Left-Backs

[Colbert Report]

By all accounts Ian Harte is ripping it up in League 1 and Roy Keane tried to sign him on loan for Ipswich a few months ago. His career might not be over yet! Keep an eye on him.

[drummerboy]

By all accounts Ian Harte is ripping it up in League 1 and Roy Keane tried to sign him on loan for Ipswich a few months ago. His career might not be over yet! Keep an eye on him.

I think he is now playing as a centre back, a position he played at during his early days at Leeds.

[Razors left peg]

I think he is now playing as a centre back, a position he played at during his early days at Leeds.

didnt he also play there during McCarthys early days with Ireland when he was playing 3 at the back?

[irishfan86]

Well, his big problem was always pace, which isn't as big a deal at centre-half (you really do need one of them to have a bit of pace though).

I was always a fan, but I'd be pretty doubtful of him playing a part for Ireland again.

He's got 12 or 13 goals this season from centre-half though, which is pretty ridiculous.

[EastTerracer]

I think he is now playing as a centre back, a position he played at during his early days at Leeds.


didnt he also play there during McCarthys early days with Ireland when he was playing 3 at the back?

There was a point early on in his Ireland career where Harte had played more games for Ireland than he had for the Leeds first team. McCarthy picked him regularly at centre-half in the 1998 world cup qualifying campaign (usually alongside Cunningham and/or Staunton) when he was only 18 or 19 years old. He took a lot of stick at the time as it was clear he wasn't a natural centre-back. He played there in both legs of the play-off with Belgium but dropped out of the first XI for a while thereafter. He only became our regular left-back in Amsterdam at the start of the 2002 qualifying campaign. He was the only player in play every minute of our qualifying campaign and got 4 goals in the process.

While he lacks pace and his positional sense could be woeful at times he played a huge part in the 2002 qualifiers and it was a shame he was off form for the finals themselves. I'll always appreciate his ability from a free-kick but I think his International days are gone for good now.

[EastTerracer]

Forgot to mention above that Harte will be playing at Wembley this Sunday in the Johnstone Paint Trophy final against Southampton (not sure if David Connolly is fit for that one).

[theworm2345]

Forgot to mention above that Harte will be playing at Wembley this Sunday in the Johnstone Paint Trophy final against Southampton (not sure if David Connolly is fit for that one).
He has begun his comeback from a recurrence of the groin injury that kept him out for roughly 2 years. He's been a late sub in their last three games. I think he's only played one game in the JPT this year and they may only allow 5 subs in the JPT so I'm not sure he'll get a look on Sunday.