Paul Hart

Paul Anthony Hart (born 4 May 1953) is an English football manager, coach, and former professional player who made 567 appearances in the Football League as a defender.

Hart currently serves as assistant manager to Nathan Jones at Charlton Athletic.

The son of Johnny Hart, who played for and managed Manchester City, and brother of Nigel, a defender who made more than 300 League appearances, Hart had five-year spells with both Blackpool and Leeds United, and shorter spells with Stockport County, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday, among others.

Hart came through the juniors at Stockport County, turned professional in 1970, and made his Football League debut as a 17-year-old, on 9 October in a 4–3 win against Lincoln City in the Fourth Division.

He had a run of games at the end of that season, and was a first-team regular for the next two seasons, before signing for Second Division club Blackpool in June 1973 for a fee of "about £25,000".

He made his Blackpool debut on 22 October 1973, and only made two more appearances that season.

Eventually, though, he established himself as a regular first-teamer and, in 1976–77, when he scored six goals as Blackpool challenged for promotion, he was ever-present.

In March 1978, after making 143 league appearances, scoring fifteen goals in the process, Hart left relegation-bound Blackpool for Leeds United for £300,000, as a replacement for Gordon McQueen.

Hart spent five years at Elland Road, playing 191 games.

In 1983 Hart signed for Nottingham Forest to replace Willie Young, where he played 87 games and scored three goals.

Hart actually scored in the controversial 1983–84 UEFA Cup semi-final against Anderlecht, but the goal was ruled out for no apparent reason and Anderlecht subsequently admitted having bribed the official.

A year later Hart was sold to Sheffield Wednesday in May 1985.

He began his management career with Chesterfield in 1988, but left within three years and spent the following decade as a youth team coach for Leeds United and then Nottingham Forest.

Hart had further spells at Birmingham City (breaking his leg in his only game for them) and Notts County (as player-coach) before retiring from playing in 1988, having made 567 league appearances.

After the spell at Notts County, Hart was appointed manager of Chesterfield in 1988.

Joining the club when they were firmly rooted to the bottom of the Third Division, he reorganised and revitalised the playing side of the club with assistant Chris McMenemy.

Thanks especially to a number of notable number of home wins in the first three months of 1989 and a surprising 3–1 win at second place Sheffield United in early January, the team climbed out of the bottom four.

However, this proved to be only a temporary abatement of the club's problems at that time.

Despite bringing great performances from striker Dave Waller, who equalled the club's record for goals in consecutive games – eight – Chesterfield were relegated in the penultimate game.

The following season saw Chesterfield reach the play-off final at Wembley after spending almost the entire season in the top seven, underlying Hart's ability and promise as a young manager.

The team was defeated 0–1 by Cambridge United for whom Dion Dublin scored the winning goal.

In February 1990, he gave 19-year-old Sean Dyche his Football League debut.

Given no funds for squad improvement for the 1990–91 season, results and form were extremely indifferent.

He was sacked on New Year's Day, 1991.

Hart then moved into youth coaching firstly at Nottingham Forest, and then subsequently took charge of Leeds United's fledgling academy.

Hart's proteges won the FA Youth Cup in 1993 and 1997 and formed the backbone of the Leeds side that reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2000–01.

With International players such as Harry Kewell, Jonathan Woodgate, Ian Harte, Alan Smith, Gary Kelly, Paul Robinson, Matt Jones and Stephen McPhail.

Hart then returned to take charge of Nottingham Forest's academy after a high-profile fall-out with Leeds manager George Graham over the promise of Jonathan Woodgate.

Forest's Under-19 side became immensely successful winning the Under-19 title in 1999–2000.

As the first team were faltering, and the club spiralling further into debt, players such as David Prutton, Jermaine Jenas, Keith Foy, Chris Doig, David Freeman, Kevin Dawson, Gareth Williams, Richard Cooper and Gareth Edds were blooded, with a further line of players including Barry Roche, Andy Reid, Brian Cash, Eugen Bopp, John Thompson and Michael Dawson following subsequently.

In 2001, he returned to management with Nottingham Forest, later managing Barnsley, Rushden & Diamonds, Portsmouth, Queens Park Rangers, Crystal Palace and Swindon Town.

On 12 July 2001, Hart was promoted from Youth Academy Director to manager, succeeding David Platt, who had recently left the club to become the manager of the England under-21 team.

After less than a month of his tenure, Hart made his entire squad available for transfer, after being informed he had to drastically reduce the wage bill to avoid the club going into financial ruin.

As a result, Hart lost several experienced and key players, notably Andy Johnson to West Bromwich Albion for £200,000, Alan Rogers to Leicester City for an undisclosed fee, and Stern John to Birmingham City for £100,000.

During the 2002–03 season, with the financial problems alleviated somewhat, and having the benefit of a settled side, Hart guided the club to the First Division play-offs, losing 4–3 after extra-time and 5–4 on aggregate to Sheffield United in the semi-finals.

Forest started the 2003–04 season well, but a run of 14 games without a win resulted in Hart being sacked after a 1–0 home defeat to Coventry City on 7 February 2004.

Less than a month after being forced out of the City Ground, Hart accepted the offer of the manager's job at Second Division club Barnsley.

However, he left the club a year later after failing to mount a serious promotion challenge.

In May 2006, Hart took over as manager of Rushden & Diamonds, following the departure of Barry Hunter.

In 2014, he joined the youth set-up at Notts County as acting academy manager.