Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart is set to join Italian Serie A club Torino FC on loan this season following former FC Barcelona shot stopper Claudio Bravo's signing with the Etihad giants last week.
The 29-year-old England international had lost his former number one role with City ever since new manager Pep Guardiola arrived at the Etihad this summer. The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich champion coach had been vocal about his goalkeeping plans this season and he had been mentioning that Hart is not his ideal shot stopper for the team.
With that, backup Willy Caballero had played the first three Premier League assignments of the Citizens, but Guardiola is still looking for his ideal guardian between the posts.
In came the 33-year-old Bravo, who had been having playing time issues with Barça and its other goalkeeper, Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
Guardiola got his desired goalkeeper, of course, being able to snag Bravo from the back-to-back La Liga champions on Aug. 25 and signing him to a four-year deal, which meant that Hart's decade-long reign with City had finally ended.
However, all is not lost for Hart as he is "set to resurrect his club career in Serie A" with Il Toro this term, according to the Mirror.
The report said that Hart flew to Italy on Tuesday to finalize his loan deal with the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino residents and that he was "given permission" by England national team head coach Sam Allardyce to push through with his plans.
It continued to say that Hart "has opted for Torino ahead of Sunderland because he feels playing this season in Serie A can resurrect his club career", saying that he had "no interest in being part of a relegation battle at Sunderland" although he "respects (Sunderland) boss David Moyes".
Meanwhile, Bravo's £14.5million move to city was officially announced recently, as per The Sun, which said to have given the Chilean veteran a new inspiration in the season.
"I'm very proud to be joining Manchester City. I know the club is building something very special and I hope I can be part of many successes in the coming years," Bravo said.
"I have followed City's progress in recent years and obviously know some of my new teammates from the Copa America. It is not easy to leave a club like Barcelona where I had two fantastic years, but the opportunity to work with Pep Guardiola was too good to refuse," he added.
