Personally, I disagree. I don't like him nearly as much as most seem to, and I honestly don't see where the love comes from. He has been a good player for us, but nowhere near a legend, and I don't think he'd have got in our great sides at all. Ray Wilson is regarded 1 of the best Left backs to play for Everton or England, and Pat Van Den Hauwe, while maybe not technically as good as either added another essential element to that side that Baines has never offered, so to suggest that is crazy.
Baines has never been a great defender, and as
@Bluebonic says, he owes most of his reputation to his partnership with Pienaar
Before Pienaar, he struggled to get in the side ahead of a centre back, and after we sold him, he struggled with Bilyaletdinov ahead of him, regaining form when we resigned Pienaar, and hasn't looked the same again since Pienaars legs went and was removed from the side.
For all the criticism he got, I honestly don't think there was a lot between him and Oviedo, even after the injury. I heard people criticising/laughing at Oviedo at the weekend for being brushed aside by Rom for the goal. In reality, Rom is an absolute beast, and most people would struggle in the same position. But he got back to make the challenge that actually sent the ball into the net, which was unfortunate for him.
I'm not saying we shouldn't have sold Oviedo, for the money we got, it was a good deal, and his injury did make a difference to the player he was. I do wonder though what would've happened if that was Rom up against Baines.
The other thing that he has built his reputation on, other than his partnership with Pienaar, which was fantastic, is his set pieces, as pointed out by
@Layne, but the reality is, he hasn't scored a freekick in approaching 4 years, and his corners have been atrocious for just as long.
Not his fault though, it's because Martinez didn't practice Corners, so Baines forgot how to do them. Honest.
The other thing people say about him, is how he's a blue (although he did support Liverpool as well, so he's one of those Blues), and that he's this great professional. Well in light of the recent goings on at Leicester, and how their players are being chastised by fans and media alike for engineering the managers exit, by not giving their all and forcing the hand, the same thing happened under Martinez, and from all accounts Baines was central to it, along with Osman, Jagielka and Hibbert, all senior players who carry sway and were very much Moyes boys. Only Osman seems to take the hit on that 1 though, probably because he was a childhood Liverpool fa... Erm... because he didn't have cool hair maybe?
Say what you want about Martinez going, whether you liked him or not, whether it's better for us in the long run or not, what he and a number of other senior players did was unprofessional. Just because it ended with the result the majority wanted, does not make it OK. It's not up to the players to decide what is best, and they took it upon themselves at the expense of results and the team.
Baines shirking his responsibilities, not taking pens, corners, etc, was huge to that, coupled with countless lacklustre performances to go with it. In times like that, it should be these senior players (legends) who step up and lead by example. Instead, he came out with snide insinuations about chemistry, while never actually having the balls to say what he really thought.
So yeah, I totally understand why some people don't like him, and why he will never be considered a legend. When we have needed him most, he just hid and bitched to the press, with reputation somehow in tact.
In my opinion, he is not a legend, and he is in absolutely nowhere near the same league as Cahill, who gave everything and got us out of more holes than anyone in that period he was here. Cahill, like Ferguson, was a true talisman and a cult hero, and is miles ahead of Baines in legend status.
Baines is just a decent left back who had the good fortune of playing in a decent side with good players around him and used to take free kicks. He was better than than the last few left backs we had before him, Naysmith, Valente, Pistone, Phelan, but that's about it.
And none of them had Pienaar playing in front of them either.
And as for hanging round with a few indie Bands, who cares? Baines is richer and more famous than majority of them, and they are probably as excited about hanging with his celebrity as he is with them. It's not like he was mates with Prince or someone like that. THAT would make him cool.
