Joe Hart In The Stiffs Shrewsbury Town preview: Goalkeeper on Man City move
Joe Hart is the most successful footballer the town of Shrewsbury has ever produced.
The Shropshire Star has teamed up with In The Stiffs podcast – the weekly series hosted by our columnist Dave Edwards and his former Gay Meadow team-mates Sam Aiston and Gavin Cowan – to bring an exclusive extract of part one of Hart’s guest appearance on the podcast, released tomorrow.
The goalkeeper, now 34 and with Scottish giants Celtic, won 75 caps for England and his 12-year spell at Manchester City featured two Premier League title wins, an FA Cup triumph and two League Cup successes, as well as four top flight Golden Glove awards in almost 350 games. Not bad for a lad from Gains Park.
Hart’s journey began against Gravesend & Northfleet in the Conference in late 2003/04 – the day after his 17th birthday. His rise and talent was no secret, he had been on the bench for Salop in the Football League aged 15 while still a Meole Brace High student.
Rewind further and the Oxon Primary School pupil loved nothing more than Sunday League football with his friends. He would also help Shropshire Schools to a national final. Hart was a fine cricketer for Shrewsbury at London Road and played second team for Worcestershire aged 14.
In all, Hart would play 58 senior games for his hometown club. He cites former goalkeeper coach Dave Timmins as a key influence. He first locked down the No.1 shirt as a regular in the 2005/06 season under Gary Peters – playing 50 games – and attracted strong interest from Everton and City.
The segment below covers the moment Hart, who joined City in 2006 for an initial £600,000 rising to a total of £1.5million, told boss Peters of his desire to explore interest in him from top flight clubs.
“Gary was someone who was close to me, was really good to me, pushing me, it felt like a natural progression,” Hart, who is four away from 600 career games, recalls.
“It felt like he’d built all this, done this, so he could sell me, so I could move on and we could shake hands.
“My agent at the time said if you want that to happen, if you want the wheels to turn, it’s something you’re going to have to do.
“I walked in ‘alright Gary, is it alright if I speak to you after training?’ and he said ‘no problem Joe’.
“I said ‘I’m pretty sure you’re aware there’s quite a lot going on above us, I really appreciate playing in the team and it’s something I’m really focused on, but I think it’s important we talk and I let you know if stuff is to happen it’s something I’m really interested in exploring’.
“I thought that was how things were done and bosh – a big change in the guy. That was something I thought you had to do and he just lost his head with me.
“(He said) ‘you cheeky...who the f**k do you think you are? Walking in here with your Umbro (gear)’. All these things he helped me get were being thrown at me.
“All of a sudden his attitude’s changed from telling me how good I am to saying ‘you’ve been miles off it in recent weeks! You’re replaceable like that, I’ve seen a million young people like you!’
“I thought ‘OK’ – as far as I was concerned that was it, he was going to completely throw me out the team, it was over.”
Hart, who won a place in the League Two team of the year that term, discussed the moment he and housemate and friend Edwards discovered a dream move was happening.
He added: “It got to the end of the season and I’d started to have conversations with Manchester City, with Stuart Pearce and Tim Flowers, they were really interested and going to do something.
“I thought it wasn’t going to be simple. I remember me and Dave walking into the Quarry Park. I got a call and it was Gary, we weren’t really on speaking terms or being friendly like we were (before) – but he started speaking like he’d got me a deal at Manchester City and I should thank him!”
Hart’s guest appearance on In The Stiffs podcast begins tomorrow and covers his entire career over the next three weeks. You can listen to the podcast in full on all good platforms.
