Alan Caldwell

Greg Hartley, now first team goalkeeping coach at Oldham, has enjoyed a fruitful career in between the sticks playing for top club Manchester City before an overseas adventure to the states. 

Hartley made his way through the Manchester City academy spending a total of 10 years with the club. During this time he won the FA Youth Cup which is a highlight of his career. He then turned pro later on in 2008 and played alongside some elite company in Kasper Schmeichel and Joe Hart, both of whom have a Premier League winners medal to their name.

Speaking about his time with Manchester City and winning the FA Youth Cup, Greg said: “I think it was one of the biggest moments in my career yeah, especially with the team we had. We had players who went on to be Premier League players and people who have been capped with England. It was definitely one of the biggest and proudest moments of my career.” 

He added: “People probably thought you’ll never get a chance but learning from that and experiencing playing with these players you can’t buy that, these are goalkeepers who have been England’s number 1 for years.” 

On top of playing with City for a decade, Greg also moved to America for 7 years where he studied Information Technology at Georgia Gwinnet college and continued to play football at the same time with semi-pro club Chattanooga.

Speaking about the main changes from the life and football in the states he said: “The changes where massive, obviously things like weather come in to play, it wasn’t that hard to adjust though as I knew the American way to life.” 

Now Greg is continuing his role in football but this time as a goalkeeper coach. In 2017, Hartley joined Latics where he worked the academy and also helped with the playing side. 

Speaking about coaching he said: “I just tell the kids give it your all really, it’s not all about talent these days, the boys need to work hard. I also encourage them to make mistakes when they’re young because if they do so then they can go away and learn from these mistakes and it’ll help them become a better footballer.”

Greg now fully committed to his full time coaching role will be hoping to get stuck in and hopefully have a bright future in the coaching business, good luck Greg!