Heroic Hart’s summertime blues are over
THIS time there was no stomping around the tunnel. This time he didn’ t screech the national anthem or have his face contorted as though he was preparing for a ruckus.
And this time there were no mistakes. Watching Joe Hart keep Slovenia at bay with a sequence of stunning saves, you could not help but compare the calculated way he went about his business to how things were for him at Euro 2016.
Back in the summer, Hart continually made himself centre of attention with his antics in the moments before kick-off.
He never looked in control and the direct consequence were those high-profile errors against Wales and Iceland, when he allowed routine shots to squirm through his hands.
Hart looked a shadow of the player who had won the Premier League’s Golden Glove four times with Manchester City. He was wound up at the times when he needed to be calm, and chippy when he found questions being asked of him.
Compare that to the man in Ljubljana on Tuesday who almost singlehandedly stopped England suffering their first qualification defeat since October 2009. He showed humility, provided assurance and was prepared to confront what had gone wrong in France.
‘The summer was difficult,’ said Hart. ‘I am gutted about how the summer went but it has gone now. Football moves quickly. I have done the same when I have won things, I have done the same when we have won leagues. You have got to move on. And you have got to keep fighting.
‘I will continue to keep fighting for my country. I cherish every moment I play and long may that continue. Did I get too hyped up? I don’t know. I would have loved to have saved the two shots hots that I should have ave saved but they are gone.
‘I have moved on. I am going to try to rectify that by being in a good place. As a goalkeeper, you can’t chase situations. I didn’t have anything to do against st Malta but against nst Slovenia, I did. I am trying to grow andnd I am trying to improve.’ e.’
Hart’s quest for improvement this year, of course, will be in Turin but to see him play as he did against Slovenia, when his showreel included an extraordinary save from Jasmin Kurtic, you had to wonder why he is not in the Premier League and whether Pep Guardiola had cast judgement too soon. Hart is not prepared to fight that fight any longer, saying at the weekend that he understood a battle to change Guardiola’s mind was not one he could win. But he is in no mood to wallow. A conversation with Gareth Southgate last week at St George’s Park left an impression on the goalkeeper. The interim head coach told Hart he had to be calm if he wanted to show his best form and that was certainly true on Tuesday, with Southgate saying: ‘We saw what an outstanding keeper he can be.’ ‘I want to keep improving,’ said Hart, whose assignment this weekendend is a trip to Palermo. ‘I just love diving around in goal. Being able to do it for my country is amazing and I remind myself of it every single ttime I pull on an England shirt. ‘I will do anything to keep the ball out of tthe net. I’ve enjoyed working with Gareth. ‘He has got his own ideas and has really tried to give us his identity. The lads havehav reacted well to itit. ‘If we had won and had three out of three, it would have been great. But this is our situation — seven points, three clean sheets and we are top of the group. Our objective is getting to Russia.’