As Manchester City and England goalkeeper Joe Hart nears a loan move to Serie A side Torino, the game in his home country sighs and prepares to wish him a muted farewell. Muted not only because Hart’s goalkeeping exploits at the European Championships helped England to an early exit, when the limp wrists he showed against Wales remained limp and proved decisive as the three lions succumbed to Iceland’s mightier roar. Muted too because nobody wants to make too much of a fuss, in the hope that this prodigal son will one day return to the sceptred isle his reputation broadly intact.
Did a shortage of time, as the transfer window comes close to shutting, prevent more illustrious bidders? Or is Hart’s reputation within the game so damaged that he can only attract the Serie A side who last season finished twelfth? Manchester United fans might joke, on the move to Turin, that Hart will once again be joining only the second club in a major city, but even if the joke was funny few would be willing to laugh alongside Manchester United fans.
The truth is that over many seasons Hart has shown himself too susceptible to blunders between the sticks. Weak wrists and slow reactions to shots placed low or at the near post are nothing new, his thought processes are ponderous, and just as crucially for new City manager Pep Guardiola, he offers little with the ball at his feet. A goalkeeper who can initiate the build-up play is vital for Guardiola’s vision.
Yet in making the decision to do away with Hart – whose impending departure from the club has variously been described as an axing and a defenestration – Guardiola has placed a target firmly on his own chest, and between the eyes of Hart’s replacements. To many pundits, regardless of his ability, as a good Englishman Hart is what makes the club beat. As a manager Pep might have won six domestic titles, four domestic cups, and two Champions Leagues, but is he a proper football man, a salt-of-the-earth type who understands the identity of Manchester City which today only a dullard from Shrewsbury is deemed fit to provide?
And what of the endorsements? Hart is an ambassador for the sportswear giant Nike and the anti-dandruff advocates Head & Shoulders, a more-or-less local figure with national and international prestige. When he pops up during the commercial break moments after another goalkeeping howler, he truly transcends the sport. As long as he retains his England place and shows media willing, Hart will remain a firm favourite of the nation’s football hacks, notoriously dim and vicious. Guardiola ought to remember that lest he pop or be pulled out of his skin-tight denim.
