Davids addition a smart move by Barnet FC

Chief among them is his statute as one of the finest technical football players of the last thirty years. The Barnet squad is young and learning.

The presence of Edgar Davids, who many of the current crop of players would have grown up watching during their formative years, could serve to inspire and lift a team that has yet to win this season.

From a technical perspective the squad has the opportunity to learn from a player who played almost 400 games at the top level of European football with the likes of Ajax, Milan, Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur.

It is however, from a public relations and financial perspective where this move becomes a master-stroke from Tony Kleanthous.

The reaction on Twitter when the news was announced was staggering. Once the story was trending, it was picked up by a range of national media outlets and local news gatekeepesr, such as this publication.

It is very rare that you will see Barnet FC on the front page of the BBC news website, but for a few hours this was the case.

Saturday’s home game with Plymouth promised to be a drab affair, with a small home attendance and a crowd fearing another routine defeat.

However, in one swift move the club has generated precisely the buzz the fans were crying out for. The news will almost certainly add hundreds to the gate on Saturday, which might well carry through for months, if the club starts to put a few points on the board. At League Two level that sort of money is vital.

All in all, this is a win win for Barnet FC and Tony Kleanthous. The results at Underhill cannot get any worse.

If things had stayed how they were, the club would have been staring down the barrel at relegation. Even if this does not change things, a buzz has been created in the national media and gates will likely hold up as the public pay to get a glimpse of a legend of the game. And you never know, this may well work out having generated the spark needed to inspire the players and with it the performances needed to start acquiring points in League Two.

So all in all, good news for Barnet FC and our long suffering fans. The proof is in the pudding though and the pudding will taste much sweeter with three points this Saturday.

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