Edgar Davids’ time at Barnet: Captain, player, manager, number one

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.

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