Jurgen still Dah-ring to dream
TWENTY FOUR MILLION POUNDS
And that is why City’s Abu Dhabi billionaire owners will be desperate to recoup the sky-high outlay by selling the England No.1 for around the same figure in the summer.
City’s money men agreed to cough up 90 per cent of Hart’s Etihad salary for his Pep Guardiola-sanctioned loan deal to the Italian side until the summer.
Hart i s reported t o be on a basic £130,000-a-week salary so taking into account City’s contribution that adds up to a tidy £4.563m they will have had to hand over for his short, expensive nine-month spell in Serie A.
Add to that the £15.4m spent to bring in his controversial replacement Claudio Bravo, plus the Chilean’s £100,000-a-week wages, and the total cost of Hart’s exit soars to a hefty £23.863m.
City boss Guardiola made the decision to end Hart’s decade of loyalty after being convinced he was not the ball-playing keeper he demanded from his first-choice stopper. Guardiola put his faith in Bravo but after a series of calamity cock-ups, he decided to axe him in favour of Willy Caballero, who lifted the Capital One Cup so dramatically against Liverpool last season in a penalty shootout.
Some City fans would love Guardiola (below) to do a U-turn and bring Hart back to The Etihad but back-tracking is not on the hard-line Spaniard’s agenda.
And Hart himself has confessed to close friends that while Guardiola is in charge, there is no way for him to reignite his City career.
The club are aware of major interest from Merseyside rivals Everton and Liverpool with Sunderland keen also, although their Premier League survival LIVERPOOL are battling to save their proposed deal for German starlet Mahmoud Dahoud. Kop boss Jurgen Klopp has made Borussia Monchengladbach midfielder Dahoud, 21 (left) one of his major summer targets. But there have been claims in Germany the player is now set to sign for Borussia Dortmund, who are trying to activate a bargain £8.5million buy-out clause in his contract. would be the deciding factor. Southampton were heavily linked this week with a summer move for Hart to leave a huge question mark over the future of their No.1 Fraser Forster. There are reports that City would not agree to sell Hart to top-six rivals although in the end they might not have any other option. Torino would love to keep Hart but they cannot find the money to finance his fee or wages on a permanent basis. President Urbano Cairo said: “We will enjoy Hart and cuddle him but we know he’s not our player and his wages are not accessible for us. “Nothing is decided yet. We took the player on loan for a year – we will assess the situation with City when the loan finishes. We will see what we are going to do in June.” But ex-England goalkeeper David James believes Hart should stay in Serie A. He said: “If I was him, I would be looking at staying in Italy. The difficulty in England is where would he go? There are some very good keepers around the Premier League.” Liverpool have not thrown in the towel yet though.
Dahoud has also attracted strong interest from Chelsea and Man City.
He was born in Syria but is a Germany Under-21s international.
Meanwhile, Gremio fans could drive Brazil star Luan into the arms of English clubs fighting to land the classy forward in a £30m deal.
The star is seeking a move away following protests against the club by Gremio supporters, although the Brazilian outfit do not want to lose him.
Liverpool, Man United and Leicester have all been linked with a swoop for Luan, who will be 24 tomorrow.
He is considered Brazil’s most valuable export after the departure of Gabriel Jesus to Manchester City and Gabriel Barbosa to Inter Milan.