JOE HART refused to reveal whether he will be leaving Manchester City following the Champions League play-off win over Steaua Bucharest, but admitted there was a "situation" at the club.
Fabian Delph headed the only goal on the night at the Etihad Stadium as City completed a 6-0 aggregate win over the Romanians.
When asked about his future, Hart said: "That's not for me to say; it is what it is.
"That was a really special night for me. I've had a lot of good nights in football.
"We all know there's a situation going on but I feel that inside, outside of all the circus, we are handling it well as a good team with a good management staff.
"This is a special place for me, there's never been any secret made of that. It's the place I'd love to be but situations occur in football but we're men and we get on with it.
"Tonight was really nice and I really appreciate the people at Manchester City and it turns out they appreciate me.
"It's a situation, we've got a top manager that the club's wanted for a long, long time and he's going to have his opinion on things.
Hart was hailed by supporters as City went through the motions to claim their place in the Champions League group stage at Steaua Bucharest's expense.
With the tie as good as won, Hart's recall was one of a number of changes by Guardiola, who also brought back Yaya Toure.
Spanish right-back Pablo Maffeo, 19, earned a debut while Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva, Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Otamendi were all rested.
City had the best of the few chances that were created in the first half with Aleksandar Kolarov teeing up Kelechi Iheanacho, Nolito meeting a Jesus Navas cross with an acrobatic effort and Toure hitting the target. All three efforts were comfortably saved by goalkeeper Valentin Cojocaru.
City's first incisive move came early in the second half when Toure slipped Delph in on goal and Cojocaru blocked. Delph made no mistake as he opened the scoring moments later by rising to meet a cross delicately chipped into the area by Navas with a powerful header.
The crowd again turned their attention to Hart, running through a whole songsheet of chants dedicated to the keeper.
He underlined his enduring quality in a brief flurry of activity too. First he raced out of the area – showing footwork that might have caught Guardiola's eye – to clear from Alexandru Tudorie's feet. He then tipped over a free-kick from Nicolae Stanciu and blocked from Tudorie.
Hart added: "Outside of the charade and all the rubbish that is talked we are dealing with it like men and we are going to come up with a solution."
Hart's ability with the ball at his feet has been cited as a possible reason for any departure, but when told he had a 100 per cent pass completion rate on the night, he said: "Pigs do fly!"
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here