New Beginnings for Barnet But Should the Bees Expect A Sting in the Tail?

After over a century at Underhill, Barnet embark on a change of scenery this season as they take to their new Hive Stadium headquarters in Canons Park to face Chester for their Skrill Premier inauguration on Saturday.

Edgar Davids leads his beleaguered Bees into 2013-14 shrouded in uncertainty, as the recently relegated club enters the 5,100 capacity arena on a 10-year lease from Harrow Council, following failure to secure their preferred Barnet Copthall site, with plans to build a ground twice its size back in Barnet in the near future. However, they will need a period of stability, if not sustained success, in order to build a platform upon which the ambitious project is at all viable.

Having lost out to Saracens Rugby Club for use of Allianz Park at Barnet Copthall, talks are rumoured to have taken place between Chairman Anthony Kleanthous and former Charlton Athletic Director David Hughes with a view to his London Broncos becoming an anchor tenant at the Hive; the feeling that the Rugby League outfit will hold greater sway with sponsors saying much about the current regard in which Barnet are held by the local community.

The Bees’ new base and former training ground at Prince Edward Playing Fields - opened in 2009 by then-England manager Fabio Capello and FA Director of Football Development Trevor Brooking – welcomes both sides through its turnstiles this weekend for the first time in a competitive fixture, with the home side facing a backlash from local residents who have petitioned against the use of the Camrose Avenue site for Barnet’s home games, as it emerged that professional football is not actually permitted to be played there and would require a lease amendment, but that plans to do so were shelved after the club were demoted to semi-pro status in May.

Supporters will be more focused on the team’s chances of an instant return to the Football League, Davids’ side having endured a mixed pre-season, including comfortable wins over part-timers St. Albans City, Hendon and Hitchin Town but also featuring losses at home to Ipswich Town, MK Dons and AEL Limassol of Cyprus with seven goals conceded in the process.

The money men have, unsurprisingly, not been manipulated during the summer and those who have come in following the release of an array of first-team talent - including the über-experienced Craig Beattie, Michael Kuipers and John Oster - have done so, either from fellow non-leaguers or from European backwaters, without commanding a fee.

Davids has dug out his filofax and touched base with representatives from Wealdstone to Spain and Moldova in the search for those with the hunger to provide his side with renewed impetus for the challenges ahead.

Among the more eye-catching captures is that of Roberto Casabella, who began his footballing education with Real Madrid and then Atletico Madrid B and C before slipping down the divisions in Spain then travelling to Orhei, Moldova to give his career a much-needed shot in the arm. The 26-year-old midfielder won the Moldovan Super Cup with FC Milsami, as well as appearing in the Europa League, last term and, along with fellow countryman Luis Manuel Villa Lopez, known as ‘Luisma’, 23, who counts Racing Santander and Alaves among his former employers and played at the Nou Camp with the former as recently as 2010, sufficiently impressed coaching staff at The Hive on trial in July to convince the board to authorise signing the pair permanently last Saturday.

Six-feet-four-inch Romanian centre-back Claudiu Vilcu has also joined from neighbours Wealdstone and, together with 23-year-old defender Anthony Acheampong, arriving fresh from helping Welling United to the Conference South title, will add an imposing presence to the Bees’ rearguard this year.

SDV Barnveld striker Marciano Mengerink has also touched down from Holland and the youngster has already made his mark with five goals in pre-season, including an absolute screamer against Hitchin Town, which you can see here.

The Bees have also made former Fulham winger Keanu Marsh-Brown’s stay in North London a permanent one following a short spell at Underhill last season and, by tying down the soon-to-be 21-year-old, teenage left-back Elliott Johnson and Sutton-born wideman Luke Gambin, 20, to long-term deals, the club has added strength-in-depth to a solid spine of players, of which, goalkeeper and Arsenal Alumni member Graham Stack is arguably the key performer.

The fixture list may make depressing reading for fans of a club with such great tradition, as trips to Tamworth and Gateshead are sandwiched by the visits of Chester and Nuneaton Town this month. However, if in need of inspiration at their new home, all that is required is a quick glance, through the unfamiliar environs, to the home bench where ‘the Pitbull’ will be barking instructions, or to the pitch, where the Champions League winner in the number 1 jersey will be extending that advice and simultaneously putting the fear of God into the rest of the division, making Barnet favourites to spring back up to the fourth tier at the first attempt.