The first week of August and Tom Heaton was at home when his mobile rang. Joe Hart on the line. Heaton, the Burnley goalkeeper, recalled: ‘Joe says: “Look it’s a strange one but I wanted to run this by you… I am signing for your club”.
‘We have known each other for a long time from Man City and Man United and he was brilliant with me on my first England trip. So that must have been a really difficult phone call for him to make and I thought it was outstanding from him.
‘For me? I just had to get my head round it. It was surprising, I have to say. But it was the manager’s decision. I had to get on with it.’
Tom Heaton found himself in a complex position when Burnley signed England rival Joe Hart
Heaton had to deal with being out of the team at the start of the season, with Hart preferred
A week later and Heaton and Hart are side by side at Burnley’s training ground. Manager Sean Dyche reads out the team for the first game and Heaton — club captain and Dyche’s first Burnley signing — is not in it.
‘That was a different level,’ Heaton recalled, puffing out his cheeks. ‘Joe was at the club, yeah, but I was fit and expected to be playing. So I was hurting, I won’t lie but immediately I have to give Joe the support he needs. I can’t let him down, can I? We talked it through. No problem. But inside I was struggling.’
Heaton has had challenges throughout this career: 13 years at United without ever playing, four months at Antwerp hardly making the bench. No 2 at Cardiff. Loans down the leagues.
But he is 32 now so this one was different. A Premier League and England goalkeeper, he could feel a rug being pulled from under his feet. So he did what he always did. He called his dad, Dave.
‘When the emotions are running strong you need someone to remind you of your standards,’ Heaton explained. ‘I speak to him every day before and after training. It may seem a bit much but for me it works.
Heaton, Hart and Fraser Forster train together while on England duty at St George’s Park
Heaton has a close relationship with his Dad, Dave, and he speaks to him every day
‘So his words were massively important. Making sure I did and said the right things. If I am feeling negative he has to get me back on track and he does.’
Having missed most of last season with a shoulder injury, Heaton began to consider leaving Burnley in January and briefly discussed it with Dyche.
‘I felt there was a decision coming up,’ added Heaton. ‘I have experience of how fast football can change but it was hard to see it this time.
‘The manager understood my difficulties and we were going to talk again in January. Then suddenly it all did change.’
At some clubs there is a defined pecking order among goalkeepers but at Turf Moor, with Nick Pope the third England international in Dyche’s squad, the lines had become blurred.
What saved Heaton in the end was form. Not his, not Hart’s but the team’s. When Burnley lost 5-1 at home to Everton on Boxing Day, it was their ninth defeat in 11 games and Dyche shook things up. He made five changes for the next game against West Ham. Four hundred and seventy six days since his last Premier League match, Heaton was back.
The 32-year-old goalkeeper missed most of the 2017/18 season with a shoulder injury
‘My wife (Taralee) said I was singing and dancing washing the dishes on the Friday night and that it was great to have the real me back,’ he said. ‘I won’t forget the reception from the fans either. I had goosebumps as I walked out. It was inspirational.’
Heaton’s subsequent form has underpinned a steady Burnley revival. They beat West Ham and have lost only once since, at Manchester City in the FA Cup when he didn’t play. His stand out performances came in a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford and in the 3-1 win at Brighton.
‘The frustrations are a distant memory already,’ he said. ‘I have a real desire to kick on and a hunger to enjoy this. Everything had been good for a few years before the injury and though I wasn’t complacent I think I have now been reminded just how important it is to me to be playing Premier League football again.’
It was at the Champions League party in Moscow in May 2008 that Heaton first thought about leaving Manchester United. He was 22 and had been there for 11 years.
Heaton said Hart was great with him when he received his first call-up to the England team
‘I couldn’t have asked for a better foundation,’ he said. ‘I was part of the squad for that final and in the dressing-room. What an experience! And then I go back to the hotel and everyone is partying and there was suddenly that nagging thought that it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to be the main person, not a bit-part player. So I left, first on loan and then for good.’
Sir Alex Ferguson wasn’t happy Heaton would not sign a new contract in the summer of 2010. But he understood over time and almost nine years after Heaton left for Cardiff City on a free transfer the two are still in touch.
His years at Old Trafford left their mark. He remembers the intensity of the training and time spent observing Peter Schmeichel and Edwin van der Sar. He remembers his loan at Antwerp in 2006 and how, marooned in a hotel with no prospect of first-team football, he let his standards slip. ‘There was a lot of whingeing from me and a lot of that negativity that I didn’t get control of,’ he said.
‘But I reviewed it with my dad in the summer and we realised I had to pull my finger out if I was going to have a career.’
Heaton sat down with Sportsmail’s Football Editor Ian Ladyman to discuss his time at Burnley
Dave somehow got Tom an audience with the late Gordon Banks when the World Cup- winning goalkeeper came to his golf club in Chester for 18 holes 10 years ago. ‘I asked him a few questions and I was inspired by what he had achieved and what a top man he was,’ Heaton recalled.
‘He was brilliant with me. I took a lot from it and he is still the standard that any goalkeeper who plays for England must aim for.’
In terms of his captaincy at Turf Moor, Heaton sought advice from another figure of stature from Old Trafford.
‘I asked Gary Neville and he said the important thing was to be in the team, playing well and leading by example,’ he said. ‘There is the right time to say things and I will. But I try to be true to who I actually am and lead by the way I behave.’
Easy to say but harder to do, especially when you are not in the team. As Dyche himself is fond of saying ‘misery loves a friend’ and had Heaton sought accomplices in self-pity during his 18 months on the sidelines, they would not have been hard to find.
‘There are only 11 who can play so there are always frustrations with some players. It’s not difficult to find if you look. But it’s not in my nature,’ he said. ‘The last thing I wanted to do was have a negative effect on people. I must say that the players around me were a great help. They kept me going. Now it’s my turn to pay some of those lads back.’
On the field at least, Heaton is in nobody’s debt and it appears it will be Hart or Pope with a decision to make this summer.
Heaton has overcome many setbacks over the past decade or so and has had help along the way. In the end, though, the ability to get through has to come from within. He was reminded recently by Oxford United captain John Mousinho that he said he would play at the top when the two were together at Wycombe in 2010. ‘I must have sounded deluded,’ he laughed.
But in football failure always hurts and so does rejection. ‘I would like to say I am strong enough but there are moments when you do take it personally.
‘Growing up, my dad would say I wasn’t competing with my colleagues at United but against everyone else in the world. So I concentrated on being the best I could. I still look at it that way.
‘This is not about me and Joe but we talk constantly. He has been hurting but has been brilliant. His support of me, when it was his turn, has been superb. I won’t forget it.’
On the field at least, Heaton is in nobody’s debt and it appears it will be Hart or Pope with a decision to make this summer.
Heaton has overcome many setbacks over the past decade or so and has had help along the way. In the end, though, the ability to get through has to come from within.
Heaton has reclaimed his place between the sticks at Burnley and has impressed in the league
He was reminded recently by Oxford United captain John Mousinho that he said he would play at the top when the two were together at Wycombe in 2010. ‘I must have sounded deluded,’ he laughed.
But in football failure always hurts and so does rejection. ‘I would like to say I am strong enough but there are moments when you do take it personally. It’s a dangerous road and tough to deal with.
‘Growing up, my dad would say I wasn’t competing with my colleagues at United but against everyone else in the world. So I just concentrated on being the best I could.
‘I still look at it that way. I have chased the game enough over the years to know how it works and what I have to do.
‘This is not about me and Joe (Hart) but we talk constantly. He has been hurting but has been brilliant. His support of me, when it was his turn, has been superb. I won’t forget it.’
