MICKEY HARTE HAS insisted that he didn’t walk out on Louth mid-contract and that the manner of his departure to take over Derry was ‘misrepresented’.
Speaking to the media for the first time since his shock appointment as manager of the back-to-back Ulster champions, the Tyrone great said the reality was that he had completed his three-year term with Louth.
It was widely reported that he and coach Gavin Devlin had another two years to run on their Wee County term but Harte moved to set the record straight at this evening’s launch of the Bank of Ireland Dr McKenna Cup.
The three-time All-Ireland winning manager said that he never agreed to any contract extension and that he departed the Leinster finalists with a clear conscience to take up an offer that he found too difficult to turn down.
Peter Fitzpatrick, who was Louth chairman when Harte left Louth, said at the time that he was disappointed with Derry for the approach ‘knowing that Mickey Harte and Gavin still had two more years left to work with us’.
“Of course we didn’t expect it to be coming up because Derry were going so well under the management that they had,” said Harte of the Derry vacancy. “But as it turned out they had to look for a new manager and we had finished our three years with Louth which, I must make that clear as well, that was misrepresented slightly. When myself and Gavin met with Peter Fitzpatrick we shook hands over three years’ work with Louth, which we completed.
In the middle of it all, we got two promotions and Peter decided that we had two more years agreed to. But the first time I heard about that was when my son phoned me from America to tell me. He says, ‘I hear you’re taking two more years with Louth.’ I says, ‘Well, you know more than I do at this stage.’
“I can understand why Peter did that. But we had our three years completed and the Derry position became available. It was a kind of an opportunity that you wouldn’t pass by. I don’t think very many people would pass it by.”
Harte guided his native Tyrone to three All-Ireland titles and took Louth to Division 2 as well as a rare Leinster final last summer.
Asked how far he can go with Derry, he said right to the very top.
“Nobody can guarantee anything about cups or titles or anything else,” said Harte. “You go after those things but the main thing we know we can do is we can add value to what they’re about.
“And if we add value to what they’re about, then I think they’re going to be that much more serious contenders even than they have been over the last few years.”
As for the suggestion that he has put himself under considerable pressure by taking charge of a county next door to his native Tyrone, who are expected to push hard for an All-Ireland, Harte shrugged.
“I don’t see it as pressure at all,” he said. “It’s just a question that they have made serious progress in the last three or four years.
“To win back-to-back Ulster titles is no mean feat, as we all know. They’ve been in two All-Ireland semi-finals. So they’re a very good team.
“Myself and Gavin and the management team around us, we believe that we can bring something additional to them. If we bring enough additional to them, to add to what they have, then it’s going to make them even more competitive than they’ve been in recent times. I think that will put them in a very good place.”
