O’Hara receives the career reboot Hartley once had
IT took a simple positional change to light a fire under Paul Hartley’s playing career and the Dundee manager appears to be pulling off a similar trick with Mark O’Hara.
An athletic defender of raw promise at Kilmarnock, O’Hara was picked up by Hartley on a free last summer and part of his sales pitch to the 21-year-old was the promise of a positional reboot.
Transformed into an attacking midfielder, O’Hara’s athleticism and goals have been a feature of Dundee’s play this season, justifying a piece of imaginative thinking that had its roots in the manager’s own time as a player.
Hartley was enjoying a decent, if meandering, career as a right winger until Billy Stark, his then manager at St Johnstone, pulled him aside before a League Cup tie against Dundee United.
Within nine minutes of kick-off, Hartley had burst from his central beat to put Saints ahead. The tie may eventually have been lost in extratime, but the seed had been sown.
‘I’d always been a wide player but Billy said he wanted to look at something a bit different for me,’ recalled Hartley. ‘He wanted to try me more centrally and encouraged me to try to get into the box.
‘Everything changed from there. Suddenly I found myself more involved in games. I was scoring more goals and taking responsibility. Sometimes a manager just sees something in you and that was a masterstroke from Billy.’
Soon, Hartley was being spoken of as one of the most influential performers in the second tier. Suitors came calling, with Hearts boss Craig Levein offering the move to Tynecastle where Hartley blossomed into a Scotland international.
He would go on to win 25 caps for his country and later became a title winner and Champions League player at Celtic, all from that adopted role in central midfield.
‘I had a pretty good 18-month spell at St Johnstone and was coming out of contract,’ he said. ‘Craig Levein gave me the opportunity to take things to the next level and the rest is history.
‘I was 24 at the time Billy made the switch but Mark is only 21, which is exciting. He has youth on his side.’
Knowing O’Hara was coming out of contract, Hartley (below) went to watch the youngster in action as Killie fought to avoid relegation.
‘I watched Mark in the play-offs and could see there was a lot more to come from him,’ he explained. ‘To be honest, I thought he was wasted.
‘He had played mostly as a right-back, sometimes as a centre-back and only the odd game in midfield at Kilmarnock. I just felt we had to use him a little bit better.
‘When we spoke to him about coming here, I told him that I saw him as an attacking midfielder.
‘Physically, he has all the attributes. He is a real athlete, he can run, tackle and head the ball. He is in the gym non-stop and he has such a good attitude. He just wants to do well.’
O’Hara’s four goals are testament to his game’s development but Hartley, who became semi-prolific at Hearts, believes he can become an even greater threat in the opposition box.
‘Mark hadn’t scored a senior goal before coming here,’ he pointed out. ‘I know that was largely down to the positions he had been playing, but we encouraged him to start thinking in terms of goals.
‘He’s got four for us but I think there are a lot more to come. He has real potential. Hartley was a seasoned 28year-old pro when handed his debut in Walter Smith’s first game in charge of Scotland against Italy in the San Siro. O’Hara has two Under-21 caps and, in time, Hartley wants him to aim for the full squad. ‘I think he should be ambitious,’ he added. ‘He still has a lot of work to do but he has improved his game this season.’
I was 24 when I made the switch but Mark is only 21, which is exciting