Joe Hart expects Manchester City to recruit English players this summer in anticipation of Manuel Pellegrini’s revamped side mounting a more concerted challenge for the Premier League title next season.
City, who finished eight points behind Chelsea, have seen their English contingent shrink with the departures of Frank Lampard to New York City, James Milner to Liverpool and Scott Sinclair to Aston Villa. Micah Richards is out of contract next month and another association-trained player, the Belgian Dedryck Boyata, has left for Celtic, leaving only Hart, Gaël Clichy and Richard Wright – whose last first-team game came for Ipswich in 2011 – of the senior squad classed as homegrown.
That would limit City to a 20-man Premier League senior squad. Yet additions will be made to increase the numbers, with the unsettled Liverpool forward Raheem Sterling, Hart’s team-mate in the England setup for Sunday’s qualifier in Slovenia, one of a number of players to be targeted by the deposed champions. An inquiry was also made a year ago for Everton’s Ross Barkley, and City have been linked with Jack Wilshere.
“It is a long summer ahead,” said Hart. “With losing Frank and James – and I’m not in the discussions of transfers – I imagine, given homegrown players and stuff like that, it will be top of their list to bring in English players or to promote some of the lads [from the academy].”
Pellegrini intends to promote the Belgian Jason Denayer following a season on loan at Celtic, the Portuguese Marcos Lopes who spent last season at Lille and, potentially, the Nigerian forward Kelechi Iheanacho to the senior squad to bolster numbers. Yet the City chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, indicated this week that the owner, Sheikh Mansour, is intent upon making “high-quality” additions after what he considered to have been a disappointing campaign.
There is interest in Wolfsburg’s former Chelsea forward Kevin De Bruyne and in Paul Pogba, once of Manchester United, at Juventus. “I am sure we will have a good balanced squad come the start of the season,” said Hart, who signed a new five-and-a-half-year contract at the Etihad Stadium last December. “I am very confident in City as a club going places, which is why I committed my future to them. What they are doing is fantastic. He is a great chairman and they have done amazing things since coming.
“On a personal note, I am very sad to see James [Milner] go as he is a personal friend. I have enjoyed every moment with him but football is football. We have been in the game a long time and it is business, his decision and the club’s decision. I wish him all the best as he is a fantastic player but that is not the end of me and him. We have our personal relationship off the pitch.”
