Danny Murphy says one former Manchester City star had a reputation for playing mind games with opposition players.
The former Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder took 31 penalties throughout his senior playing career, scoring 30 and missing just one.
That one miss came back in 2008 when his Fulham side beat City 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League.
With over 16 years now gone by since that game, the pundit has shared some details on why he missed that penalty, putting the blame on one former City player who was on the pitch in that particular match.
Murphy says he was a victim of former Man City star’s mind games
Speaking on talkSPORT, Murphy had this to say on the subject of the penalties he took throughout his playing career and the reason why he missed the one against City in particular.
He said: “The only one I missed, Joe Hart did me before by [talking]. He was famous for that.”
Between 2006 and 2016, the Englishman made 348 appearances for the Citizens across all competitions, keeping 137 clean sheets and winning numerous trophies along the way including two Premier League titles.
Having left City in 2018, the goalkeeper joined Celtic in 2021 and has since gone on to finish his career at the Scottish club after making 153 appearances and winning even more silverware.
Hart continued his penalty antics after Murphy incident
Last month, Aberdeen interim head coach Peter Leven revealed that Hart was playing mind games with the opposition players during the penalty shootout in the recent Scottish Cup semi-final between Celtic and Aberdeen.
This shows that even after 16 years since City’s game against Fulham where he successfully got into Murphy’s head to put him off his penalty, the 37-year-old still had his cheeky tactics in use.
While this may raise questions about sportsmanship, we feel that Hart was doing everything he could to give himself an advantage when penalties were on the cards.