Barnetfc.com caught up with Chairman Tony Kleanthous ahead of the new managers first day in the office for his insight on why he chose Peter Beadle and the budget that he would have to work with.

The Chairman said:

“There was no shortage of candidates for the managerial vacancy and we had to sift through over a hundred applications.

In the end, we were able to rationalise the candidates into three groups – 

• Names – well known recognised managers with a solid past background at a higher level or strong playing background at the highest level.
• NLE’s – Non-League Experienced managers who have a proven track record with previous success at the non-league level
• Coaches – up and coming coaches, normally at under 23 level, who had the quality to become good future managers and were looking for their first opportunity for the number one job. 

We interviewed the strongest applicants in each category and after much debate finally ended up with a shortlist from which we made our final choice.

Peter quickly emerged as a stand out applicant during the interview process where we were all impressed by his positive attitude, hunger for success and his understanding of the work ethic needed to achieve promotion. This was backed up by his strong managerial record and quite outstanding previous achievements with Hereford United. You felt that if his teams could reflect his passion then our success will depend on the right recruitment and so rather than delay the decision any further we decided to press on and make an announcement.

We welcome him into the role and are pleased to have him join us but there is no time to waste, the work starts now and we will support him as much as needed.

There has been much talk about salaries and budget but that’s just poor speculation, all applicants had the same details so everyone was on an even playing field.

Of course to be successful this season Peter will need a competitive budget so our plan is to use the new £199 season ticket offer to form the basis of this budget and hope you will all join me in backing him for success. 

I want us to have a real go at promotion so whatever you, the fans, spend on tickets I will double and this money will go directly to players. We are hoping to eventually sell over 2,000 of these tickets so with my added support Peter will have over £800k in his playing budget but whatever the final number is, we will do this together.

The squad will be leaner and hopefully more focussed than previous seasons so together I feel we can all make this a successful season. 

The lockdown has made us all hungry for football and hungry for our Club to succeed so let’s do it, let’s get this show on the road.

I look forward to seeing our fantastic supporters back at The Hive London soon.”