He joined the Daily Mail in its Manchester office in 1981, was appointed tennis correspondent in 1986 after eight months as a member of the original intake of 'Today' and became the Mail's football correspondent in 1990, spending seven years in the role before departing the paper after 16 years' service in 1997.

[3] Harman coined the term "Spice Boys" in a Daily Mail piece published in March 1997 to describe a group of high-profile footballers playing for Liverpool F.C.

In 1999, Harman published an account of the rivalry between Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski over the preceding year.

In July 2014, it was revealed that Harman had plagiarised material for the official Wimbledon yearbook, which he had written since 2004, in the editions of 2011 through to 2013.

[7] Ben Rothenberg of the online Slate magazine identified dozens of apparent examples of plagiarism.