The spring of 1995 has been an important one in the life of John Harkes.
Respectability and responsibility have come to Derby County and U.S. midfielder John Harkes this year.
Respectability has come on the field, where Derby, which spent much of the season in the lower reaches of the First Division, clawed its way up to a decent seventh place in the standings. And the responsibility has come with the arrival of Ian Harkes, a baby boy who weighed in last month at 7 pounds, 1 ounce.
“The kid’s amazing,” said Harkes, 28. “It gives you a whole new perspective on life. It’s great just having him around.”
As for the season, Derby had invested heavily in the transfer market, yet had seen its promotion hopes in ruins at the beginning of the New Year.
Meanwhile, Harkes was the recipient of yet another niggling injury after a collision with West Bromwich keeper Stuart Naylor in a Jan. 2 league match.
“This season things really picked up towards the end,” said Harkes. “Personally, I was plagued with injuries. They just kept coming one after the other. I tore my ankle ligaments and missed a bunch of games. Then I got back in the side, we won seven games straight and ended the season on a good note.
“After the club fired the chairman and Lionel Pickering stepped in, things got better. The club was in 16th or 17th place at the time. But we’ve improved. This is a club with a lot of potential. Derby is a sleeping giant. I thought at the beginning of the season that this would be our year, but it wasn’t to be.”
The talk earlier in the year was of a possible transfer, which wasn’t entirely surprising: Pickering had slashed the club’s payroll and offloaded stars Gary Charles, Tommy Johnson and Paul Kitson. It wasn’t unreasonable to expect that Harkes would move on, too, and the player was linked with Queen’s Park Rangers and Coventry.
But he stayed put, wife Cindy had the baby, and Harkes is looking forward to seeing out the final year of his contract at the Baseball Ground.
The one uncertain thing is his summer activity with the team. The U.S is set to play host to the U.S. Cup and also to travel down to Uruguay for the Copa America.
“I’m not too sure about the summer,” he said. “I have to talk to the federation, see who the new coach is.
“I’ll probably be back for the U.S. Cup,” he said. “My season finishes May 7 and then I have to settle things up with the club. I’d like to take things a little easier this year: I’ve played every summer since 1987 — except for ’91 when I had torn stomach muscles This is also my fifth season over here as a pro and I think I need a bit of rest, enjoy the little man some.”
Harkes’ last national team outing came in the 1-0 loss to Romania at USA ’94. His coach was Bora Milutinovic, who has since been fired by U.S. Soccer.
“I was told Bora resigned,” said Harkes “But I think you can judge [his reign as head coach] by the fact that he was the man who was hired to take the U.S. to the second round and he did what he was hired to do.
“Also, he added a lot of professionalism to the team. A lot of players have benefited from that. You can see that by the number of them playing over here.”
by Soccer America Senior Editor Duncan Irving