JOE HART has been outstanding for Celtic since joining the club during Ange Postecoglou’s first summer in charge.
The Celtic manager has said on many occasions the Englishman just needed a bit of love from a club and a team who could appreciate him.
Celtic and Joe were a perfect fit at the perfect time. After a few years of bouncing about the place, the Englishman has set up shop in Glasgow and has been as influential on the field as he has off it.
While bouncing around after leaving Manchester City, Joe had a stint at Burnley, where he played under Sean Dyche. The English manager took part in Ben Foster’s podcast earlier this week and recalled the time he left Joe fuming.
Sean claimed he dropped the goalkeeper from his side, not because he wanted to, but because he had tried everything else when Burnley was on a hopeless run of form.
Recalling the interaction, Dyche did seem remorseful for the way he treated the now Celtic goalkeeper.
He told Ben Foster’s Fozcast: “Joe Hart, by the way. Joe’s took some heat, I’ll tell you, but he was a fantastic operator for us. Brilliant. His manner was excellent.
“In the end, he was in an unfortunate position. He was playing great for us you know, but we were struggling like mad and the only thing I hadn’t changed was the keeper.
“I said to him ‘Joe, look, you’re the only thing I haven’t changed’, and he was raging and obviously rightly so! But I went ‘Joe, it’s my job, it’s to make decisions.’
“I put Tom back in, and Joe was obviously thinking ‘oh brilliant’ – but great operator. But we had Heats (Tom Heaton), Nick (Pope) and Joe [Hart] – that’s a good three.”
Joe would end up a backup at Spurs before Celtic came calling. When Ange dropped the goalkeeper a phone call to see where he was mentally when it came to the game, the Celtic manager had no hesitation in bringing him in.
