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"There are too many haters," says Joe Hart, spreading out his 6ft 3in frame on a training-ground bench and reflecting on the way Manchester City, to borrow a line from Noel Gallagher, were once the club for whom every London cabbie had a soft spot and are now the one they dislike the most. "There are too many bitter people. Too much jealousy. Everyone wants to knock them down but I hope they do really well. They have not broken any rules. They have paid the money, they are not doing it with backhanders, it's legitimate money. So good luck to them, I say."

"People say to me, 'Well, it's a World Cup year so you had to do this now' and I know where they are coming from but, honestly, that wasn't the thinking behind this move," he says. "The World Cup could have been this summer or three years away and I still would have wanted to get a new club. I had to play, you see. It's job satisfaction and I've got that here. The manager has been great to me and given me the opportunity to play straight away; that's the whole point of being in this industry, isn't it? To play, to be in the limelight, to enjoy the game. But that had gone for me at Man City."

"I just laughed," he says, but he is shaking his head when he says it. "I didn't know what to think, to be honest. I'd heard people talking about it happening. It was in the papers. So I approached people at the club and asked if it was true. They said, 'Nothing is final and ra ra ra.' Then, right at the end of January, Shay was training with us. I just had to accept it because what else could I do? I just thought, 'Whatever!' But there was no point being bitter or stroppy about it.

"I was comfortable about how I had done. OK, I wasn't perfect, but which goalkeeper is? I still felt I had been playing well but he [Mark Hughes] felt he had to bring in another goalkeeper and I suppose it his job to make those decisions. What I would say is that everyone else I spoke to at that time was really supportive. All the supporters were really appreciative of what I had done and how I had been playing."

"There's no guarantee I will ever play for them again," Hart says. "I would love to but, if I'm not needed, then fair enough. I'm at Birmingham now and I've got nothing to do with Manchester City any more. I still find myself supporting them, their result is the first one I look for and I want the lads to do well, but Birmingham are my priority now. I want to do well for myself, I want to do well for Birmingham and if that means I get another chance with England, that's perfect for everyone."

MaineRoadMemories wrote: "OK, I wasn't perfect, but which goalkeeper is? I still felt I had been playing well but he [Mark Hughes] felt he had to bring in another goalkeeper and I suppose it his job to make those decisions.

ronk wrote:

MaineRoadMemories wrote: "OK, I wasn't perfect, but which goalkeeper is? I still felt I had been playing well but he [Mark Hughes] felt he had to bring in another goalkeeper and I suppose it his job to make those decisions.

I like Hart but I also don't think people can argue at this point that Given isn't doing a better job.

It's interesting to see him speaking so openly but really I'd have been more impressed if he'd talked about needing to improve and been more cognisant of his failings.

Sure he needs to play but there's a certain immaturity in his attitude that's a little unfortunate. As soon as he lost his place he wanted out the door. It's a difficult time for a developing keeper, but he mightn't have suffered from a little time on the bench. It's easy to become complacent.