The shot-stopper admits he was forced out of the Etihad club and is grateful to the Serie A side for giving him an opportunity
England goalkeeper Joe Hart admits that he would have struggled to win his battle with Pep Guardiola if he had stayed at Manchester City.
Fans are right - Rooney is garbage
Hart was sent out on loan to the Serie A club having fallen down the pecking order under the Catalan coach, who also signed Claudio Bravo from Barcelona.
And Hart, who signed for City in 2006, said he felt unlikely to be able to win back his spot had he stayed with the Premier League leaders.
"Football is a game of opinions and some people have a great opinion of me and some people probably think I'm absolutely useless," Hart said, via the Daily Mail.
"Unfortunately for me, one of the guys' opinions in charge of my club at the time wasn't as strong as it needed to be.
"Some people you struggle to argue with – they've got a lot of strong backing to what they say and what they do. It's hard to please everyone and I learnt quite early that that's never going to happen."
Coppell defends under-fire Rooney: He's NOT finished!
PLAY
Hart admits he had limited options before leaving City, and is grateful to Torino for the opportunity to play in Italy.
The 29-year-old said he had few choices before his switch, but was pleased with the decision he made.
"I wasn't sat there with 25 options. I wasn't," Hart added . "Torino was a really good option for me and it definitely excited me to go to play in Serie A and to play for Torino.
"That fit, in the situation I was in, was a good decision.
"But it's not about making brave decisions. It was a decision I had to make and was comfortable with. I felt I was capable of doing it and, where my options were, it was the best one for me in my opinion.
RUMOURS: Barcelona want Chelsea starlet Christensen
"I had a situation at City where my playing time was going to be limited, full stop, so I had to look elsewhere.
"It was pretty quick. I wasn't given much time so when that opportunity came, I was really, really grateful."

The former Paris Saint-Germain striker is a taekwondo black belt, and one mixed martial arts star was intrigued when the possibility of a duel was mentioned
EXTRA TIME
Few have managed to better Zlatan Ibrahimovic on the field over the years, but one UFC star believes he could take him down in the Octagon!
The Manchester United star is a taekwondo black belt, which perhaps goes a long way to explaining his brilliant physical condition at 35.
And Danny 'Hot Chocolate' Roberts believes a bout with the striker would be quite the spectacle.
PLAY
"If he's willing to fight I'm here," the mixed martial artist told reporters in the build-up to UFC 204.
"Yeah I'd like to see him in the Octagon, see what he's got.
"At the same time it would probably add a little bit more value to us and what we do."
England fans right about Rooney
Powerful Zlatan would possibly come in rather heavier than his prospective opponent, but Roberts is not concerned: "I'll make the weight any time."

The Brazil international has been linked with a move away from Anfield, with the Catalan club said to be interested, but he is set to be offered a contract extension by the Reds
Liverpool are set to offer Philippe Coutinho a new deal to ward off interest from Barcelona, according to the
Sunday People.
The report suggests that the Reds will use the increased Premier League TV money to offer improved contracts to a number of key players, including Coutinho.
Barcelona are said to be keeping a close eye on the 24-year-old, who signed a fresh agreement with Liverpool just 18 months ago.

The Arsenal goalkeeper has revealed the headwear - which are shaped like the helmet he dons - on his Facebook page, posting an amusing advertising clip to go with it
EXTRA TIME
Footballers often use their statuses to benefit themselves. To land a mega-money advertising deals, to drive the latest supercars, or to travel to the most exclusive corners of the planet. Petr Cech, however, is using his status to sell hats.

'Rooney is NOT finished!'
The shot-stopper has donned protective headgear since an unfortunate clash with Reading’s Stephen Hunt in 2006 while playing for Chelsea, which left him needing emergency brain surgery.

Now, as the frosty mornings begin to roll in, Cech is looking to cash in with his new range of headwear which replicates his trademark helmet. And, rather bizarrely, has channelled his inner Snoop Dogg in the advertising clip on his website.

Expect to see a wave of the hats making their debuts at the Emirates until the end of the year.

By Tunji Bello

Nothing strengthens deceit more than silence. And on an occasion like this, one often wonders why some people twist events and history in order to legitimise a mission. While ruminating over why this should be, it is not impossible to embark on introspection by thinking out so many possibilities that politics is replete with. This line of thought is informed by laughable events of the last few days.
The news media have become agog with false story as to how Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo came to be. During the launch of a book, “Muhammadu Buhari: The Challenges of leadership in Nigeria,” a biography on President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Monday, October 3, 2016, Nigerians were fed with half-truths by the author, Prof. John Paden, on how Osinbajo became the Vice-President of the country. I don’t know how the author came about his story, but he totally got it wrong because what he wrote basically is based on falsehood that reeks of deliberate misinformation and mischief.
I know how Asiwaju Bola Tinubu picked Osinbajo because I was part of the process that midwifed his nomination. In mid-December 2014, it was a Saturday morning after President Muhammadu Buhari had been picked by the All Progressives Congress, at the party’s presidential primaries at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos. I received a phone call from Asiwaju to see him that morning. On my way to his house, I discovered that a car at a reasonable distance was that of a former Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dele Alake, who was, ostensibly, heading towards Asiwaju’s house in Ikoyi. Asiwaju must have called him too for that task that could be explained underneath.
As soon as we arrived, Asiwaju quickly asked us to join him in his car as we headed for a Guest House. At the Guest House, the former APC Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, Osinbajo and one renowned Pastor joined us.
At the meeting, Asiwaju related to us the urgent need to pick a vice-presidential candidate for the APC. He advised that we immediately discard the idea of his being nominated for the vice-presidential slot as it was no longer possible to pick a Muslim-Muslim ticket. This he reasoned made sense if indeed we were to be realistic in our bid to defeat President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election. He reasoned that what was important and imperative at that time was to look for a good Christian nominee to complement Buhari.
I remember Baba Akande responded to his aversions that he would still have preferred that Asiwaju should be the running mate since it had been done before. Baba Akande was obviously referring to the MKO Abiola/Babagana Kingibe nomination in 1993. Asiwaju responded by distinguishing the political equation then from what was before us at that point in time. He foreclosed that scenario as no longer possible. We all voiced our opinions, and at the end of the day, it was resolved that we had to get a Christian candidate.
It was at this point that Asiwaju reminded us to be fast in coming up with an option because he felt other geographical zones were also jostling for the same position reiterating the need for the South-West to get it as a must. Asiwaju audaciously told us that left for him, and if he were to pick anyone, he would suggest Osinbajo. That Osinbajo, apart from being a brilliant legal luminary, is also a committed progressive, and democrat. And having been married to the late Obafemi Awolowo’s grand-daughter, it would not be a problem selling him to the old political establishment of the South-West for acceptance. He asserted that Alake and myself having served in his cabinet could attest to the great works he did as the Attorney General during his administration as Governor of Lagos State. He also reasoned that the second major factor in favour of Osinbajo was the fact that he was a strong Christian and one that he was already a Pastor at the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
In the long run, Osinbajo’s nomination was well-received by all of us at that meeting and Osinbajo was asked to start detailing with us, further strategy sessions to which he brought out his laptop and we all commenced a brainstorming session. The rest of the discussion was to strategise on how to contain other likely opponents from the South-West zone before proceeding to Abuja to battle other zones in the coming nomination.
The meeting did not finish until about 9.00pm when we returned to Asiwaju’s residence in Bourdillon. By the time we returned to his house, there were about six serving governors already waiting to see him from different parts of Nigeria.
What is particularly sad now is that the book launch of the President was deployed to create a make-believe story that puts the society at a disadvantage of history. One would have thought that now that the progressives, through an uncommon alliance in 2015, created an upset by defeating, for the first time in the country’s history, the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party, it might be taken as given that the role of all active participants in the exercise would be correctly recorded. But surprisingly painful, such an avenue was used to create an historical distortion of facts, more so, coming from an unexpected quarters at this early stage of progressive politics.
If a political adversary had done that, one would not have been disturbed.
It becomes more of a matter of concern when a renowned intellectual writes a book and begins to redefine events in his own way by abashedly evading facts that are bellowing in the public space in order to recreate a world of make-believe for his audience. Sincerely, such an act understandably becomes a matter to ponder seriously.
Let us stop here. It is not all clothes that can be dried in the sun.
Bello is the Secretary to the Lagos State Government
Please share your thoughts in the comment box below