Joe Hart has hit back at Roy Keane over his “very easy” call for him and other Manchester City players to “stick their medals in the bin” after the club was found guilty of breaching 114 Premier League rules.
Hart made 348 appearances for City between 2006 and 2018, playing throughout their nine years of cheating, winning two Premier League titles, two League Cups and the FA Cup.
The former goalkeeper has said he has “no reason not to trust Khaldoon Al Mubarak”, the Manchester City chairman who has continued to profess their innocence despite the guilty verdict, but Keane insists the players should be “disgusted” with the club owners and advised the players to dispose of their medals.
“Yeah, good for him,” Hart said in response. “Well, you can show that one if you want, because he speaks like how people might want to feel.
“He’s not in that situation, he’s never been in that situation, so it’s very easy to say those sorts of things, but I’m in that situation and I certainly don’t feel like that.”
Hart went on to reveal that the outcome of the appeal won’t change how he reflects on his time at the club.
When asked about the potential of stripped title and how it would change his feelings, he said: “I got asked that, and I ended up not going on TV in America because they said they didn’t want it to turn into anything that it didn’t need to turn into.
“They asked if… your name comes up and it says two league titles. What am I going to do about that? What can I possibly do?
“I certainly don’t walk in the room and bang medals on the table. I couldn’t care less. And we’re all different people, and people have been shocked, because I’ve been asked this question internally, family: what does it matter to me, whether it says it or not?
“I’m so proud when I lifted those trophies and worked just as hard as everyone else does in the Premier League and any league, Sunday league, worked just as hard. And there was nothing better than having it put around my neck.”
He continued: “Whatever plays out over the next couple of months, it’s not going to affect how I feel about my football and my career, because I don’t really look at it like that.
“I’m so happy and proud to have done what I’ve done, but I don’t do it anymore. Trophies, I don’t think they define me.”
Gerrard response
Liverpool hero Steven Gerrard also believes City should be stripped of their titles, insisting they should be made to “suffer” for their cheating.
Hart added: “What Steven Gerrard is saying, he’s perfectly within his rights to ask those questions. Of course he is. He’s one of the greatest, if not the greatest, that I’ve ever played with, someone I look up to as a person and as a friend, and he should feel like that.
“But in terms of how I feel and the emotion that I’m in right now, I’m in amongst it. I’m right in amongst it with my club and my people on the line.
“There’s no room to feel like that yet, and I totally understand what Stevie’s saying. And maybe in a few years, whenever this plays out, however it plays out, there’s going to be time for reflection.
“But right now, as a Manchester City person and a former player and someone who adores the club, there’s no room to feel like that right now.
“I can’t get into Stevie’s head right now. He’s free to feel how he wants to feel. I can only be me and how I feel in this situation.
“How am I ever going to soften that blow right now for someone, especially like Stevie, who fully deserved to be a Premier League winner because of his brilliance and the years that he played in the Premier League? But that’s for him to worry about right now.”
READ NEXT: Man City FFP: PL clubs could go rogue and impose eight unsanctioned punishments
