A Manchester City icon has shared his feelings towards Pep Guardiola over how his exit was handled by the manager
Joe Hart has admitted to still having conflicted emotions about Pep Guardiola and his brutal Manchester City departure. The goalkeeper was ruthlessly dropped from the City team in Guardiola’s first power move of his tenure back in 2016.
Hart had been a cornerstone of a City side that brought a new era of success, securing two Premier League titles and numerous other major honours. Yet the much-celebrated appointment of Guardiola swiftly led to significant changes for Hart.
For Guardiola’s first league fixture, the new City boss picked Willy Caballero ahead of Hart before subsequently bringing in Barcelona keeper Claudio Bravo as his new first choice. This marked the start of Hart’s downfall, with the goalkeeper heading to Torino on loan that summer.
He was later loaned out to West Ham United before leaving City permanently in 2018. Following several campaigns as a substitute goalkeeper, Hart experienced a professional revival with Celtic before retiring last year. However, Hart has revealed he remains torn over how his City career ended.
Speaking on That Peter Crouch Podcast about whether he still had any resentment towards Guardiola, Hart said: “You flip between the two. I don’t know about your personalities, but I flip between two all the time.
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“I’ve got someone who understands and who has been in the game, but there’s also the maniac in me. Like, of course, I wanted to rip his head off and he knows that and we know that and everyone at home knew that.
“Everyone knew that I was frustrated and I was hurt and I was angry. But, you know, life goes on.
“I look around and everyone would have a similar situation to what I’d been in and then as soon as I realised that it was done, football doesn’t stop there. My world doesn’t end there.
“That’s why I love Manchester City and I will forever love them. They’re my club, they took me from 19 to 29. I’m not going to let one bad situation mar that.”
Hart recalled worrying about his position as City’s number one when Guardiola’s appointment to replace Manuel Pellegrini was confirmed for the summer – the announcement came in February 2016 with months of that campaign still to play.
It afforded the England keeper ample time to wonder whether the manager would want to move him on. Guardiola had changed perceptions of goalkeepers playing out from defence through his work with Victor Valdes at Barcelona and Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer.
“Was I capable of it? I don’t know, because I’d never been asked to play like that,” Hart explained. “Now I’ve got my hindsight head on, I think he’s thought, ‘He’s a good goalie. Have I got the time to teach him to do what I want him to do? Or I’ve also got the war chest to go and get someone who I know I can do what I want to do.'”
He added: “I actually talked it through with him, talked it through with him since. It wasn’t, ‘You’re horrendous, get out of here.’ I always heard that, I never really listened to the noise.
“It was never, ‘You’re horrendous,’ it was just ‘I haven’t got time to make you the goalie that I want and I’ve got the budget to go and get someone else, so tough.'”
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