City chief tells Hart: It’s best you leave now

MANCHESTER CITY’S out-of-favour goalkeeper Joe Hart has been told face-to-face by the club’s director of football Txiki Begiristain that it would be in everyone’s best interests if he left in the current transfer window.

City are close to sealing a £20million deal for Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, which would leave Hart as third-choice, and neither manager Pep Guardiola nor Begiristain want that to prove a distraction for the Pep revolution.

Guardiola has been taken aback by support for Hart from former players like Joey Barton and Frank Lampard, and is worried about being seen as the manager who pushes Hart out of the door. Publicly, he has said the England goalkeeper, 29, would have to ask to leave before a loan or permanent transfer could be arranged but behindthe-scenes meetings tell a different story.

After Hart arrived back early from a post-Euro 2016 break in order to join City’s pre-season tour of China, his first conversation with Guardiola raised doubts about his future.

Everton and Sevilla have been mentioned as possible destinations for Hart, who was an unused sub as City won 4-1 at Stoke yesterday.