James has been with the club previously, spending four and a half years as Centre of Excellence Manager, Academy Manager and Academy Director.

Overseeing the Under 8’s through to the Under 21’s, James has an excellent understanding of the club’s structure and ethos.

On his new role James commented:

“To see players like Jack Taylor, his brother Harry, Elliott Johnson, Nana Kyei, Ephron Mason-Clark and Shane Cojocarel all coming through the Academy system and making it on to the Hive pitch and performing so well is fantastic.

The owner has supported youth and backed the team.

The quality of the infrastructure and the continued growth of the club made it an exciting prospect to come back to.”

The goal for James in this new role is to work closely with the First Team Head Coach, Academy Manager and Head of Recruitment to try to consistently produce and identify players and develop an operational and consistent way of working across all of the football groups that is underpinned by a number of multi-disciplinary teams including Sports Science, Analysis and Recruitment.

James will work closely with the Chairman to develop the long term strategy, overseeing the operational, performance and recruitment aspects of Barnet Football Club and the London Bees.

Barnet and London Bees Chairman Tony Kleanthous added:

“It’s great to see James back with us after his recent experience with the Premiership and he will add much needed focus on improving our on-field fortune. We have worked together for a number of years and it’s great to see people of his calibre identifying our potential and coming back to our Club to further grow their careers. 

He knows the Club ethos and can specifically focus on the continued development of the teams without having to concern himself with day to day site and stadium issues. He will have responsibility for all future football appointments, player and coaching, for both Barnet FC and the London Bees.”

James concluded:

“The scope of what happens behind the scenes of professional football clubs is now so broad and detailed, the role of Head of Football is becoming more common place and it is important to bring a level of consistency to how we work that will allow the coaching teams to focus on the on-field performance.

We have to identify and recruit the right players in some key areas, starting this summer to bring some balance to an already talented squad in what is a very difficult league to get results in.

My role is to give as much support, direction and lend any experience I can to achieve the clubs ambitions on and off the pitch.”

With the end of the season fast approaching, James’ initial goals will be focusing on a summer of busy and exciting recruitment to improve areas of First Team operations that build towards what we hope will be a shared winning vision moving into the 2017/18 season.