STAN COLLYMORE You’ve ad it Joe, so cut your losses... AND YOUR HAIR!)
*( TELLI’S ON THE BLINK LET LIONS ROAR NOW
Follow us on Twitter: @peoplesport EVERY ti time ItI turn on th the TV these days it seems there’s not an ad break that goes by without Joe Hart telling me about dandruff shampoo.
Once Hart WAS Head & Shoulders above a lot of English goalkeepers and plenty in Europe too.
But these days Pep Guardiola isn’t buying into him or his shampoo and the whole saga is turning into an embarrassment.
So, today my message to Joe would be: Shave your head, drop the ad – and get back to basics.
After being axed in favour of that goalkeeping great, Willy Caballero, and Claudio Bravo’s arrival at the Etihad Stadium, it seems Hart is on his way out of Manchester City.
Farewell
City fans reckon that’s a shame after years of solid service, a couple of League titles and cups. So does Hart.
They made it clear against Steaua Bucharest in midweek when he said a final farewell just how dearly they value him and it’s obvious they think he deserves better from new boss Guardiola. So does Hart.
I was once frozen out by John Gregory at Aston Villa and it’s not a nice experience.
I was struggling with some mental health issues at the time and it was a very frustrating period in my career.
All you can do is train hard, be professional and be ready to hit the ground running when a new avenue opens.
For me, that was Leicester where I lasted 90 minutes on my debut, then scored a hat-trick in my second game.
Whatever the rights and wrongs at City, for me, it’s absolutely clear what Hart should do now.
He needs to get out before the transfer window shuts at 11pm on Wednesday, find a new club and start proving to people that he’s not the lost cause Guardiola – and maybe Sam Allardyce – thinks he is.
Because let’s face it, his performances at Euro 2016 for England weren’t great. I believe his weak wrists were responsible for England conceding two shocking and damaging goals against Wales and Iceland in France.
And there was no doubt England fans were pointing the finger of blame at Hart and many of them would gladly have taken his head off at the shoulders if they’d bumped into him.
It’s all very well doing TV ads when you’re on top of your game. As soon as it goes pear-shaped, people pick up on that kind of self-promotion.
Does the ad make Hart a better or worse keeper? No, of course not.
But it gives critics ammunition when your performance dips, as it did for Hart at Euro 2016. England fans were mocking him. He was getting tagged as a poseur and a player with his priorities elsewhere. I remember the same happening to Jason McAteer when I was at Liverpool and he did a similar ad. He got plenty of stick in and out of the club.
David James did his Armani underpants advert and Jamie Redknapp did some modelling but, for me, that stuff has always felt wrong.
It’s a bit decadent when players parade their wealth and flashy £100,000 cars, but that’s the blingy side of football these days.
When you are on national TV it’s a bit different, it puts you out there as some preening, prancing horse. It’s OK doing Nike, adidas or goalie glove ads, looking mean and moody, but the fans have their own perception of Joe Hart now. He’s had a kicking and he needs to seriously refocus on his day job.
At 29, in goalkeeping terms, he is just coming into his peak years, so if he wants a future with England, he needs to bed himself into another club.
I know they have Petr Cech – who is 34 – but why not Arsenal? I’ve always felt Hart would benefit from top-level competition and I think he’d be an ideal keeper for the Gunners.
I also think with his top- level experience he could do well at Liverpool too.
Just drop the ad, though, Joe. It doesn’t wash – and it’s not doing you any favours. A COUPLE of years ago in this column, I predicted Mario Balotelli’s move to Liverpool would become a circus act. A fair few Liverpool fans called me to task and said I should give him a chance. But I take no pleasure from calling it right. Balotelli (below) has been a spectacular failure at Anfield and is now training with the kids. That’s actually a good move – because Balotelli is the perfect example to any young professional of how to chuck your career away. The Italian striker has become a parody of himself and all that’s bad about players being given riches and wasting their talent. If his career isn’t already over, it will be by the time he’s 30. By then, he’ll probably have played in China, the Middle East and maybe the MLS, if they’re daft enough to take him. And if he doesn’t squander his cash on flash cars and houses, he should still be a multi-millionaire. But after a wasted career and unfulfilled talent, in reality he’ll have nothing. AFTER the abject disappointment of Euro 2016 and another England failure, I’m quietly looking forward to the next two years under Sam Allardyce. But don’t expect a revolution. Big Sam announces his first squad today to face Slovakia in the opening 2018 World Cup qualifier, but I don’t expect too many surprises.
What he will do is breathe muchneeded life and fire back into England and he will be very results-orientated.
He’ll be organised, the players will have a clear plan and he’ll expect them to execute it. If they do, with the quality he has in the squad ,we’ll win far more than we lose.
He’ll tell them what’s expected, no doubt dish out a few bollockings to his players behind closed doors and lean on them to ensure they all understand the pride of playing for their country.
Above all, he’ll instil some fight into them, so never on his watch will we see the type of shockingly lame secondhalf show England cobbled together against Iceland in Euro 2016.
And if all he achieves is that, then it’ll be an upgrade on what happened in France.