Pep Guardiola praised after speaking about the one regret he's ‘hid deep inside for many years'

Pep Guardiola has opened up about a long-time regret he’s ‘hid deep inside’ during his career as Manchester City manager.

The Cityzen man has enjoyed a prosperous decade as the man at the helm in Manchester, taking his side to six Premier League titles and the Champions League trophy.

Guardiola was recently pipped to what would have been an ideal farewell at the Etihad by ex-colleague Mikel Arteta, who managed Arsenal to a historic Premier League title win.

While it appears difficult to picture the Spaniard having many regrets after a virtually flawless era at Manchester City, many devoted fans of the club or long-time Guardiola followers may have an idea as to what the 55-year-old regrets so deeply.

Guardiola joined the club in 2016, winning the Premier League title just a season later with a historic 100-point tally as his side became the first ever English top-flight ‘centurion’ champions.

En-route to this achievement, the Spaniard dropped a fan favourite City man from his squad — a regret that the 55-year-old still has to this day.

‘I didn’t give Joe Hart a chance to be with me’ says Guardiola

Joe Hart, a Manchester City and England national team icon, played just one competitive game under Guardiola — a Champions League qualifier match.

The England goalkeeper exited the club shortly after, with Guardiola instead opting for Claudio Bravo as his starting man between the sticks.

Speaking to Sky Sports, the 55-year-old revealed this decision as the one regret “he’s hid deep inside for many years” after an illustrious decade with Manchester City.

The Spaniard said: “I didn’t give Joe Hart a chance to be with me, to prove himself [and] how good a keeper he was. And I should have done.

“All respect to Claudio [Bravo], for Ederson. But in that moment, I thought, ‘ok Joe, let’s try to do it together. If it doesn’t work, then ok, we change it because it happened.’”

“But it happened. You know, life is sometimes — I have to take decisions, and sometimes I am not fair enough,” confessed Guardiola.

After Hart’s sole appearance under the Spaniard, he moved on loan to Torino and then West Ham successive seasons, before moving permanently to Burnley in 2018.

The Manchester City legend, who won the Premier League’s Golden Glove award in three successive campaigns from 2010 to 2013, revealed via an Instagram Live in 2020 that the 55-year-old was “making it very clear” he had to leave the club.

On his final game for Manchester City, Hart said: “It was emotional. It wasn't nice but it was also awesome to be in a stadium full of love.

“Pep was making it very clear that I had to leave Manchester City. [The fans in the stadium] made it very clear that it wasn’t their decision that I was leaving,” he continued.

The Spaniard confessing that he regrets mishandling Hart’s situation will likely be meaningful to many Manchester City fans who felt that a legend of theirs was unfairly pushed out.

And despite delivering success that the Cityzen faithful could scarcely have dreamed of prior to his arrival, his latest comments may prove that it’s the man that fans will miss most, not the achievements.