Mark Noble has been sharing details of a classic training session clash between Joe Hart and Declan Rice.
The England keeper had dropped out of favour at Manchester City under Pep Guardiola, after a season on loan at Torino he spent the 2017/18 season at West Ham.
Rice was a highly rated Irish youth internationalist coming through the ranks and not afraid to mix it with the senior pros at the London Stadium.
Noble spent 19 years playing at West Ham, seeing all sorts of characters come and go with one incident involving Hart and Rice standing out as he joined Ben Foster on the sofa to discuss some of the goalkeepers he played and trained with.
9 minutes
(Hart) is another fruitcake. Harty will tell you this. We were doing a shooting session, the coach pings it at you, you have a touch and finish.
Dec must’ve been young, like 19 at the time, and he’s had a touch and he’s got a lovely strike on him.
He’s whipped one of them past Harty and Harty dived for it and didn’t get there and he went ‘Harty, one day son.’ Harty went ‘Dec, if you say that again I’m going to (beat you up).
It’s come back to Dec and he’s missed one, he’s hit another one and it’s gone in and I said ‘go on, say it.’ He went, ‘one day, Harty.’
I swear to you, Harty has just left him, sprinted across the pitch and Dec’s took off down the tunnel, chased him the whole way around the London Stadium, like the whole way through it, got him and beat him up.
Harty was mad. He is such a tank, he is so strong. I played with him at England for all age groups and he’s a top fella. He’s just mad, they’re all mad!”
After West Ham Hart spent seasons at Burnley and Spurs before his career changing move to Celtic in August 2021, turning out to be one of Ange Postecoglou’s most inspired signings.
All of the noises suggest that the goalkeeper is a wisened old pro passing on his experience but any young player thinking of taking liberties would be well advised to learn from Rice’s mistake.
