CIT Y MIGHT PAY PRICE FOR HART
THERE is growing concern at Manchester City that they will end up losing Joe Hart for nothing.
The England keeper is not in manager Pep Guardiola’s plans and is now on his second loan since the Spaniard arrived at The Etihad. Last season was spent in Italy with Torino and City had oped to agree a permanent move somewhere for Hart, 30, this summer. The valuation City had in mind was in the region of £20million. But they had to settle for just a £4m loan fee when Hart moved to West Ham United. The experienced keeper (below) has already indicated that he expects another temporary transfer next year.
City suspect that Hart – who won 71 England caps to date – is now planning to run down his contract, which expires in two years. So another loan move next season would see him become a free agent at the end of that campaign in the summer of 2019. In an ironic twist of fate, Hart is back in Manchester earlier than he thought – this afternoon to be precise.
He is due to play for his new club competitively for the first time at
Old Trafford against City’s great rivals Man United. PREMIER LEAGUE through spending broke barrier last the £1BILLION who took the week.The player collective outlay top-flight clubs’ figure beyond that astromical winger was Brazil Under-20s Samba starlet, Richarlison.The from 20, moved to Watford Fluminense for £11.2million and Premier League clubs aren’t done yet! PAUL HETHERINGTON
MANCHESTER CITY may have spent £200million on superstars this summer but it was ‘old boy’ Sergio Aguero who spared their blushes and restored some sanity on a day of shocks.
The Argentinian, who has made a habit of scoring on opening days since he moved to The Etihad six years ago, produced his magic again when it looked as though Brighton’s brick wall would deny them. It was no more than he and Man of the Match Kyle Walker deserved but you have to salute the battling Seagulls for denying them for so long. But City boss Pep Guardiola admitted his side have to learn lessons how to break down the sort of defence Brighton frustrated them with.
He said: “They defended deep but we have to handle these situations.”
Brighton boss Chris Hughton must have wondered whether to laugh or cry when he sent his debutants out yesterday – the first time any Seagulls had played in the top flight for 34 years.
A quick glance at City’s star-studded bench showed exactly what a tough task he was facing and it is hardly any wonder the rookies were chasing shadows from the off. It looked uncannily like men against boys.
In fact, it was 15 minutes before Brighton got near the City penalty area and that was only because Pascal Gross was at least five yards offside.
And when the start of Izzy Brown’s season-long loan from Chelsea ended early after he limped off a few minutes later, you got the feeling the gods had already decided who they favoured.
City might have argued with that on 26 minutes, though, when Gabriel Jesus had an opening goal disallowed for handball and was booked by referee Michael Oliver for his troubles.
The visitors had around 80 per cent of the possession but that statistic did not worry the Brighton faithful who greeted the half-time whistle with cheers usually reserved for a glorious victory.
That is hardly surprising, really, considering Lewis Dunk’s 44th-minute header was the first time new City keeper Ederson had touched the ball.
Pep Guardiola may have had a few choice words to say to his superstars during the break, who should have been out of sight by then, such was their dominance.
In the second half, City had another ‘goal’ disallowed for offside five minutes after the restart while Aguero uncharacteristically missed a sitter.
And they really would have had only themselves to blame if Shane Duffy had given Brighton the most unlikely of leads soon afterwards with a long-range strike which took a bit of a deflection.
But with little more than 20 minutes to go, footballing justice was finally seen to be done.
Aguero was on a loose ball in a flash to score his seventh goal in eight opening-day fixtures for City.
And minutes later Dunk marred an otherwise more than satisfactory Premier League bow with a desperately unlucky own-goal to end a contest which should have been over long before.
Hughton said: “I thought for 70 minutes we were good and limited them to a few chances. If we hadn’t conceded when we did, I don’t think we would have conceded a second goal. This is a good start for us and we can take credit for our performance.”