Paul Hartley

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Paul Hartley
Personal information
Full name	Paul James Hartley
Date of birth	19 October 1976 (1976-10-19) (age 32)
Place of birth	Hamilton, Scotland
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1994–1996 1996–1997 1997–1998 1998–2000 1999–2000 2000–2003 2003–2007 2007–2009	Hamilton Academical Millwall Raith Rovers Hibernian → Greenock Morton (loan) St. Johnstone Heart of Midlothian Celtic	047 0(11) 044 00(4) 050 0(13) 036 00(6) 003 00(1) 087 0(12) 118 0(31) 056 00(3)
National team2
1997 2005–	Scotland U21 Scotland	001 00(0) 022 00(1)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 01:07, 2 April 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 22:07, 19 November 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Paul James Hartley (born 19 October 1976, in Hamilton) is a Scottish international professional football player, who is currently without a club after leaving Scottish Premier League club Celtic. Hartley began his career as a right winger, but was moved into a central midfield position in 2002.

Hartley has won trophies with both Heart of Midlothian and Celtic, and has 22 caps for the Scotland national football team.

Contents 1 Club career 1.1 Early career 1.2 St. Johnstone 1.3 Hearts 1.4 Celtic 2 International career 2.1 International goals 3 Honours 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Club career

[edit] Early career

Hartley started his career at Hamilton Academical in 1994, where he spent two seasons. Millwall paid £400,000 to gain his services in 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.

[edit] St. Johnstone

Hibs allowed Hartley to join St. Johnstone in 2000. Manager Billy Stark started using Hartley, who had previously played mostly as a right winger, as a central attacking midfielder during the 2001–02 season. This change of position coincided with a significant upturn in Hartley's performances, but this wasn't enough to prevent St. Johnstone's relegation to the First Division in 2002. Hartley's personal success continued as he was nominated for the SPFA First Division player of the year award in 2003,^[1] but his team failed to gain promotion back to the SPL in 2003.

[edit] 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' arch rivals Hibernian in the Scottish Cup semi-final in 2006, his first hat-trick as a professional footballer. Despite his sending off in the final, Hearts defeated Second Division outfit Gretna on penalties.

During the January 2007 transfer window, Hartley was linked with a move to Rangers^[2] and with a move to English Premiership side Aston Villa. Hearts manager Valdas Ivanauskas responded to the speculation by insisting any transfer bids would not be appreciated. On 26 January, Hearts and Ivanauskas admitted that they had now come to the decision to sell their prize assets and both Hartley and Craig Gordon were both dropped for that weekend's match against Rangers.

[edit] 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.^[3] 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 has usually employed Hartley in a more defensive midfield 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.

Having featured less during the 2008–09 season, Hartley was released by Celtic on 1 July 2009.^[4]

[edit] International career

Hartley's performances for Hearts earned him international recognition in March 2005, when he won his first Scotland cap, 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, alongside his boyhood friend Barry Ferguson. 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.

[edit] International goals

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.

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

[edit] Honours

• Scottish Premier League: 2007, 2008
• Scottish Cup: 2006, 2007
• Scottish League Cup: 2009
• Scottish First Division: 1999

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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