Guardiola’s regret – Pep Guardiola’s last days at Manchester City are being defined by one admission: his biggest regret is not giving Joe Hart the opportunity to prove himself after Guardiola decided to move on the former club No. 1 in 2016. Guardiola confirmed he will leave at t
The farewell has started to feel heavier inside Manchester City’s training ground. Pep Guardiola has known for weeks that Sunday’s home game against Aston Villa will carry a special weight. and Friday’s confirmation that he will leave at the end of the season has turned the final stretch into something close to an emotional countdown.
In the build-up, Guardiola didn’t speak like a manager reciting highlights from a decade. He spoke like someone replaying a single decision he wishes he could revisit. When asked about what he would change. the Manchester City boss admitted his biggest regret from his time in Manchester: the choice to move on former goalkeeper Joe Hart shortly after arriving in the summer of 2016.
“I want to confess something. I have regrets,” Guardiola said on Sky Sports. “When you take a lot of decisions… you make mistakes. But there is one regret that I have hidden deep inside for many years.”
His regret was blunt. “I didn’t give Joe Hart the chance to be with me, to prove how good a goalkeeper he was.”
Guardiola’s comments cut directly to the moment Hart’s relationship with City began to unravel. The England international was 29 when Guardiola arrived. after spending a decade at the club and becoming established as one of the Premier League’s leading goalkeepers. But in the start of the 2016-17 campaign, Guardiola left Hart out in favour of Willy Caballero. Later, the arrival of Claudio Bravo from Barcelona pushed Hart even further down the pecking order.
Guardiola said he now believes he should have handled that transition differently—carrying Hart through it rather than replacing him immediately. “I (should have) thought, ‘Okay Joe, let’s try to do it together. If it doesn’t work, then we change it’,” he told Sky Sports.
In Guardiola’s telling. the point was not to shield Hart from competition. but to allow the partnership to happen first. “And I should have done,” he added. “With all respect to Claudio (Bravo). and then Ederson who came in – he was important – but in that moment I (should have) thought. ‘Okay Joe. let’s try to do it together. If it doesn’t work, then we change it.’ But it happened. In life, sometimes you have to take decisions, and sometimes I’m not fair enough.”.
Hart’s situation had already been under scrutiny by the time Guardiola’s managerial era fully began. The goalkeeper came into that season after a disappointing European Championship. where he made high-profile errors. including for Kolbeinn Sigthorsson’s winner in England’s shock last-16 defeat by Iceland.
Guardiola publicly questioned whether Hart had the time to adapt to the ‘sweeper-keeper’ role he demands, and the squad’s selection reflected that urgency. But Hart later looked back on those early months with his own version of how it felt—saying he sensed the decision had already been made.
“I had a feeling from the outset that Pep had already made up his mind,” Hart said, describing Guardiola’s approach. In his view, the conversation never really opened the way a senior player might hope for.
Guardiola’s plan didn’t end with Hart simply being sidelined. Hart spent the 2016-17 season on loan at Torino, before another temporary spell at West Ham. In 2018, he eventually sealed a permanent move to Burnley.
The contrast between Guardiola’s regret now and Hart’s memory then is sharp. Hart, speaking to The High Performance Podcast last year, said Guardiola’s arrival didn’t look like a settled verdict—at least not at first.
“He signed maybe in February and I was deep into a contract at the club – three-and-a-half, maybe four years left on a deal,” Hart said. “The club were committed to me and I was committed to them. But their golden goose was to get Pep and I thought, ‘Great, I’d love to be a part of that’.”
Hart said he had imagined staying and proving himself. “I would have loved to have stayed and tried to prove (him) otherwise,” he added. But he described a different reality when Guardiola came into day-to-day work.
“When he came in he pulled me very early and I got the vibe that it wasn’t set in stone for me. ” Hart said. “I was a senior player and he’s the kind of person that I can imagine there would have been a conversation. previous to coming into training. along the lines of. ‘I’m looking forward to working with you’. That didn’t happen.”.
Hart said the lack of contact felt telling. “I don’t know if that’s how he works. I didn’t work with the guy,” he said. “But I just kind of put two and two together.”
He recalled how Guardiola framed the decision once they finally got in front of each other. “He told me that, as much as he admired me as a person, he didn’t think I could fit into his system,” Hart said.
Hart’s response, as he remembers it, was direct. “To which I said, ‘I don’t agree with you, but that’s your opinion. Is that something we can work on together or do I need to find a new home?’”
Hart said Guardiola then made the sporting priority clear. “And he said. ‘I’m happy to work but I can’t put everything aside that I’m trying to do. I’m here to win’. And I respected that,” Hart said. “He was there to win, he wasn’t there to give me a good career or look after me. He needed a goalkeeper who he felt could function.”.
Hart described it as frustrating, but not personal in intent. “It was frustrating. What can you do?. I would have loved to have stayed and tried to prove otherwise,” he said. “But I was living in that world where you want to play for England. You can’t play for England if you’re being trialled at a football club. so it was just an unfortunate circumstance.”.
He added: “It wasn’t a personal attack on me, it was a man who had a vision and I didn’t fit into it.”
The sequence is difficult to separate in hindsight: Hart’s initial removal at the start of the 2016-17 campaign. the subsequent competition for the position. and Hart’s loans and eventual permanent move—now met by Guardiola’s admission that he should have tried to include him rather than moving on immediately.
As Guardiola closes this chapter, he has also confirmed he is set to take a break from the game. Manchester City. meanwhile. have said he will continue his relationship with the City Football Group by taking up a role as a Global Ambassador. For City supporters. the trophies and memories will still matter—but on the eve of his final home game. Guardiola’s one private regret has landed like a reminder that even the sharpest decisions can leave a lasting mark.
Pep Guardiola Manchester City Joe Hart Aston Villa Premier League Ederson Claudio Bravo Willy Caballero Torino loan West Ham Burnley Sky Sports City Football Group Global Ambassador