download All Football App

Joe Hart's fall from grace after Pep dropped him from Man City side in 2016

  /  autty

There is probably no stat that will better portray just how far Joe Hart has fallen than this: He has kept just 13 clean sheets since Pep Guardiola dropped him at Manchester City in 2016.

Hart had been the City and England No 1 for a long time, but a disastrous Euro 2016 campaign set off a chain of events which has seen him plunder to low after low.

Four years since that fateful tournament in France, Hart now finds himself surplus to requirements at Burnley.

Whether it was the mounting pressure from the patriotic, chest-beating English fans or his inability to control his passion, Euro 2016 proved that Hart could not be relied on as a first-choice keeper.

Hart was at fault for several goals that saw England embarrassingly crash out of the tournament to Iceland in a 2-1 defeat.

Having struggled to get enough on Kolbeinn Sigthorsson's low strike that saw Iceland sent England home, Hart told ESPN that the Euros 'wasn't my finest hour.'

Goalkeeping great Peter Shilton, who remains England's most capped player, was also quick to criticise the England No 1's erratic performances at Euro 2016.

'I've always said I don't think Joe is as good as a lot of people think he is,' Shilton said. 'He's a good keeper, but he's prone to making errors, and not just for England.'

The Euros exposed every weakness the Englishman possessed.

Hart's shortcoming at the left-hand post and his inability to make low left-hand saves became the goalkeeper's worst kept secret and proved to be detrimental to his career.

Having returned to the Etihad Campus, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola saw no improvement in Hart's long-term faults and wasted no time in sidelining him.

Guardiola wanted to develop a possession-based style at City as he had at Barcelona and Bayern, and placed an emphasis on having a goalkeeper who felt comfortable with the ball at their feet and good distribution - and that was not Hart.

The Spaniard believed that Hart needed to improve his feet and the two appeared to get off to a shaky start together, filmed arguing in one of Guardiola's first training sessions.

It was clear that Guardiola did not trust Hart despite repeatedly insisting they had a great relationship and when his first game rolled around it was Willy Caballero who started between the sticks.

Hart struggled to reclaim his regular starting berth at City and was eventually replaced with Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo who himself fell short of meeting Guardiola's high standards.

Despite show-stopping performances in the Champions League against both Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund, Hart was pushed out of the picture at City and had to spend two seasons out on loan at Torino and West Ham before eventually sealing his exit.

It was a painful fall from grace for a player who had earned his place in the club's hall of fame with consecutive Premier League Golden Glove awards, two Premier League titles and success in the domestic cup.

Hart recently spoke about the impact not feeling wanted by the City boss had on his mental health.

'Things happened with the new manager at Manchester City, probably the most important manager in the world,' he said.

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

'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... and that's hard.

'I feel like right now could be a real dark time for me, but it's not, I see it as a challenge.'

Since being dropped from the Manchester City team by Guardiola in the summer of 2016, Hart has failed to rediscover the form that saw him establish himself as the country's best keeper.

Hart initially moved to Torino on loan, and made an auspicious start before errors crept into his game and haunted him once more.

The club finished the season ninth with Hart conceding 64 goals and keeping just five clean sheets.

Hart declared that another loan was 'not the right thing for me at my age' but had few options and headed off to join West Ham United.

Another dismal campaign saw Hart's England career fizzle out for good after his mistakes cost West Ham several points throughout the course of the season.

The breaking point came when Hart fumbled a meagre shot to his left from Xherdan Shaqiri in West Ham's 1-1 draw against Stoke in 2018.

It had been the fourth mistake Hart had made which led to a goal against the Hammers that season.

Gary Neville, who worked with Hart as assistant manager during Roy Hodgson's tenure as England boss, was scathing in his assessment of the goalkeeper after that error against Stoke.

'I don't know what Joe is doing,' Neville said on Sky Sports. 'He'll look back and not know what he was doing. I have no explanation. He makes a right mess of it.'

Not only had Hart recorded more costly mistakes than any other English goalkeeper - while Everton's Jordan Pickford and Burnley's Nick Pope made none - but that season at West Ham he also produced a record-low save percentage of 57.1.

After just 19 games, the shot-stopper then signed for Burnley in the summer of 2018 and featured 19 times in the Premier League last season.

Now in his second season at Burnley, Hart has virtually been consigned to the reserves having failed to make a single appearance.

He is currently playing second fiddle to Nick Pope - one of the goalkeepers who has replaced him in the England squad since his last appearance for his country in 2017.

Since being cast aside by Guardiola, Hart's demise has been extraordinary and now the MLS beckons with Burnley ready to call time on his spell at the club.