Rumors are out that new Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is keen on removing goalkeeper Joe Hart from his current roster and replacing him with Barcelona's Claudio Bravo before the summer transfer window closes at the end of the month.
The Sun reported that the 29-year-old England international goal tender is fearing that his "ten-year Manchester City career is over" after he was left on the bench by Guardiola during the Citizens' 2-1 victory over Sunderland last Saturday at the Etihad.
The report mentioned that the relationship "between the keeper and his new boss have been frosty since day one" as the Spanish mentor is expecting a lot more than what Hart had displayed during training.
Hart said to have admitted that he thinks Guardiola "had already made his mind up about him before he arrived at the Etihad" and his benching during opening weekend is just another indication that he will be out of the club before September.
Meanwhile, there were speculations that Guardiola could be looking to his former club, FC Barcelona, for a possible replacement and it is no other than Chilean keeper Bravo, who had been with the Catalan giants since the summer of 2014.
The 33-year-old Chile international had not been under Guardiola's leadership at the Camp Nou as the Spaniard was there only from 2008 to 2012 before moving to Germany with Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich.
Hart is reportedly unwilling to leave City and to fight for his place in Guardiola's plans, but he definitely felt that it could be it for his tenure in Manchester. Caught Offside indicated that it could only be a matter of time before he is "forced to consider his options away from the Etihad in order to secure first-team football on a regular basis".
City's current starting keeper, Willy Caballero, told media that Hart and Guardiola had a lot of discussions during the preseason.
"I think the manager spoke with Joe a lot of times, but with me, I just trained every day in the whole of pre-season," said Caballero, who was Hart's backup last season with then manager Manuel Pellegrini. "And I just realized in the last day before that I was going to start it."
"For sure, it's very tough in this situation for me, for Joe, for the fans, for everything," he added.