Pep Guardiola has admitted his biggest regret as Manchester City manager is not giving England goalkeeper Joe Hart the opportunity to prove himself. The 55-year-old Spaniard, who will take charge of his final City match on Sunday against Aston Villa, sent Hart out on loan to Torino within weeks of his appointment in 2016, before signing Claudio Bravo and later Ederson.
Guardiola's Confession
Speaking to Sky Sports, Guardiola said: "I want to confess, I have regrets. When you take a lot of decisions, a lot, lot of decisions, you make mistakes. But there is one regret that I have deep inside for many years, that I didn't give a chance to Joe Hart to be with me to prove himself how good a keeper he was."
He added: "I should have done, not because… all respect for Claudio, all respect for Ede who came in, they were important, but in that moment, I could have said, 'Okay Joe, let's try to do it together. If it doesn't work, okay, we'll change it'. But it happened. Life is sometimes… I have to take decisions and sometimes I'm not fair enough."
Reflection on Decision-Making
Guardiola acknowledged that dealing with human emotions is one of the hardest aspects of management, especially regarding players who are not in the team. He insisted he always tried to handle such situations with "humanity and respect."
"If in that I failed, I do apologise, but it never, never was my intention or the intention of the club," he said. The City boss also reflected on his stubbornness when convinced of a decision, saying: "In that moment, I said, 'I believe in that'. Always I am stubborn in my decisions, when I believe in that. When I have doubts, I talk with people, but when I'm completely sure, 100 per cent, I say, 'Guys, we have to do it in that way', and I have been at a club that has supported me absolutely in everything with that."
Hart, who had been City's first-choice goalkeeper for years, was loaned to Torino in 2016 and later sold to Burnley. Guardiola's regret has lingered for nearly a decade, as he prepares to leave the club after a trophy-laden tenure.
