John Hartson

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John Hartson
Personal information
Full name	John Hartson
Date of birth	April 5, 1975 (1975-04-05) (age 33)
Place of birth	Swansea, Wales
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Striker (retired)
Youth clubs
	Marlborough Rovers
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1992–1995 1995–1997 1997–1999 1999–2001 2001 2001–2006 2006–2008 2007	Luton Town Arsenal West Ham United Wimbledon Coventry City Celtic West Bromwich Albion → Norwich City (loan) Total	054 0(11) 053 0(14) 060 0(24) 049 0(19) 012 00(6) 146 0(88) 021 00(5) 004 00(0) 399 (167)
National team2
1995–2005	Wales U21 Wales	050 0(14)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19:14, 12 February 2008 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 19:14, 12 February 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

John Hartson (born April 5, 1975, in Swansea, Wales) is a former professional footballer, who retired after being released by West Bromwich Albion in January 2008.

Contents 1 Club career 2 International career 3 Management 4 Controversy 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Club career

His career began in 1992 as a trainee at Luton Town, and went on to play for Arsenal, joining in January 1995 for £2.5 million; he was one of George Graham's last signings before his sacking in February 1995, along with Chris Kiwomya. He made his Arsenal debut on January 14, 1995 and was a regular in his first season, the highlight of which was scoring Arsenal's 75th minute equaliser in the 1995 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final against Real Zaragoza; however a last-minute goal from 40 yards by Nayim meant Arsenal lost the game 2-1.

With the signing of Dennis Bergkamp, who was preferred up front to partner Ian Wright, Hartson featured less under Graham's successors Bruce Rioch and Arsène Wenger. With Wenger angling for the signing of Nicolas Anelka in early 1997, he made it clear Hartson was surplus to requirements and in February 1997 he was sold to West Ham United for £3.2 million. At the time, he was the most expensive player to be signed by West Ham.

In total he had played 70 times (15 as substitute) for Arsenal, scoring 17 goals.

For West Ham, Hartson scored 33 goals in 73 league and cup appearances for the East London club. There was a training ground incident when Hartson was playing for West Ham in 1998, where he kicked Eyal Berkovic in the head while in front of television cameras. No charges were brought forward, and Hartson has admitted in his biography that this was an error of judgement.

He soon moved on for a spell at Wimbledon. A move to Rangers fell through when Hartson failed a medical, and he instead joined Coventry City on a pay-for-play deal.^[1] In August 2001 he joined Celtic in a £6m transfer.^[2] He played for the Scottish Premier League club for five seasons. In March 2004, he dropped out for the remainder of the football season for surgery to his back; however, he recovered in time for Wales' unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the 2006 World Cup.

In April 2005 he shared the Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year award with Fernando Ricksen and a short time later in May he was voted the Scottish Football Writers' Association Player of the Year.

On 5 April 2006, Hartson scored the winning goal against Hearts on his 31st birthday to clinch the title for Celtic. On 26 June 2006, Hartson signed a two-year contract with English Football League Championship side West Bromwich Albion in a £500,000 move.^[3][4] Hartson scored twice on his Albion debut in a 2-0 Hawthorns win against Hull City on 5 August, 2006.^[5]

On Friday August 31, 2007, The Times said that John Hartson had signed for League One club Nottingham Forest on a loan move. On Wednesday September 5, 2007. The Western Mail reported that Hartson had rejected a firm approach from Nottingham Forest and was on the verge of signing for his hometown club Swansea City on loan. However the club quickly issued a statement on its website denying the striker was set to sign.

In October 2007 Hartson joined Norwich City on a month's loan.^[6] Although Norwich had the option to extend the loan until 31 December, newly appointed manager Glenn Roeder decided to send Hartson back to the Midlands after the initial month period.^[7] He then rejected an offer to join Chester City on loan.^[8] In January 2008 Hartson was released by West Bromwich Albion, six months before the end of his contract.^[9]

On 7 February 2008 Hartson announced his retirement from professional football citing his long term struggles with weight and fitness as major reasons for finishing his footballing career he also had talks with Roberto Martínez about him joining his home town Swansea City AFC but nothing came of this.^[10]

[edit] International career

Hartson holds 50 first team caps for Wales. He retired from international football in early 2006 but in August that year he stated that he would come out of retirement to play if John Toshack needed him. He is currently the 9th top scorer of all time for the international team.

He also holds a record for the Wales U21 team by being one of only four people to have scored a hattrick at that level alongside Craig Davies, Lee Jones and Ched Evans.

Hartson retired from international football in February 2006 in order to concentrate on his career with Celtic.^[11]

[edit] Management

Just a few weeks after his retirement from playing, East Stirlingshire in the Scottish Third Division offered Hartson the chance to succeed Gordon Wylde as manager, but Hartson rejected the opportunity, saying that, "the timing is just not right for me at the moment."^[12]

[edit] Controversy

Hartson will always be remembered for his 'hardman' attitude, as well as his goalscoring. He had a few controversial moments in his career, with the major one coming in his West Ham days. In a training ground incident, Hartson kicked team-mate Eyal Berkovic in the face, after the Israeli midfielder had punched Hartson in the leg as he attempted to help Berkovic to his feet. The incident was captured on camera. Hartson was fined for the incident. He was also sent off on a number of occasions, one being a notable dismissal towards the end of an Old Firm derby, when he was sent-off for violent conduct, despite being entirely innocent, along with Celtic team-mate Johan Mjallby, and Rangers player Fernando Ricksen. Hartson's dismissal was overturned on appeal. Hartson was accused in the newspapers of making pro-Irish Republican Army chants with then Celtic team mate Stephen Pearson at a supporters function. An expert investigation later cleared the players and found that they had been singing The Fields of Athenry with the chants coming from members of the public.^[13]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• John Hartson career stats at Soccerbase

Awards
Preceded by Chris Sutton	Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year 2005	Succeeded by Shaun Maloney
Preceded by Jackie McNamara	Scottish Football Writers' Association Player of the Year 2005	Succeeded by Craig Gordon
Preceded by Henrik Larsson	SPL Topscorer 2005	Succeeded by Kris Boyd

Persondata
NAME	Hartson, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Footballer
DATE OF BIRTH	April 5, 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH	Swansea, Wales
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH