Paul Harsley

Paul Harsley (born 29 May 1978) is an English former footballer and football coach.

Harsley played as a midfielder from 1996 until 2012 and made 583 league and cup appearances, scoring 52 goals. He spent the majority of his career in the English Football League, though he also had spells in the Conference Premier and Northern Premier League. His professional footballing career began at Grimsby Town in 1996, though he switched to Scunthorpe United a year later, without having appeared for Grimsby. He spent four seasons with the club, racking up 128 league appearances, before moving to Halifax Town. In 2002, he transferred to Northampton Town, and after a couple of years he moved on again to Macclesfield Town. In 2006, he signed with Port Vale, yet again he stayed just two years, though he did pick up a Player of the Season award before signing with Chesterfield. In 2010, he left Chesterfield, having been largely unsuccessful, and spending much of his time on loan at Darlington and York City. He finished his career in non-League football with two years at North Ferriby United. He made 500 league and 83 cup appearances in total, scoring 52 goals. He was named Player of the Year at Scunthorpe United (1999), Northampton Town (2003), Macclesfield Town (2005), and Port Vale (2008).

He coached at Scunthorpe United, Birmingham City and Barnsley and was appointed Barnsley's caretaker manager in February 2018. He coached Manchester City EDS from 2018 to 2020, was a first-team development coach at Birmingham until 2022, and then joined Huddersfield Town as a first-team assistant coach. In September 2022, he became Huddersfield's co-caretaker manager alongside Narcís Pèlach, following the sacking of Danny Schofield, but departed in November 2022, when new manager Mark Fotheringham replaced him with Kenny Miller.

Born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, Harsley started his career at the Grimsby Town youth system as a trainee and signed a professional contract on 16 July 1996. He moved to his hometown club Scunthorpe United 7 July 1997, having not appeared for Grimsby's first team.

He broke into Scunthorpe's first team on 20 September 1997, aged 18, in a 1–0 defeat at Barnet, replacing Alejandro Calvo García as a late substitute. His first season was quite successful, as he made 15 appearances in all, scoring his first professional goal against Exeter City. His second season with the club was to prove far more prolific, however. He made 42 appearances as his club won promotion via the Third Division play-off final at the end of the 1998–99 season. The final itself took place at Wembley Stadium on his 21st birthday, where they defeated Leyton Orient 1–0. He was also given the club's Player of the Year award, the Ernie Storey Memorial Trophy.

Harsley was an ever-present for Scunthorpe's Second Division season. However, he could not help the club avoid relegation in 23rd place. He maintained his first-team spot in 2000–01, but was released by the club at the end of the season, subsequently joining Halifax Town on a free transfer on 1 July 2001.

He spent one season at Halifax, which proved to be highly successful on an individual level, with Harsley ending up as their top scorer with twelve goals from fifty games; however, the team performed extremely poorly, and they were relegated out of the English Football League, a full nine points below Bristol Rovers. Throughout the campaign, he was linked with big money moves to First Division clubs, but nothing came of the speculation.

Unwilling to play in the Conference, in June 2002 Harsley moved on to Northampton Town, again on a free transfer. He was highly productive throughout the 2002–03 season, making 51 appearances in all competitions and picking up the club's Player of the Year award. However, he suffered his third relegation in four years, as Northampton dropped out of the Second Division in last place, 11 points from safety.