Paul Hart began his playing career with Stockport County in 1970 and went on to be an important player for Blackpool and then Leeds United before spells at Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday, Birmingham City and finally Notts County.
Upon retiring he took up management with Chesterfield in 1988, but was sacked three years later after a row with his chairman. It would be ten years before he was next in a manager's role at a club, but he built up an impressive reputation in youth football for his work with Leeds United's youth academy in the mid-90s.
He then returned to Nottingham Forest and was similarly influential with their youngsters, including the likes of Jermaine Jenas and Michael Dawson. In 2001 he took over as manager at Forest in financially difficult times at the City Ground, and despite some positive results, he was sacked in 2004. Brief spells at Barnsley and Rushden And Diamonds followed before Hart returned to youth football with Portsmouth in March 2007.
On 19 March 2007, Hart was appointed Director of Youth Operations at Portsmouth. He took over as caretaker manager following the sacking of Tony Adams on 9 February 2009 and it was announced in March 2009 that he would continue in the role until the end of the season.
After helping keep Pompey in the Premier League, Hart had to wait for much of the summer to find out whether he would be kept on, due to the takeover by United Arab Emirates tycoon Sulaiman Al Fahim. However, as soon as that was completed, Hart was given the job full-time in July 2009.
Hart guided Portsmouth to the worst start by a Premier League team after losing their first seven league games. This was finally ended on 3 October when Portsmouth recorded a 1-0 win against Wolves.
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