Kevin McHugh's Departure from Finn Harps: A Club Legend Speaks Out

Kevin McHugh doesn’t raise his voice often. When he does, Finn Harps usually listens.

This time, he’s walking away.

The club legend has broken his silence after his departure as first-team manager, delivering a blistering assessment of how he believes Finn Harps has been run in recent weeks and accusing senior figures of crossing lines “way beyond” anything he is prepared to accept.

A club servant pushed too far

McHugh has been part of the Finn Harps fabric for the best part of three decades. 186 goals in 439 games across two spells. Head of the Academy since 2017. First-team manager since April 2025, when he stepped into the hot seat after Darren Murphy’s exit, while still running the youth structure.

He knew the chaos. He accepted the chaos.

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

He was prepared to take the hits. Reputation on the line, hands tied, two jobs at once. All for the club.

But the last few weeks changed everything.

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

“Extremely disappointed” in club leadership

Harps’ official statement on Sunday night framed McHugh’s departure as part of a wider transition, with the 46-year-old supposedly moving into a new role “as part of the club's transition to a professional structure”.

McHugh’s version is far sharper.

He turned the spotlight on the chairman and elements of the board, accusing them of failing him and his staff at the very moment they needed backing most.

“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.”

He did not elaborate on the specifics, but the message was clear: in his view, the people entrusted to steer Finn Harps abandoned the dressing room when the storm hit.

Bottom of the table, budget slashed

On the pitch, the picture has been bleak. Harps have slid to the bottom of the First Division, their form unravelling as the season wore on. Off the pitch, McHugh watched his squad dismantled and his budget cut.

In the space of six weeks, Harps lost Max Johnston, Idir Zerrouk, Perrault Tokam, Daniel De Lacerda and Temi Ajibola. Significant departures in a short window, and a manager left trying to plug gaps with fewer resources.

Still, McHugh insists he was ready to “ride the waves” in the hope of a brighter future, with a potential new owner on the horizon and the promise of structural change at Finn Park.

That loyalty, he suggests, was not reciprocated.

Standing up for his staff

McHugh admits he did not want to air the club’s dirty linen in public. The tone of his statement makes it obvious he feels he had no choice.

He says he is speaking now to stand behind the people who stood beside him.

He praised his staff for “full on commitment, professionalism and dignity” and argued they “deserved much better treatment from the people involved”.

“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.”

For a man who made his senior debut for Harps back in August 1998 against Fanad United in a League Cup tie, that line carried weight. This is not an outsider taking a swipe on the way out. It is a club great saying enough is enough.

Gonzalez, change and an uncertain reunion

Despite the rancour, McHugh has not closed the door on Finn Harps’ future. Far from it.

He has already held talks with prospective new owner Freddy Gonzalez, the Filipino entrepreneur whose proposed takeover is expected to go before shareholders in the coming weeks.

McHugh believes Gonzalez’s arrival would bring “complete change within the club” and describes the direction under him 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.”

He stresses that nothing has been agreed regarding any new position, despite the club’s statement suggesting otherwise. For now, his future is his own to decide.

From survival mode to something more

McHugh’s words cut, but they also carry hope.

He speaks of a fanbase and a volunteer army that has “gone through the mill in some shape or form down through the years”, people who have poured themselves into keeping the club alive in difficult times.

“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, to eventually, in their lifetime be hopefully be able to watch Finn Harps FC come out of survival mode and into development mode.”

That is the crux of it. For all the anger, all the frustration, McHugh still believes Finn Harps can step out of the shadows of crisis management and finally start to grow.

Whether he stands on the touchline, in the boardroom, or outside the gates when that day comes is now the question hanging over Finn Park.