Captain, player, manager, Mister, number one - Davids at Barnet

A team bottom of the Football League, without a victory, who already have a manager. Not the obvious place for one of football's most iconic players to start his managerial career.

But that is exactly what happened in 2012.

This is the story of how Netherlands legend Edgar Davids arrived at Barnet as player-head coach, almost kept them in the Football League and then oversaw a bizarre few months in the Conference.

He remains fondly remembered by Bees fans more than a decade later.

Told by those who worked with him at Barnet, it is a tale of contrasts - with Davids skipping some away games and wearing the number one shirt, but not earning a penny during 15 months in charge.

First, the obvious question - why did one of the most famous midfield players of his generation join Barnet?

This was a man who had 74 caps for the Netherlands, won multiple trophies with Ajax, Juventus and Inter Milan, and also played for AC Milan, Barcelona and Tottenham before briefly coming out of retirement with Crystal Palace in 2010.

Two years later he was still living in London, close to Barnet, and playing Sunday League.

Chairman Anthony Kleanthous told BBC Sport: "He was trying to obtain his coaching badges to become a Uefa pro coach and part of that involves coaching with a mainstream club.

"So we thought there's an opportunity here that can help him and helps us.

We got along great. He didn't ask for anything [money] and the rest is history.

Striker Jake Hyde called it "completely surreal".

There was a rumour of it on the morning and everyone was like 'no obviously not', I said 'no way he's coming to manage, he's just visiting'.

But on 12 October, Davids, then 39, was confirmed as Barnet joint head coach in his first managerial position.

However, he wanted to play too.

"I don't know how much he wanted to be a manager," said Hyde, who was the top scorer under Davids with 20 goals.

If he did, he would have started higher and waited for the right opportunity. I think he just loved playing.

Davids came in as joint boss with Mark Robson, who was four months into his first (and only) managerial job having failed to win in his opening 13 games, with the Bees five points adrift at the bottom of League Two.

Davids brought childhood friend Ulrich Landvreugd as his assistant manager.

Their first game together was a 4-1 home defeat by Plymouth but days later they beat Northampton 4-0, with Davids captaining the team in a man-of-the-match performance.

"It was just like rolling the clock back 10 years to the original highlights of his career, it was an outstanding individual performance," said then director of football Paul Fairclough.

Results picked up - but Davids and Robson as a duo was not working.

"You ask any football manager if they want someone on his shoulder ready to take his job and it was obvious where this one was going," said Fairclough.

Edgar came in and Mark took a backseat. You could see that he wasn't happy because Edgar was a big character.

Assistant boss Landvreugd told BBC Sport: "There were two bosses. Two captains on one ship. That's difficult.

"Around Christmas we had an away game and something happened on the trip. For Edgar, it was enough.

He went back and spoke to Kleanthous and said it's Mark or us. Kleanthous chose Edgar and that was the end of Mark Robson.

Kleanthous added: "I hoped that they'd be able to work together, but within no time it was made clear to me that wasn't going to quite happen."

On 28 December, Davids became the sole head coach.

From the start, Davids tried to stamp his authority - telling the players to call him 'Sir' or 'Mister', a respectful equivalent of 'gaffer' common in Italian football.

Players were told they would be fined if they called him 'Edgar', 'Davids' or 'gaffer'.

"A few of us laughed like we were at school. He was being deadly serious," said Hyde.

"On the training ground that first day, calling for the ball [when Davids had it] was impossible. Nobody wants to be the first one to call him Mister or Sir.

As it settles in you realise he's serious and that's who he is - he just became Mister to us.

That went into matches, too, and opposition players used to laugh when Barnet players called for the ball saying 'Mister'.

Training with Davids was an interesting experience for the Barnet players.

Hyde said: "It was so entertaining every day. He's won the Champions League and he celebrated every training goal as if it was a massive thing.

"Mentality wise he the best I've ever seen. He was still in the best shape in the whole team. You could see why he was at the top - he didn't want to get beaten in anything.

He didn't want anyone to be better than him at something. He'd make games go on for longer [if he was losing].

Hyde remembers one story when Davids was not in training and they did not know where he was.

"We turn around and see this Bentley crawl down a grass bank, drive across three pitches and park behind one of the goals. He was sitting there watching training from his car with the heating," said Hyde.

A represenative of Davids told the BBC: "Edgar never ran a training session from his car. There was one occasion when he was very sick and chose to stay at a distance so he wouldn't infect the team, that's how committed he was."

The Barnet squad Robson had initially assembled was full of players released from Premier League academies with little experience of senior football - some of them struggled with Davids' intensity, as he struggled with their lack of.

His assistant Landvreugd said: "For Edgar, when he's training he wants to do it 110%. He wanted to bring the culture to Barnet.

The players who gave 100% or 200% really liked him but the players who didn't really saw him from a different side.

Hyde, now a player-coach at Woking, said: "Speaking as an older player, one of his best character traits as a manager was – I hope this is what he wanted – the whole changing room came together and unified.

"It was all about the Davids show and we were like 'we'll show him he can't do that to one of us'. We all go to war together. He created that, through him being out of order to one or two of the lads.

As a player, I improved dramatically that [first] season. I had a real fire in my belly. It propelled me in my career. For that, I'll be thankful.

When Davids arrived, Barnet were on three points from 12 games.

"We were cut adrift. No chance of staying up," said Kleanthous. "And he said to me, 'what do we have to do to stay up?'

I said, well, no-one's ever gone down with 50 points. We've got to get at least 50 points.

Landvreugd added: "I was looking to Edgar thinking 'no, we can't manage it' and he said 'don't worry, we'll manage it. We're going to fix it. We will get those points'.

We got those points. I think we did one hell of a job.

Davids' Barnet remain to this day the only team to ever get 51 points in League Two and be relegated.

Their form after Davids' arrival would have had them competing for the play-offs.

Davids' second season was more problematic in the Conference.

"I think if we'd have stayed up, we'd have gone on to have two or three good years in the league," said Kleanthous. "We'd have got promoted, maybe. He'd made a bunch of, well, below average players, above average.

But we got relegated and that's when the real problem hit, because he ended up in such an unprofessional division.

Davids only agreed to stay on in a part-time role, his camp say, with Landvreugd and a new appointment in head of coaching Dick Schreuder taking on greater responsibility.

He made headlines when he took the number one shirt himself.

"He was captain of the club, manager of the club, wore squad number one and took every set-piece. If you didn't give him the ball he'd go mental. But that was the package we signed," said Hyde.

Fairclough added wearing number one "was like waving a red rag to a bull at that level of football".

Davids was sent off three times, taking his Barnet total to five, including in the final two matches of his career.

Landvreugd said: "People were provoking him. When he had a yellow card, coaches from the opposition team said stand on his feet, give him an elbow in his face and you'll get a reaction.

People tried to embarrass him and got him where they wanted him. It's unfortunate that for a legend like him they did that.

Kleanthous said opposition players "brutalised him".

"He was targeted, singled out every game. Edgar, unfortunately, didn't make life easier for himself because he would hit out," said Kleanthous, who has run Barnet since 1994.

Things were unravelling.

Davids used to miss some away games that involved more travel - a deal which had been agreed with Kleanthous.

There were rumours he would attend parties or go shopping instead - but Landvreugd said that was not true.

"He was in Amsterdam with people working for his clothing company," said Landvreugd, who currently manages Den Bosch.

It took a lot of time off him. He flew over one day or two days mostly doing that and nothing else.

Landvreugd and Schreuder, both popular figures around the club, would take charge of games Davids missed.

Fairclough explained: "The players didn't know what was going on. They didn't know who was manager and who was the coach, who was going to take the next training session."

Hyde tells a story of Davids sitting on the coach ready for an away game, before discovering it was going to take five hours.

"He shut his laptop, picked it up and walked off the coach," he said.

Davids' camp say this was before the Chester game on 18 January 2014.

"There was another situation that happened just before the team was about to leave on the coach, which was actually the final straw," a representative said.

The fans loved Davids but grew frustrated with him missing games - and Kleanthous asked him if he could commit fully to going to every game.

His exit was announced hours after Barnet lost 2-1 at Chester leaving them 10th in the table.

Kleanthous accepts Davids had "started to lose interest" at this stage.

"He'd become less committed in my opinion and at that point it was time to shake hands and call it a day," said Kleanthous.

Hyde added: "It's funny if it happens once, but two or three times and you get beaten, and it's your livelihoods, then it's not funny anymore.

We've got a manager who doesn't turn up. In professional football, I don't think that's ever happened.

Davids left Barnet with 25 wins in 68 games as a manager, plus one goal and five red cards in 39 games as a player.

Kleanthous concluded: "I look back on those as great times and I have nothing but respect for what he did.

He came in, asked for nothing, worked his hardest, did his best and was a little bit unlucky in the end.

Landvreugd and Schreuder were named joint-managers after Davids' exit, but just two months later were replaced by Martin Allen.

Davids' only managerial job since was six months in charge of Portuguese third-tier side Olhanense in 2021. He was the Netherlands assistant manager at the 2022 World Cup.

"He still wishes Barnet all the best, continues to follow them, and keeps in touch with Tony [Kleanthous]," said his representative.

Source: BBC
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