FORMER Burnley goalkeeper Joe Hart has opened up about his decision to join the Clarets in the summer of 2018.

Sean Dyche opted to bring in the former England man, who had fallen out of favour at Manchester City, to bolster his goalkeeping ranks while Tom Heaton and Nick Pope were out injured.

Hart was a regular starter for the Clarets during the first half of the 2018/19 campaign and also featured in the Europa League against Istanbul Basaksehir.

But Dyche’s men made a poor start in the league and the Burnley boss decided to bring Tom Heaton back into the side after a 5-1 defeat against Everton on Boxing Day.

Hart felt he did “everything he could” during his time at Turf Moor but admits results on the pitch were frustrating.

“It was really informal, he didn’t want to have the conversation publicly so he came round,” he told In the Stiffs Podcast.

“He referenced the fact that he played against me (for Northampton against Shrewsbury). He spoke about what Burnley were as a club – you can come in and work hard.

“They had just finished seventh and had Europe. Sean believed in me as a goalie and a player and he said his two goalies were injured, that he liked his two goalies but if you come in and have a good season and can walk off somewhere else then everyone wins.

“I respected that. He said he was a man of his word and he knew how I liked to do things and it sounded right.

“I went in, started to play straight away and I played well. I was actually playing out of my skin but for us to get tonked.

“The Premier League is tough. We were trying to get into the Europa League group, we had a thin squad and at the time there was a slight intention to try and expand how we played to not just be smashing it and fighting it in the other box and defending hard, which Burnley are very good at.

“I played and played my heart out and represented the club exactly how I wanted to. I felt personally that I was doing everything I could. I was letting goals in but you can’t save everything."

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