really enjoy and others when you can’t pick up a win even when the team puts in a good performance. For players it’s about learning as you go, trying to shorten the gap with the big teams. For the fans it’s about realising your team are not going to win every match and appreciating that the players will do everything they can to win as many as possible. You have to celebrate and enjoy the experience for what it is.”
Barnett signed for City on a 28-day loan to help out when captain Mark Hudson, a leading contender to be player of the season, suffered an ankle injury which needed surgery. Ben Turner, too, was out injured for a short time. Manager Mackay described his new defender as ‘quick, aggressive and combative – an excellent professional’ and he showed those qualities as soon as he was plunged into action only a day after agreeing the loan move.
City won 2-0 at Sheffield Wednesday on Barnett’s debut and he has gone from strength to strength, proving an effective deputy for Hudson. His loan was extended until the end of this season – Barnett is available for the last two fixtures against Bolton at home and Hull away. Barnett has proved a big success at the centre of City’s defence and could even be signed permanently next season. He made 11 first-team appearances for Norwich this season, playing against Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and more at Premier level, before making the switch to Cardiff.
“The move came out of the blue,” said Barnett. “It was clear there is a good mentality at the club and the fresh challenge was exciting.”
Barnett was a key player next to Turner in the goalless draw against Charlton, when City made sure of automatic promotion, and Burnley when the 1-1 draw guaranteed they would be champions.
“These are the sort of games I want to be involved in,” he said. “It’s great to be involved in successful teams in a promotion season. The Cardiff squad compares with those at West Brom and Norwich when we went up. If anything, Cardiff have even more attributes. I’ve enjoyed my time here and there are two matches left. Our only thoughts right now are going into those and giving everything we’ve got.
“Then, when the season is over, we can reflect on what has been achieved. It’s been great to play at Cardiff City Stadium and it’s going to be a big day this Saturday for Bolton, But we can only think about being focused and ready for what will be another difficult test.”
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