Joe Hart Admits Being Dropped by Pep Guardiola Impacted His Mental Health

Joe Hart has spoken about how his mental health was affected by Pep Guardiola wanting to sell him immediately after becoming Manchester City manager.

Hart had been City's first choice keeper for eight successive seasons before Guardiola arrived. The world class manager immediately signed a 33-year-old Claudio Bravo from Barcelona, while Hart was shipped off on loan to mid-table Serie A outfit Torino.

England's second most-capped goalkeeper spent the following season on loan at West Ham, before signing for current club Burnley in 2018. He has only played for the club three times in all competitions this season.

Speaking to the Duke of Cambridge, Hart opened up about how he felt useless when Guardiola came in. The two were filming 'Football, Prince William and Mental Health' for BBC One. The show airs on Thursday evening.

Prince William, the president of the Football Association, asked the 33-year-old what was the biggest knock back in his career.

Hart answered: "It will sound pathetic but it's the truth, it's not playing and not being wanted. Things happened with the new manager at Manchester City, probably the most important manager in the world.

"He didn't even necessarily not like me, he just had a certain aspect which he didn't feel I was up to, and it kind of dropped from there.

"It's certainly the lowest point of my footballing career but it's not a dark cloud."

Hart received a lot of game time under Sean Dyche in his first season at Turf Moor last term, but has pretty much been frozen out at the club since.

He added: "I'm comfortable with what's going on. Yeah I'm sad, yeah I'm disappointed that I'm not playing, because I know what I want to be, I know where I should be, I know what I can bring to the game.

"At the moment I'm not being picked, simple as that. You know at school, not being picked...that's hard. I feel like right now could be a really dark time for me, but it's not, I see it as a challenge."


Source : 90min