Edgar Davids move a risky one for Barnet (Video)

The news that Edgar Davids was signing on at Barnet to be joint Head Coach as well as a player was a shock to say the least on Friday morning. It has certainly been a long time since the Underhill club were making such headlines, if they ever have, and it undoubtedly will provide give the team a boost as they strive to move off the bottom of League Two.

However, perhaps the excitement of Bees fans should be tempered somewhat when the stark realities of the move are analysed. From a managerial sense, Davids has no experience of coaching at any senior level. Beginning your managerial career anywhere is tough but for the former Holland international to cut his teeth League Two at a Barnet side rock-bottom and currently sliding out of the Football League, is brave to be optimistic and doomed to be pessimistic. Davids may well be up to date in his knowledge of the game but how much does he really know about the style of football necessary to compete in League Two, or indeed about the calibre of player he will be dealing it? These are all generalisations but questions that simply must be asked.

Of course, there are those who suggest that the Davids “coaching” role is a mere publicity stunt, that his actual involvement will be on the pitch. However, at the age of 39, the sort of tigerish performances seen in the video below have long been a thing of the past. In his pomp at Juventus, Barcelona and for a very brief period, Tottenham, Davids was simply outstanding. However, as Spurs fans found out towards the end of his spell at White Hart Lane in 2007, Davids was very much a footballer in decline and now over five years on, it is inconceivable to think that he will have improved much, even at League Two level.

Indeed, the last time the Dutchman appeared on the football radar was in all ill-fated stint in 2010 at Crystal Palace, where the 37-year-old suffered in an unfamiliar left-back role before departing after only three months. Of course at the bottom of League Two, the level may well be more suited to his talents and one admires Davids’ desire to remain in the game considering how much he has already achieved. The fear is that his arrival at Underhill will perhaps paper over the cracks of the real task at hand: to remain in the Football League.

Adam Mazrani

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