Kevin McHugh Departs Finn Harps Amid Accusations of Poor Support

Kevin McHugh has finally said out loud what many around Finn Park suspected for weeks: this split was about far more than results.

The Finn Harps legend, who stepped into the dugout in April 2023 after the departure of Darren Murphy, has accused senior figures at the club of crossing “lines” and failing him and his staff when they needed backing most. After almost 30 years wrapped up in Harps colours, he has chosen to walk away from the first-team job with the club bottom of the First Division – and with some stinging words for those in charge.

“Lines have been crossed”

McHugh, long-time Head of the Finn Harps Academy since 2017 and effectively double-jobbing for the past 15 months, painted a picture of a manager operating with his hands tied.

“Here, after nearly three decades, I am well hardened to the mayhem and nonsense that happens around this club in a normal season,” he said in a statement to Donegal Daily, “and how you have to just roll sleeves up and get on with things.

“I was more than prepared to take a hit in-terms of my own reputation for the club with two hands tied behind my back whilst doubling up with first team and academy roles to help us in a tough period.

“Having pieced things together over the past few days, lines have been crossed way beyond what I am prepared to let slide.”

This is not a man surprised by the chaos of League of Ireland life. McHugh has lived it. He scored 186 goals in 439 games across two spells with Harps, made his senior debut back in August 1998 in a League Cup tie against Fanad United, and has seen almost every shade of crisis the club can throw up.

This time, he clearly feels something different has snapped.

A damning verdict on the board

The sharpest edge of his frustration is reserved for the club’s hierarchy.

“I am extremely disappointed in the chairman and a few of his close board members that are supposed to be directing this football club,” he said.

“Their behaviour over the past few weeks in particular, because of the lack of honesty, decency and the lack of support shown towards myself and my staff during a period when we needed it most.”

Harps’ form on the pitch has been poor and they have slid to the bottom of the First Division, but McHugh insists he was ready to “ride the waves” with the promise of a brighter future under a prospective new owner. What he could not tolerate, he suggests, was the way the club was being run around him.

The football realities were harsh. In the last six weeks alone, Harps lost Max Johnston, Idir Zerrouk, Perrault Tokam, Daniel De Lacerda and Temi Ajibola, while McHugh saw his budget slashed. Survival in the division was already a scrap; the conditions, in his view, turned it into something bordering on impossible.

“Lesser men would have walked months ago with the conditions we were left in to compete at this level,” he said. “We had too much time for the players and supporters who showed up to Finn Park and away grounds each week to walk out on them. People deserve better.”

Standing up for his staff

McHugh insists he did not set out to air the club’s problems in public. But he says the treatment of those around him left him with little choice.

The 46-year-old spoke of feeling compelled to “show support for my staff who have shown nothing but full on commitment, professionalism and dignity throughout all of this and deserved much better treatment from the people involved.”

For a man steeped in Harps’ culture, the language is unusually blunt. He references the “ugly nature of football” and admits he understands the game’s darker corners, yet still calls himself “extremely disappointed” in the behaviour of certain figures at Finn Park. The implication is clear: this went beyond the usual turbulence of a struggling club.

A new era on the horizon?

While relations with the current board appear fractured, McHugh’s tone shifts noticeably when he speaks about prospective new owner Freddy Gonzalez.

The Filipino entrepreneur’s bid is expected to go before shareholders in the coming weeks, and McHugh has already held talks with him since leaving the manager’s role. He hints at a sweeping reset if Gonzalez gets the keys.

He has spoken of “complete change within the club” should the buy-out be approved and describes the direction under Gonzalez as “hugely positive”, praising the clarity of his short and long-term plans.

“(Freddy) stepped me through his short and long-term plans and he also understands I need time to assess everything before discussing any potential roles he has planned for me,” McHugh said.

“Whether I decide to be part of this journey or not, there is certainly exciting times ahead for this brilliant football club when Freddie does come on-board.

“What I can also say, is the direction the club will go under him is hugely positive and what I like most, he has complete clarity in his plans.”

Harps, in their own statement, claimed McHugh would move into a new position “as part of the club’s transition to a professional structure.” McHugh, however, is clear that nothing concrete has been agreed.

For now, he is on the outside, watching the club he served for almost three decades brace itself for a potentially transformative takeover.

From survival mode to something more

Beneath the anger and disappointment, there is still a familiar note: McHugh’s attachment to Finn Harps and its people.

“I am delighted for each and every fan, current and past volunteer and staff members who have gone through the mill in some shape or form down through the years for this club,” he said, “to eventually, in their lifetime be hopefully be able to watch Finn Harps FC come out of survival mode and into development mode.”

It is a striking image from a man who has lived almost every version of Finn Harps – from the pitch to the academy to the technical area. He leaves the manager’s office with bridges burned at boardroom level, but with a belief that, under new ownership, the club might finally escape the cycle that has defined so much of his time there.

The question now is simple and stark: when that new era begins, will Kevin McHugh be part of it, or will Finn Harps’ most enduring modern figure be watching the club’s rebirth from the other side of the fence?