4 players who have declined dramatically

#4 Joe Hart

Joe Hart made a major gaffe against Stoke in April

When Gareth Southgate’s England squad was announced for the upcoming World Cup, the fact that veteran goalkeeper Joe Hart – England’s #1 for the last three major tournaments – was axed, summed up his dramatic decline over the last couple of years. Once considered one of Europe’s best goalkeepers, various errors and gaffes during recent seasons have left him almost a laughing stock amongst some fans.

Hart’s decline really began back in 2015/16 when Manuel Pellegrini was in charge at Manchester City, as he began to make errors more regularly than ever and was dropped from the first team at times, but a disastrous Euro 2016 campaign with England that saw him concede weak goals against Wales and Iceland signalled the beginning of the end.

When Pep Guardiola took over at City that summer, Hart was allowed to move to Torino on loan; the reason given was that Guardiola had concerns over his ball-playing skills, but his 2017/18 season on loan at West Ham has shown Hart has more issues than that. He kept just 4 clean sheets all season and made 4 errors that led directly to goals – including his awful gaffe against Stoke in April.

Simply put, Hart’s decline has been both dramatic and alarming to watch, to the point where if he ends up leaving City this summer, it’s hard to see a Premier League side who would be willing to take a chance on him.

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