Birmingham City: Joe Hart is going nowhere
Birmingham City will retain Joe Hart's services for the remainder of the season.
Manchester City wanted to take the goalkeeper back early from his loan because of Shay Given's injury, but Blues insisted that they should be compensated if there was any drop in league position as a result.
Plus other clubs challenging Manchester for fourth place - of which Villa are one - made representations to the Premier League pointing out how unfair the situation could be.
So the Premier League, after initially indicating they would look favourably on Manchester's plight, blocked the plan.
Instead, Manchester secured Sunderland's Martin Fulop on an emergency loan.
The lPremier League confirmed that had Manchester added a recall clause to Hart's loan contract they could have recalled him immediately,
A statement from Manchester City read: "We have been in contact with Birmingham City and Sunderland with regard to bringing either Joe Hart or Marton Fulop to the team on an emergency basis. Agreement was not reached with Birmingham, but we anticipate Fulop will join us and we sincerely thank him and Sunderland for their help in this situation."
"The situation just got too complicated," a Premier League spokesman said. "Birmingham were talking about compensation for dropping league positions and that might have cost over £1m as well as setting a precedent.
