SOCCER ANGLES:The Drogheda man has had his ups and downs but 16 years later he is still delivering the goods, writes MICHAEL WALKER
IF SUCH a thing as the Dean Saunders fan club ever existed, you would probably need to have been a member to recall where the former Liverpool and Aston Villa striker was 16 winters ago. The answer is Galatasaray, Saunders having departed Villa Park for Istanbul, where his old Anfield manager Graeme Souness had relocated.
Among other things, that meant Saunders missed the night at Elland Road in January 1996 when Ian Harte made his debut for Leeds United. It was as a replacement for Phil Masinga in a League Cup-tie against the team Harte plays for now, Reading. Gary Speed scored the Leeds winner.
Three days later Harte, 18, made his league debut against West Ham as a substitute for Tomas Brolin. The teenager from Drogheda was a Premier League player. He would remain a distinguished one at Leeds for eight years.
And now, another eight years on, Harte could well be on his way back to the Premier League. This time Saunders is a witness. The manager of Championship side Doncaster Rovers observed Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw against Reading and declared afterwards: “The only difference tonight was Ian Harte, his delivery was the best I have ever seen. Reading have every chance of going up. They get crosses in from everywhere. I wouldn’t mind playing up front for them, even now.”
Saunders’ team had made a point and so had he. After eight straight wins in the division, this was the first time since January 21st that Reading had not experienced victory. As a consequence of the run, they have risen from eight to second in the Championship.
Harte is 34 but if Saunders is a reliable witness, the Irishman retains possession of a left foot that was always telling.
Reading’s impressive manager Brian McDermott clearly thinks so. Harte’s age has not prevented him playing 24 times for Reading so far this season, including in seven of those eight recent wins.
Harte scored in one of them, at Middlesbrough, and on the final whistle handed his boots, size 6½, to a young fan who had travelled north from Berkshire.
Harte once, amazingly, scored 18 goals in a season while at Carlisle but this was his first of this season for Reading. It was a free-kick from the edge of the area, you’ll be unsurprised to learn. He then reminded people of his personal boot policy.
“It’s not the first time I’ve given the boots away,” he said. “After a while they get a bit big. I’m probably a size 8½, but I always cram into much smaller boots.
“I know I’ll have problems when I’m older – and I am getting on before anybody says it. But it has always worked with tight boots to get the ball up and down and try and trouble ’keepers.”
As shown there, Harte is self-deprecating about his age. There were those who said during his last season at Leeds, when the club were relegated from the Premier League, that Harte’s legs “had gone”.
Maybe his feet were sore.
Yet here is he is proving otherwise.
If Reading go up, he will be 35 soon into next season. Doubtless it will be claimed that he no longer possesses the pace for the top flight, and that may be true. But often a footballer’s brain works faster as his legs get slower.
Frank Lampard will be 34 in June but he demonstrated against Napoli on Wednesday night at Stamford Bridge that this does not negate his effectiveness.
It’s the same for Didier Drogba and John Terry – Chelsea’s “old guard”, as everyone kept repeating. Familiarity can breed impatience before it morphs into renewed respect.
And Drogba is old in one sense, in that he was 34 last Sunday. He is also into his eighth season at Chelsea. But before that Drogba had only one season at Marseilles, having previously been at unheralded Guingamp, aged 24. He is not old in top-flight years.
At 24, Harte was a Champions League player at Leeds; in fact the best of his days at Elland Road were ending then.
As appreciation of Drogba began to soar, it fell for Harte. Having been linked with AC Milan and Barcelona, he joined Spanish side Levante and spent 2½ years there.
Too much of that was spent injured, Levante were relegated, Harte slipped off the radar. Roy Keane brought him back onto it at Sunderland, but there were just three starts – in the Premier League admittedly – and that was over.
After a spell at Blackpool, and trials here and there, at 31, two years after the last of his 64 Irish caps, Harte landed at Carlisle United in the old third division. Carlisle were 18th; there were seven games to go. Harte was entitled to wonder about the zig-zag trajectory of his career.
He still is.
As Reading contemplate a winnable trip to Barnsley today, Harte acts as a reminder that development is rarely the upward, linear ideal.
He is a good example both to young Irish lads who have been picked up as teenagers by “big” clubs, who may think it will always be this way; and to those overlooked, who still play in the hope that they will be discovered late.
The reality is there are different paths and all shapes and sizes. Ian Harte is still squeezing into too-small boots, but he’s still going and his curve is upward.
Stakes getting higher for West Ham
WHILE READING go to Barnsley, just up the road is another significant promotion match: Leeds United v West Ham. As of Wednesday the floral Leeds chairman Ken Bates said that 32,000 tickets had been sold for the game.
It is suddenly tense.
A fortnight ago Leeds lost 1-0 at home to Southampton and lay 10th in the Championship. West Ham won at Cardiff to sit second, four points clear of Reading in third. Certainties prevailed.
A fortnight on and West Ham have drawn at home to Watford and Doncaster. Hence they are now third behind Reading.
Leeds remain 10th but have drawn at Hull and won at Middlesbrough. They were unlucky to lose to Southampton.
Neil Warnock’s arrival has had the galvanising effect Bates hoped for and Leeds, having looked tired and uninspired in the last days of Simon Grayson’s reign, now possess fresh energy. They appear a team capable of making the play-offs and from there, who knows?
Warnock could be back in the Premier League just as his former club QPR vacate it.
If they are jittery at West Ham, no wonder. It feels like the club’s future is based upon Sam Allardyce getting them up. They have the best away record in the division, though.
At least until three o’clock.
