Manchester City misfit Joe Hart’s Torino career off to a flyer as boss praises loanee for picking up the Italian lingo

JOE HART has been given a 50-word crash course in Italian ahead of his Serie A debut for Torino.

Just 24 hours after Claudio Bravo made an unimpressive start to his Manchester City career, the England No 1 begins his adventure away from the Etihad — at Atalanta.

And he does so with a ringing endorsement from Torino boss Sinisa Mihajlovic.

The Serb revealed yesterday that Hart’s attitude to taking the plunge and leaving the Premier League for Italy has been impressive — including trying to pick up the lingo.

Mihajlovic said: “I am not surprised Joe has decided to come to Torino. I spoke to him before he signed because I wanted to understand if his heart was in this move.

“I didn’t want a player who was coming for one season only because he needed to play or wanted a new experience. I wanted a player who wanted to come to Torino, who wanted to play for us.

“I had good feedback from him so I’m not surprised. He is speaking a few words and phrases in Italian because we have taught him 50 basic football words such as pass, kick, forward and defend and midfield. That sort of thing.

“He has trained very well. In England, training is very intensive and very hard. All the players train very hard. Maybe here in Italy some players do not have the same English mentality towards training. But he has trained hard. That’s good for us and good for him.”

Mihajlovic’s press conference was staged at exactly the same time as Bravo was struggling on his City debut at Old Trafford.

And Torino’s boss was happy to crack a joke at the expense of Pep Guardiola, who axed Hart because he wanted a keeper with better distribution.