Pep Guardiola has admitted that forcing Joe Hart out of Manchester City remains his biggest regret during his time at the club.
Guardiola will oversee his final game as City manager on Sunday against Aston Villa, ending a trophy-laden decade in Manchester.
The Spaniard captured 20 trophies during his spell at the Etihad, including six Premier League titles and the club’s maiden Champions League triumph.
Despite that success, Guardiola revealed he still regrets not giving Hart the opportunity to prove himself under his system.
Just weeks after arriving in 2016, Guardiola sent Hart on loan to Torino before bringing in Claudio Bravo and later Ederson.
Hart, who was England’s first-choice goalkeeper at the time, had reportedly asked Guardiola for the chance to adapt to the manager’s style, which required goalkeepers comfortable with building attacks from the back.
“I want to confess, I have regrets. When you take a lot of decisions, a lot, lot of decisions, you make mistakes,” Guardiola told Sky Sports.
“But there is one regret that I have deep inside for many years, that I didn’t give a chance to Joe Hart to be with me to prove himself how good a ‘keeper he was.
“I should have done, not because… all respect for Claudio, all respect for Ede who came in, they were important, but in that moment, I could have said, ‘Okay Joe, let’s try to do it together. If it doesn’t work, okay, we’ll change it’.
“But it happened. Life is sometimes… I have to take decisions and sometimes I’m not fair enough.”
Guardiola admitted the experience taught him important lessons, especially after Hart later revealed how angry he was over the decision.
“Maybe with time then and learning. But I regret it from that time,” Guardiola added.
“In that moment, I said, ‘I believe in that’. Always I am stubborn in my decisions, when I believe in that.
“When I have doubts, I talk with people, but when I’m completely sure, 100 percent, I say, ‘Guys, we have to do it in that way’, and I have been at a club that has supported me absolutely in everything with that.”
The City boss also acknowledged that managing players’ emotions — particularly those left out of the team — remains one of the toughest aspects of football management.
“If in that I failed, I do apologise, but it never, never was my intention or the intention of the club,” he said.
