Joe Hart: 'Pep Guardiola did not give me a fair chance'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 02 October 2017

Hart: 'Guardiola didn't give me a chance'

Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart is unhappy with the way he was twice loaned out without being given a chance to prove himself to Pep Guardiola.

Joe Hart has criticised Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola for not giving him "a fair chance" before twice being shipped out on loan.

The England international quickly fell down the pecking order following the Catalan coach's arrival last summer, being sent to Torino for the duration of 2016-17.

Hart failed to truly impress during his time in Italy and has had mixed success so far this campaign at West Ham United, but the 30-year-old believes that he deserved more of an opportunity to rival Claudio Bravo and Ederson between the sticks at the Etihad Stadium.

"That's life and that's football. We all want a fair chance at everything but that's not how it works," he told The Offside Rule. "Me waiting for that to happen and waiting for a fair shot at things, that's not the industry. I'm up for a fight, a fair fight, it's good for me and if I lose I'll shake hands with my opposition.

"But I realised this wasn't going to be my opportunity for a good fight so I thought I'd look elsewhere. I'm not going to second guess why he wanted to get rid of me. The only thing that came of it is that I need to leave. Why he did it or what the intentions were I don't really care because it makes no difference to me, it makes no difference to my life.

"It would be a lie to say I didn't want to spend my whole time at Man City, I would happily played for them for the rest of my career and not played abroad, but it was too good an opportunity to turn down. With a couple of days remaining in the transfer window it was third or fourth choice at City or to go and play in Serie A with Torino in a beautiful city so I took it."

Hart remains England's first-choice keeper ahead of their final round of World Cup 2018 qualifiers against Slovenia and Lithuania this week, despite strong competition from Stoke City's Jack Butland.