As Joe Hart can testify, it is a cruel game sometimes. “The Hand of Clod” was one of the headlines after Rob Green’s goalkeeping mistake for England in the last World Cup. Terry Butcher, the former captain, described it as the worst error an English goalkeeper had ever made. Bob Wilson called it a “basic schoolboy error”. Green had actually shown great dignity in humiliation but that was what it was: humiliation. “USA Wins 1-1” as the New York Post put it.
Hart has had to contend with some personal ordeals of his own until this point, breathing in the Manaus air for the first time, trying not to concern himself too much about the state of the Arena Amazônia pitch, and preparing for a game that might not have involved him had it not been for the competitive courage he showed in the second half of the season.
Hart has already watched all the footage that the Football Association’s video analysts have put together for him about Italy’s attackers, where they like to shoot, what they tend to do in one-on-one situations. He already knows about Mario Balotelli from their time together at Manchester City but his iPad is filled with information about England’s opponents on Saturday. “Everything we want,” he says, “we have at our fingertips.”
What he will not be watching is a rerun of what happened when England played Italy in the Euro 2012 quarter-finals and Hart came up against Andrea Pirlo in the penalty shootout. What a snapshot of England’s tournament that was: Hart sticking out his tongue, waving his arms, gurning, shouting and trying to reenact the Bruce Grobbelaar sketch from the 1984 European Cup final, then Pirlo nonchalantly strolling up, deciding it was time for the panenka and scoring a gem.
The strange thing now is that when Hart is asked about those moments, it is as if he has wiped them from his memory. “I couldn’t even tell you what I did, if I’m being honest. I’m just going off what you are telling me. I thought that was the best way to win us the shootout. It turned out it wasn’t. But at the time it felt like it was. He did what he thought he needed to do for his country, I did what I thought was best for mine.
“I don’t think there was any personal vengeance from Pirlo. I haven’t got his [Grobbelaar’s] dancing moves. But I will never regret trying that.”
And, besides, Hart has been through much worse since, with all the scrutiny about his position in the team and, in some places, mockery. He, like Green, has encountered brutal headlines, and maybe he warrants more acclaim than he has actually had for the way he has handled the recovery process. The key, he says, has been to show mental strength. “Because if you don’t, there’s a good chance you will be trampled to the wayside.”
Hart was always too talented for that to happen, but there was a time when the blip had turned into a full-blown slump and Manuel Pellegrini, his manager at City, removed him from the team. Even now, when Hart is asked whether his form has fully recovered, he is reluctant to say as much. “It’s not the end of it for me. Definitely not. I haven’t ‘come through it and now everything’s fine’. I’ve got to keep working hard because, potentially, I could go through a bad patch again. I have to stay level-headed otherwise it can go wrong again.”
What he has always had is the backing of the England manager. It would have been easy more than once – tempting even – for Roy Hodgson to do the same as Pellegrini. Yet he never did. “It was important to know he was behind me,” Hart says. “But I didn’t feel they weren’t behind me at City either. Whether I was playing or not, I still felt the club was behind me and that I had a place there.
“It means a lot to have both your club and country behind you. I’d like to think that I can repay that faith now by working hard and giving my best.
“Sometimes my best isn’t good enough. Sometimes all of our best isn’t good enough. That’s life. I have just had to get my head down, respect peoples’ opinions and work hard.
“I’ve built up a good group of people around me, professionally and personally, who have a lot of belief in me and understand me. They were fantastic in those moments and I’d like to repay the favour if it’s ever required. Now, I just want to keep improving. I want to be at the top of my game. I’ve got two amazing opportunities football-wise. I’m playing at such an exciting club who potentially can have whoever they want; I totally understand that, so I need to be at that level to keep my place. And playing for England, one of the greatest nations in football history, with fantastic goalkeepers, I’ve got to be at the top.”
In 2010, Hart saw close up what Green went through. “Rob had to show fantastic mental strength. He didn’t have a bad game. He definitely didn’t. He just had a bad moment, which we all have. If you analyse the 25 players who played that game, every single one of them will have had a bad moment. But that’s the nature of being a goalkeeper.
“Rob understands that, I understand it, we know that if we make a mistake it’s going to be scrutinised but I thought he was fantastic for the rest of the game and the rest of the tournament. I’ve a lot of respect for how he handled himself.”
The irony back then is that England’s coaching staff all agreed Hart had been the outstanding goalkeeper in training. It was just that Fabio Capello did not want to use someone of 23 who had previously made only three substitute appearances. David James eventually took Green’s place and Hart came home trying not to be too wound up about the way Capello kept calling him “John”. “I did take offence at that. Since then, I’ve been called John by quite a lot of Italians. So I think it’s ‘Joenn’ and it’s just how they talk. I’ve calmed down a little bit.”
On Saturday, his routine will be the same as it is before every match. “I like to feel the ball in my hands, take a few crosses, a few shots. That’s pretty much it. I like to have plenty of time to get ready. There are no superstitions, one glove going on differently to another glove or anything like that. But my mental state is key, getting myself in the right place.”
And the key to the game? “We’re looking to build up from the back a lot more,” Hart says, reminded of the infamous statistic that his long punt up to Andy Carroll was England’s most successful pass against Italy in Euro 2012.
“It’s going to be hot. We have to preserve our legs and the best way to do that is to have the ball. It’s a lot harder getting the ball than keeping the ball. So we want to keep the ball.”
His other advice is simple: be careful in the penalty area. Balotelli once bet Hart he could score 10 penalties past him in a row – and did exactly that. “He’s a phenomenal penalty-taker,” Hart recalls.