Paul Hartley


Paul Hartley is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is the manager of Scottish League Two club Cove Rangers.
As a player, Hartley won trophies with both Hearts and Celtic, and earned 25 caps for the Scottish national team. He also played for Hamilton Academical, Millwall, Raith Rovers, Hibernian, Greenock Morton, St Johnstone, Bristol City and Aberdeen during his career.
As a manager, he guided Alloa Athletic to successive promotions. He then moved to Dundee, who he helped win promotion to the Scottish top flight in 2014. Hartley was sacked by Dundee in March 2017. He was then appointed by Falkirk, but he left this position after less than one year. Hartley joined Cove Rangers in July 2019.

Club career

Early career

Hartley was born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire. He 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, conwho plays 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

, 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

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.
One of Hartley's most memorable performances was his three goals against Hearts' archrivals 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.
He was voted as SPL Player of the Year in 2005–06. Hartley was also shortlisted for Scottish Football Writers award in the same season and the SPFA Players' award in 2004–05.
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. 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.

Management career

Alloa Athletic

Hartley was appointed manager at Alloa Athletic on 17 May 2011, to get Alloa back into the second division having been relegated the season before. He 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 won the title on 7 April 2012. He led the side to a successive promotion through the Scottish First Division play-offs in May 2013, relegating Dunfermline Athletic in the process. He resigned after the 5–1 loss against Dumbarton on 18 January 2014.

Dundee

Hartley signed for Dundee as manager on 5 February 2014, replacing John Brown. He led the Dee to the Scottish Championship title on the final day and promotion to the Scottish Premiership. Dundee went unbeaten in their first 8 games of the season including a 1–1 draw with Celtic. Hartley then declined an offer to manage Cardiff City. Dundee went on to finish sixth in the Premiership, and finished eighth in the following season. Hartley was sacked by Dundee in April 2017, after a run of seven consecutive defeats left them in a relegation play-off position.

Falkirk

Hartley was appointed Falkirk manager on 4 October 2017, succeeding Peter Houston. After a bad start to the 2018–19 season, Hartley left Falkirk on 27 August 2018.

Cove Rangers

Hartley joined newly-promoted Scottish League Two club Cove Rangers in July 2019, succeeding John Sheran as manager.

International career

Hartley's first experiences of international football took place right at the beginning of his professional career when he was selected by manager Craig Brown as a training squad player for Euro 96. His 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 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. 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. 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.

Honours and achievements

Player

;Hibernian
;Heart of Midlothian
;Celtic
;Alloa Athletic
;Dundee
;Cove Rangers

Club

International

International goal

No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
112 October 2005Celje, Slovenia3–03–0FIFA World Cup 2006 qualification

Managerial record