I was angry with what Pep Guardiola did to me at Man City - I wanted to rip his head off

A Manchester City legend has discussed his feelings towards Pep Guardiola after his controversial exit from the club

Joe Hart has admitted to still having mixed feelings about Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City exit. The iconic goalkeeper was axed from the City team in the first bold call of Guardiola’s legendary reign in 2016.

Hart had been a mainstay of a City side that ushered in a new period of success, clinching two Premier League titles and several other major honours. However, the celebrated arrival of Guardiola was short-lived for the England goalkeeper.

In Guardiola’s first league match, he opted for Willy Caballero over Hart and later signed Barcelona shot-stopper Claudio Bravo to be his new number one. This signalled the beginning of the end for Hart, who joined Torino on loan that summer.

He was subsequently loaned out to West Ham United before leaving City permanently in 2018. After spending several seasons as a backup ‘keeper, Hart enjoyed a career renaissance with Celtic until hanging up his boots last year. However, he has confessed to still being conflicted over how his time at City came to an end.

When asked on That Peter Crouch Podcast whether he still held any animosity towards Guardiola, Hart said: “You flip between the two. I don’t know about your personalities, but I flip between two all the time.

"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 being concerned about his status as City goalkeeper when it was confirmed that Guardiola would be replacing Manuel Pellegrini in the summer; the announcement was made in February 2016 with months of that season remaining.

It gave the England star plenty of time to wonder whether he would fit into the new manager’s plans. Guardiola had helped reimagine what was expected of goalkeepers in terms of playing out from the back 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.’”