Joe Hart's loan to West Ham should have represented a chance for him to resurrect his career - it's safe to say it didn't work out that way.

When Pep Guardiola cast him into exile at Manchester City, the goalkeeper first headed to Torino but swapped Serie A for east London for the 2017/18 campaign.

Under Slaven Bilic, the 31-year-old made a string of errors and the arrival of David Moyes saw him dropped to the bench.

The Scot even restored him to the starting XI for a time, before axeing him again in favour of Adrian.

With just 23 games under his belt in all competitions, the man who just a couple of years ago was unquestionably England's number one has now missed out on the World Cup altogether.

A host of Premier League clubs have been linked with the stopper and not only those in the bottom half of the table. Widespread reports have suggested Liverpool could take a punt, because, let's face it, they could probably do with a new goalkeeper in light of recent events.

However, one potential move that no-one will have seen coming is the one being talked about in The Sun.

The newspaper have it that despite his links to City, Manchester United are contemplating making a shock bid to take him to Old Trafford.

Another bad move? 

At face value, that may seem a positive upturn in his fortunes, but Jose Mourinho is of course only considering Hart as a number two.

The Red Devils believe Sergio Romero, their current back-up to David de Gea, will leave the club this summer.

The Argentine has had a few injuries and despite usually being employed in the domestic cups, he missed the FA Cup semi-final and the final against Chelsea.

The thought of seeing Hart in a United shirt is a bizarre one and he would surely have to think twice about going to a club where he knows he's hardly going to play.

Things simply haven't been working out for him since Euro 2016 and while Guardiola initially came under fire for his judgement when he cast him into the abyss to make way for Claudio Bravo, that now looks like a decent bit of foresight - albeit with Ederson now in goal for the Premier League champions instead of the Chilean.

Having blamed Moyes for his World Cup exclusion, it's perhaps time for the Hart to now take responsibility for his demise, and that will include weighing up very carefully what he does next.

Should United sign Hart? Have your say in the comments.