Barnett's Stellar list could bring him down to earth

For a Chairman of a multi-million pound company representing over 500 of the world's top sports stars Jonathan Barnett has the unfortunate habit of attracting trouble. But this is hardly surprising for someone who does business with the accident-prone Peter Kenyon.

In fairness to Barnett he is not helped by a client list that reads like the register at a footballing borstal. Kieron Dyer, Titus Bramble and Carlton Cole are all on the books of the Stellar Group, as is disgraced sprinter Dwain Chambers, while Jody Morris is a former client who has moved on to pastures new. Having made his name in the leisure and entertainment industry Barnett must often feel as if he is watching a rerun of young Men Behaving Badly.

The 55-year-old has just about kept his talented tearaways on the straight and narrow, but is now fighting for his own future as the Football Association prepare to investigate his role in the Ashley Cole tapping-up affair.

The verdict of the Premier League's Independent Commission at Wednesday's hearing was damning, accusing Barnett of manipulating the Arsenal defender into attending that infamous tete-a-tete with Chelsea, but he is confident of being cleared.

The lawyer he shares with Cole, Graham Shear, has already signalled his intention to appeal against the player's £100,000 fine and Barnett is equally determined.

He said: "I'll fight to clear my name and Ashley's name and do whatever it takes. I don't want to say much while the case is still active but look at it this way.

"I'm one of the biggest agents in the country. I've got three players at Chelsea and helped Pini Zahavi do the deal with Roman Abramovich. If I wanted to do a deal with Chelsea for Ashley Cole why would I bring in Pini? Agents don't split commissions for fun."

Such secrecy and skullduggery is a far cry from his gentle entry into the sports market, which came in the relatively rarefied world of cricket. Barnett's first clients were the Pakistan stars Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis but his new business really took off when he secured the services of a young West Indian batsman called Brian Lara, whom he took to Warwickshire shortly before his world record 375 not out against England in April 1994.

Lara's contribution to Barnett's career was two-fold, as it was the West Indies captain who introduced him to his future business partner, a young property developer called David Manasseh in December 1993. The pair set up the Stellar Group the following year and made their first moves into football with the late Les

Manasseh, on the other hand, has the ear of the players, and is often out eating and drinking with them.

Quite what the cricket-loving old Harrovian, who turned down a professional contract at Somerset CCC on leaving school, has in common with his increasingly bling clientele is anyone's guess. Sealey, then at Manchester United, the fledgling company's first footballing client.

For all the controversy Barnett has attracted, most notably several unsubstantiated allegations about his recruitment practices, he is very popular with the players who continue to flood to Stellar. Less a good-cop/bad-cop duo than an old-timer and young buck partnership, the gregarious Barnett is the aggressive numbers man, who combines driving a hard bargain with a love of the high life.