Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart has revealed the brutal conversation he had with the Tottenham bosses before he left the club.
In a session at The Stiff’s podcast, Hart said he wanted to stay longer at the North London club after being given so many chances by Jose Mourinho but things changed when the club hired Nuno Espirito Santo.
“There was a big change going on at Tottenham. They needed a lot of people out and a lot of people in, [Nuno Espirito Santo] proceeded to call me in. I knew they were signing another goalkeeper and I was like, ‘do we need to have a conversation?’. He said that we’d speak after training.
“He was like, ‘I’ll speak first, let’s be absolutely clear, no matter what happens, you’ll not kick a ball this year. I had got on really well at the club, people had bought into what I was trying to bring and I was like, ‘right, okay.
“He said, ‘you’ll be free to work with the sporting director to get yourself out, however, you want to play it, play it. I said just out of interest, remove yourself from the situation, you used to be a goalkeeper, why has it come to this?
“Why have I gone from being whoever I was to be completely surplus to requirements in a squad, to not even being able to back up the first-choice? Speak freely.
“He just went, ‘in my opinion, we all reach a point in our career where the body won’t allow you to play football. We’re at it now. I would not feel comfortable with you playing one minute for me. The ball’s too quick for you, you’re too old, you’re not moving, you’ve got no strength in your body,” Hart said.
Hart, capped 75 times for England earlier in his career, has played 46 matches for Celtic since he arrived back in August and helped the club win the Scottish League Cup with a 2-1 win over Hibernian back in December.
