Roberto Mancini expects Joe Hart to improve as a goalkeeper at Torino after joining the Serie A club from Manchester City on transfer deadline day but admits he is puzzled by Pep Guardiola's decision to offload a player who was No. 1 under the Italian at City.
Hart, 29, completed his loan move to Torino on Wednesday after only playing once under new City boss Guardiola this season -- the 1-0 win over Steaua Bucharest in the second leg a Champions League playoff with the Premier League side already 5-0 up in the tie.
"I don't know [why Guardiola demoted him]," Mancini told La Stampa. "But each coach has his own ideas. He will have the chance to redeem himself at Torino.
"In spite of his age, he's going to have the chance to grow further because our coaches here are very good. And then the experience is bound to help him do well."
Mancini says he did not play any role in the transfer, although he had heard a rumour before it went through.
"[Torino president Urbano] Cairo has definitely pulled off a great coup anyway," he said. "He's signed himself a reliable goalkeeper."
Mancini added that he fought to keep Hart when the club wanted to sell him, and that move was proved right when he was the club's No. 1 for their title-winning 2011-12 campaign.
"I remember it clearly, it was our first game of the season in 2010 and his first game in the Premier League," Mancini said. "We were playing at Tottenham and it was anything but an exciting game. Joe saved us at least five times. He was still a lad, but I already knew he was going to become great. Thanks to him, that game ended 0-0.
"Then [City] wanted to get rid of him, but I kept him. I told the Sheikhs: he's a promising young lad, let's put him to the test again and we can make him get better."
Hart made over 300 appearances in the Premier League, winning the title under Mancini in 2012 and again under Manuel Pellegrini in 2014. He lifted the FA Cup at the end of his first season under Mancini in 2011 and added the League Cup in 2014 and 2016.
Following the arrival of Guardiola from Bayern Munich this summer, it soon became clear that he was not going to play a role under the Catalan and Mancini's former assistant Attilio Lombardo, who is now assistant to Sinisa Mihajlovic at Torino, made the initial contact which led to Wednesday's transfer.