You would be hard pressed to find a fall from grace that was either more sudden or dramatic than Joe Hart’s…. from Premier League champion and England number 1 to surplus requirements the next all in the space of one season… that’s rough.
Hart fell victim to something that most players can’t control, a new manager coming to their club and trying to impose their style on a team, and when this new manager happens to be ‘trophy magnet’ Pep Guardiola you can bet that their won’t be too many objections from the board or fans when he decides you’re not good enough for his team.
Guardiola putting the “not good enough” stamp on you doesn’t mean that you’re not a good player, it just means that he doesn’t think that you can’t play in his style – Yaya Toure and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are examples of two players who went on to have amazing careers post-Guardiola. However, Hart’s performances since leaving Manchester City for Liam spells at Torino and West Ham have fallen so below the bar of what is expected of a Premier League calibrate goalkeeper that questions are being asked of his ability.
Was Joe Hart ever a world-class goalkeeper or was he just the beneficiary of having a world class defence in front of him? While I don’t believe the latter to be the case, the writing is pretty much in the wall once you start having to face these type of questions…
The Verdict: I don’t believe that you just become a bad goalkeeper overnight and I still think that there is a place for Joe Hart, but Burnley just isn’t the right club. Burnley already have two quality goalkeeping options in place (Tom Heaton and Nick Pope), there just isn’t a need for Hart at Turf Moor.
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