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Ex-Chelsea turned well known EFL player in running for Barnet manager’s job

An ex-Chelsea turned well known EFL player is said to be in the running for the much talked about Barnet manager’s job this week.

35 year old Filipe Morais being linked with the vacant head coach job at the National League relegation battlers according to the Daily Mail.

The Bees are without a first-team boss following the exit of Harry Kewell after a dismal run of form, with Morais understood to be under consideration for the role.

Morais Signs For The Mariners - News - Grimsby Town

Ex-Chelsea turned well known EFL player in running for Barnet manager’s job

He is currently registered with Grimsby as a player, however Barnet want to discuss the possibility of bringing him in as he looks to take his next steps into coaching.

The former Leeds and Liverpool star Harry Kewell was appointed as Barnet manager in June but was sacked on Saturday following a 2-0 loss at Bromley, which left the National League side second bottom with just two points from their first seven league games.

‘It was clear how much Harry Kewell wanted to have a positive impact, but ultimately the results and the poor start to the season have dictated our decision,’ Dean Brennan, the Bees’ head of football, said.

‘The plan for this season was for Barnet FC to be challenging in the top half of the table and that is still very much our aim.’

Morais has now emerged as a potential candidate to replace Kewell at the Hive Stadium, and it comes six months after being involved in a bizarre incident which saw his ex-Grimsby teammate Stefan Payne being sent off for headbutting him. See more on that HERE.

The coming together is said to have started with the Portuguese midfielder berating Payne for not chasing down a pass in a 1-0 loss away at Bradford, an incident Mariners boss Paul Hurst described as ’embarrassing’.

Hurst said the pair would not play again for the remainder of the season, but while Payne was sold to Chesterfield in the summer Morais remains on Grimsby’s books.

Morais has played across 13 clubs in England and Scotland, signing for Chelsea’s academy when he was 16 years old and played in Jose Mourinho’s first ever game in charge of the Blues, making a seven-minute cameo in a pre-season friendly against Oxford United in 2004.

He signed his first professional contract a year later, before being loaned out to Milton Keynes Dons in January 2006 and then signing for Millwall as a free agent at the end of the campaign.

After moving north of the border for spells with Scottish outfits Hibernian, Inverness and St Johnstone, Morais returned to England in 2010 and spent two seasons each with Oldham and Stevenage before joining Bradford City where he was a hit.

He came back to haunt his former side Chelsea with the Bantams in 2015, scoring the equaliser as Bradford completed a shock yet deserved comeback to win 4-2 at Stamford Bridge in the fourth round of the FA Cup after trailing 2-0.

After leaving the Yorkshire club in 2017, Morais spent 16 months at Bolton Wanderers and helped the Trotters return to the second tier of English football at the first time of asking, before signing for Crawley in the summer of 2018.

MORAIS’ HISTORY

Youth career
2003–2005 – Chelsea

Senior career
2005–2006 – Chelsea
2006 → Milton Keynes Dons (loan) – 13 games (0 goals)
2006–2007 – Millwall – 12 games (1 goal)
2007 → St Johnstone (loan) – 13 games (1 goal)
2007–2009 – Hibernian – 30 games (1 goal)
2009 – Inverness Caledonian Thistle – 12 games (3 goals)
2009–2010 – St Johnstone – 30 games (2 goals)
2010–2012 – Oldham Athletic – 59 games (8 goals)
2012–2014 – Stevenage – 55 games (7 goals)
2014–2017 – Bradford City – 54 games (5 goals)
2017–2018 – Bolton Wanderers – 52 games (3 goals)
2018–2020 – Crawley Town – 39 games (8 goals)
2019–2020 → Oldham Athletic (loan) – 16 games (2 goals)
2020– Grimsby Town – 16 games (1 goal)

National team
2004–2005 – Portugal U21 – 2 games (0 goals)

Teams managed
2018 – Crawley Town (caretaker)

You question why anyone would want to be a manager at Barnet right now. Is it really a good place to kick off your managerial career?

The club currently sit 22nd in the National League table, taking just two points fro seven games played, the team below them is Dover Athletic with -9 points, and the team above the Bees have got four.

Credit: the_ground_hoppers
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