Paul Hartley

Paul Hartley

Hartley playing for Bristol City
Personal information
Full name	Paul James Hartley
Date of birth	19 October 1976 (1976-10-19)
Place of birth	Hamilton, Scotland
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Alloa Athletic (Player/Manager)
Youth career
0000–1993	Hibernian
1993–1994	Hamilton Academical
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1994–1996	Hamilton Academical	47	(11)
1996–1997	Millwall	44	(4)
1997–1998	Raith Rovers	50	(13)
1998–2000	Hibernian	36	(6)
1999–2000	→ Greenock Morton (loan)	3	(1)
2000–2003	St. Johnstone	87	(12)
2003–2007	Heart of Midlothian	118	(31)
2007–2009	Celtic	62	(3)
2009–2010	Bristol City	40	(5)
2010–2011	Aberdeen	24	(4)
2011-	Alloa Athletic	0	(0)
National team‡
1997	Scotland U21	1	(0)
2004	Scotland B	1	(0)
2005–2010	Scotland	25	(1)
Teams managed
2011-	Alloa Athletic
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 4 April 2011. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 4 March 2010

Paul James Hartley (born 19 October 1976 in Hamilton, Scotland) is a Scottish professional footballer. He is currently player and manager at Alloa Athletic. Hartley began his career as a right winger, but was moved into a central midfield position in 2002. Hartley won trophies with both Hearts and Celtic, and earned 25 caps for the Scottish national team.

Club career

Early career

Hartley was with Hibernian on an 'S' form; the club offered a six month professional contract, which he rejected. Soon afterwards, Hartley started his senior career at Hamilton Academical, where he spent two seasons. Millwall paid £380,000 to gain his services in July 1996 and he spent one season there, concurrently playing for the Scotland U21 team. He returned to Scotland in 1997, when he joined Raith Rovers for £150,000, before joining Hibernian in 1998, whom he helped win the First Division in 1998–99.

In season 1999–2000, he spent a short spell on loan at Greenock Morton.

St. Johnstone

St. Johnstone manager Sandy Clark, who had previously managed Hartley at Hamilton, signed Hartley for a £200,000 fee in 2000. Billy Stark, who succeeded Clark in 2001, started using Hartley as a central attacking midfielder during the 2001–02 season. This change of position from Hartley's previous role as a right winger, coincided with a significant upturn in his performances, but it was not enough to prevent St. Johnstone's relegation to the First Division. Hartley's personal success continued as he was nominated for the SPFA First Division player of the year award in 2003, but his team failed to gain promotion back to the SPL in 2003.

Hearts

Paul Hartley prepares to take a free kick in an Edinburgh derby match played on 26 December 2006.

Hearts manager Craig Levein had noticed the improvement in Hartley's play since 2002. Hearts signed Hartley on a free transfer when his contract with St. Johnstone expired in the summer of 2003. Hartley continued to improve at Tynecastle, helping Hearts to third place in the Premier League in 2003–04 and starring in their subsequent UEFA Cup run. In January 2005, Celtic attempted to buy Hartley, but their £300,000 offer was considered significantly below Hearts valuation and was rejected. Hartley subsequently signed an improved contract with Hearts.^{[citation needed]}

One of Hartley's most memorable performances was his three goals against Hearts' arch rivals Hibernian in the Scottish Cup semi-final in 2006, his first hat-trick as a professional footballer. Despite his sending off, Hearts defeated Second Division outfit Gretna on penalties in the 2006 Scottish Cup Final.

During the January 2007 transfer window, Hartley was linked with Rangers and Premier League club Aston Villa. Hearts manager Valdas Ivanauskas initially responded to the speculation by insisting any transfer bids would not be appreciated. On 26 January, however, Hearts and Ivanauskas admitted that they had now come to the decision to sell their prize assets; both Hartley and Craig Gordon were both dropped for that weekend's match against Rangers.

Celtic

Hartley signed for Celtic for £1.1 million on a two-and-a-half-year contract, with the option for a further year, in January 2007. Despite having a mediocre start to his Celtic career in the second half of the 2006–07 season, Hartley enjoyed a very good 2007–08 season. On 15 August 2007, he scored his first goal for the club in their Champions League 3rd qualifying round tie against Russian side Spartak Moscow.

Gordon Strachan usually employed Hartley, who had played as an attacking midfielder for Hearts, in a more defensive role. Hartley was one of Celtic's key players in the defence of their league title at the end of the 2007–08 season in which Celtic had to win all seven of their remaining matches, two against arch-rivals Rangers.^{[citation needed]} Playing in the centre of midfield with Barry Robson, Hartley helped Celtic to their third league title in a row.

Hartley featured less for Celtic during the 2008–09 season and was released by new manager Tony Mowbray on 1 July 2009.

Bristol City

After his release by Celtic, Hartley signed for Bristol City. Hartley played his first match for the club in a friendly against Dutch team Ajax before scoring on his competitive debut in a 2–2 draw away to Preston North End. After citing a desire to return to Scotland, Hartley was made available for free transfer by the club in July 2010. He was heavily linked with a return to former club Hearts, but they dropped their interest in Hartley after he refused to distance himself from criticism of majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov during his first stint with the club.

Aberdeen

Hartley signed for Aberdeen on 28 July 2010 and was appointed as the new club captain on the same day. On his league debut for Aberdeen, Hartley scored a hat-trick of penalty kicks in a 4–0 victory against Hamilton. It was the first time a player had scored a hat-trick of penalties in a Scottish top division match since Donald Ford, for Hearts against Morton, in September 1973. Hartley scored another penalty, against Hibernian in a 4–2 victory, on 23 October 2010. Three days later, Hartley scored both Aberdeen goals in a 2–1 win against Falkirk in the League Cup. This meant that Hartley had scored eight goals for Aberdeen, seven from penalties.

Hartley announced his retirement as a player at the end of the 2010–11 season, having missed the last two months of the season due to a medial knee ligament injury. He now plans to work as a football coach, and he has been studying for coaching qualifications.

Managing career

Alloa Athletic

Hartley was appointed player/manager at Alloa Athletic on 17 May 2011, despite having announced his retirement as a player on 13 May. Hartley was appointed to get Alloa back into the second division having been relagated the season before. Hartley had the tough job of rebuilding the squad as every player's contract had expired. Of the team only three players were offered new contracts, of those only one player accepted. Hartley managed to get a full squad together and Alloa currently sit topo of the third division. Hartley and his players have received a lot of praise.

International career

Hartley's performances for Hearts earned him international recognition in December 2004, when he appeared for Scotland B against Germany B in Mannheim. He won his first full Scotland cap a few months later, against Italy in the San Siro. Hartley scored his only international goal to date in a 3–0 win over Slovenia in October 2005.

Throughout Scotland's UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, Hartley was a regular pick in midfield. He played alongside Barry Ferguson, who had played for the same boys club in Hamilton as Hartley. Hartley started in both of Scotland's 1–0 victories over France, and was heavily praised for his all-action performance in the holding midfield role in Paris.^{[citation needed]} Hartley disrupted many French attacks and he made several key blocks. This performance led club manager Gordon Strachan to start using him in the same role at Celtic, with similar successful results.^{[citation needed]}

International goals

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	12 October 2005	Celje, Slovenia	Slovenia	3–0	3–0	FIFA World Cup 2006 qualification

Honours

Hibernian

• 1: 1999

Hearts

• 1: 2006

Celtic

• 2: 2007, 2008
• 1: 2007
• 1: 2009

External links

• Paul Hartley career stats at Soccerbase
• Paul Hartley at scottishfa.co.uk
• Profile at londonhearts.com

Preceded by Mark Kerr

Aberdeen FC captain 2010–11

Succeeded by Richard Foster