, Ian Harte: master of the career rebirth

Ian Harte: master of the career rebirth

Ian Harte’s left foot is a size eight and a half, but he wears a size six and a half boot.

I take the innersoles out and everything, I’ve done it for years. People might try it and think it’s not comfortable, but I’m used to it”, Harte said in an interview in the Reading Evening Post three years ago, “I’ve always done it to try and get the ball up and down and trouble keepers”.

He was being interviewed following a Reading victory over Middlesborough, in which he’d scored the second goal; a free-kick from 25-yards. By that point, the end of February 2012, Harte was already on the third act of a career that had started more than 15 years prior.

Some footballers hit the peak of their power and struggle to stay there; they have a purple patch of form which lasts a season or two, then they might move club, or suffer injury, and never regain those highs. Others hone a craft, develop a skill that never leaves them even if everything else does. If you’ve got that, just find a club that needs that skill and you’ll always have work.

Harte is a set-piece specialist. But then we all knew that. 80 career goals across more than 500 games, as well as 12 goals in 63 appearances for the Republic of Ireland.

During his time at Leeds, Harte experienced the full spectrum. The club saw tremendous highs and tremendous lows in the few years spanning the Millenium. Harte scored in a Champions League quarter final, and a relegation decider.

His career moved into its second act when he left Leeds following their relegation from the Premiership in 2004.

“I thought I was going to end my career at Leeds. I loved it there. I joined them at 15 and quickly settled into Yorkshire life. But it was hard over the past few years as we saw so many top players leave,” he told the Telegraph, having found a new home in Valencia with Levante.

He’d been greeted by fans at the airport as one of the foreign stars the newly promoted side brought in to attempt to establish themselves in La Liga. He started brightly in Spain, scoring the first La Liga goal of his first campaign, a free-kick against Real Sociedad. But injuries took their toll and he struggled to hold down a first team place.

After three seasons in Valencia, Harte packed his too-small boots and returned to England – but it wasn’t until 2009 that he found a place for his talent. His lack of mobility was starting to make him something of a liability at the top level, and trials and short term deals were the story of the next two years, Sunderland, Blackpool, and a very brief flirtation with St Mirren.

But then word came that League One Carlisle needed a set-piece taker. That’s how the time in the wilderness came to an end and the third, redemptive act of Harte’s career began.

He joined the Cumbrians on a short term deal in March 2009, and did enough in his three games to earn a two year contract. The gamble paid of for then Carlisle manager Greg Abbott, as Harte finished the 2009-10 season as Carlisle’s top scorer and was selected in the League One team of the year.

A move to Reading followed – a man who was once the subject of multi-million pound transfer rumours joined the Berkshire side for £100,000. Again, the team needed a set-piece specialist, and again, Harte delivered – he was in the Championship Team of the Year the next two seasons. He scored ten goals in his first season, and four goals in a title-winning season that took Reading and Harte back to the Premiership, a league he’d left eight years before.

Three years in Spain, two years in the wilderness, a year in Carlisle and two years at Reading, but he’d made it back. The too-small boots bringing goals and paying his way, still getting the ball up and down, despite his legs not letting him track pacey wingers anymore.

Fast-forward to now, and Harte has just been promoted again. Aged 37, his Bournemouth team have been cast as protagonists in the latest footballing fairytale, claiming the Championship title. This time Harte’s presence was less influential – he has only played four league games this season, and nothing at all since Bournemouth exited the FA Cup in January – but he’s still there.

He may not make it to next season and play again in the top flight, but Ian Harte is testament to the value of specialists. This is a world where full backs are expected to be wingers,and strikers are expected to be defenders at corners; where midfielders are expected to be good in the tackle and good with the ball at their feet, and centre-backs are expected to head the ball clear and also execute scything crossfield balls.

Harte’s game, on the other hand, is mostly about doing one job and doing it well. And that’s what let him rekindle a stuttering career: he put the ball in the net. And he did it regularly.

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