This season must have been a record for English media coverage of Torino’s Serie A campaign.
It's fair to say that nobody really expected Joe (real name Charles) Hart to move to Turin last summer and try and find his feet in the Italian game, or that it would turn with as many mixed fortunes as it did.
Since the loan signing of Hart we have been kept up to date with every good and bad thing the goalkeeper has done in Italy, but as Irish people who propped up a sudden interest in the fortunes of LA Galaxy between 2011 and 2016 we are in no place to criticise.
Hart Stats: Joe Hart has made 7 defensive errors this season at Torino, only Josip Posavec has made more (9). [@Squawka] pic.twitter.com/PL9ek31EQv
— City Chief (@City_Chief) April 20, 2017
Torino’s defensive clangers have been documented more this season than any other as the team have conceded 56 goals in 35 games but sit in a respectable 9th place largely thanks to Andrea Belotti’s incredible tally of 25 goals.
Updated Capocannoniere standings in Serie A…
Dzeko 27
Belotti 25
Icardi 24
Higuain 24
Mertens 24
Immobile 22— Unexpected Goals (@unexpectedgoals) May 7, 2017
Sadly on the other end of the rectangle, Torino’s lack of efficiency in the back has largely been blamed on their new goalkeeper.
Club President Urbano Cairo has today admitted that Hart’s season hasn’t lived up to the hype.
“Hart made a few mistakes, especially when coming out for the ball,” he said.
“He is an important goalkeeper. We probably didn’t expect so many mistakes from an England international… but he did some good things, too.”
Nice bit of backtracking at the end there Urbano. It's clear he's never watched a Man Cuty or England game before.
This is not the first time Cairo has made comments about being underwhelmed by Hart’s performances, a month ago the Englishman missed a catch completely to allow Crotone player Simeon Nwanko to tap into an empty net prompting the President to say that his ‘’performance levels had dropped’’ and that he had been responsible for conceding goals too much.
