Shay Given Could be off to Arsenal according to twitter....

Reganio 2

If they were the same nationality then yeah fair enough. Hart is 23, Given is 34 and plays for a worse team of course he has more. Going by that is Rigobert Song one of the best players ever to play in the Premiership?

Xavi6

Xavi6 wrote: »

Ireland's contract doesn't expire until 2012 though.

`

Not about that. Its Fifa's rule:

clause IV, section 15, of Fifa's regulations on the status and transfer of players. It states: "An established professional who has, in the course of the season, appeared in fewer than 10% of the official matches in which his club has been involved may terminate his contract prematurely on the ground of sporting just cause.

"The existence of a sporting just cause shall be established on a case-by-case basis. In such a case, sporting sanctions shall not be imposed, though compensation may be payable."

Frisbee

If Given wasn't Irish I don't think we'd be having this argument.

Personally I think City made the right call, they've gone with a guy who they can keep in nets for the next decade (probably) over someone with only a few years top flight left in them.

Also, Given was City's best player last year? Lol. As Xavi said I'd have Tevez and De Jong ahead of him, De Jong was imperious last year. Probably Bellamy too.

gosplan

Colm_purchase wrote: »

Xavi defending Mancini on this decision is just plain silly. If Hart is ever as good a keeper as Given he will be lucky. Right now he is now even in the same league and as the season roles on this will become more and more evident. If Man City have genuine title aspiration for 2010/11 Given needs to be number 1 and I think you know that if you are completely honest with yourself.

I think Given's a great keeper, perhaps slightly overrated to top 2-3 in the world by many Irish over the years, but great nonetheless. Consistently one of the Premiership's best for the last number of years.

But ...

Hart is in the same league. I don't mean the premiership, I mean he is also an exceptionally talented keeper. I find it hard to see a case for any keeper in the Premiership being better than him last season.

There's not much in it either way, City have gone for Hart probably because he's younger, more English, and Given made a few mistakes last season.

gosplan

Colm_purchase wrote: »

If you want to be pedantic about it how many international caps have they both?

That's a really silly argument. International caps define a player's quality?

So we should forget Pele, Maradonna and Cryuff, and really be discussing Claudio Suárez, Mohamed Al-Deayea and Adnan Kh. Al-Talyani.

peabutler

Given to Fulham and Schwarzer to Arsenal is much more likely. Wenger decided against Shay a few years ago because he didn't add height to a small Arsenal defence same story now surely.

secman

Problem is that they are both No 1 ,s and its near on impossible to keep 2 No 1 keepers at any club. Obviously Mancini is saying that Hart is his No 1 so in reality Given needs to move on, he's far to good to be a No 2 keeper. He would get his game for 16 of the remaining Premeirship clubs barring City United, Liverpool (?) and Chelsea.

Secman

spockety

Poor Almunia. Does his best to convince everyone he's a fit replacement for Lehmann and bides his time until Lehmann leaves. Then everyone realises he's sh*t.

Dub13

Xavi6 wrote: »

Ireland's contract doesn't expire until 2012 though.

A new Uefa/FIFA rule was adopted by the PL and if a player does not play in 10% of a teams games he can walk on the ground of sporting just cause.Its a crazy rule,you can read more about it on the following link...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/aug/14/arsene-wenger-arsenal-premier-league

Royale with Cheese

spockety wrote: »

Poor Almunia. Does his best to convince everyone he's a fit replacement for Lehmann and bides his time until Lehmann leaves. Then everyone realises he's sh*t.

Poor lehmann. A bit error prone yes but he was always blatantly better than almunia, that's only become more apparent now.

gosplan

spockety wrote: »

Poor Almunia. Does his best to convince everyone he's a fit replacement for Lehmann and bides his time until Lehmann leaves. Then everyone realises he's sh*t.

Weirder than that even.

Given a couple of chances, he actually played his way more or less into contention and then played so well, he kept Lehamnn out when he returned from injury. :eek:

What the hell happened? Maybe his confidence is gone never to return? I reckon people have just figured him out. He looks really good when shot stopping(bar yesterday), but ask him to make a quick decision and he'll choose wrong nearly every time.

SDTimeout

spockety wrote: »

Poor Almunia. Does his best to convince everyone he's a fit replacement for Lehmann and bides his time until Lehmann leaves. Then everyone realises he's sh*t.

Almunia dislodged Lehman after he let Healy score for Fulham. By all accounts Al had a very good 07/08 season and wasn't too bad 08/09.

Optimalprimerib

aidan24326 wrote: »

Or even Craig Bellamy, who has done nothing wrong, has played well when selected and now finds himself pushed towards the exit to accomodate a couple of more sexy signings (a.k.a overpaid mercenaries).

I have to say their treatment of bellamy is criminal. He was one of their best players last year imo and silva who would be his replacement i reckon will be a flop. Id love to see him go to spurs but id really doubt it.

Xavi6

aidan24326 wrote: »

Or even Craig Bellamy, who has done nothing wrong,

Do you honestly think that he has been banned for no reason?

LuckyLloyd

DaaaaaaaaaaN wrote: »

There is nothing I'd hate more than seeing Given play for Celtic.

unknown13 wrote: »

He needs to go to Arsenal and avoid Celtic at all costs.

I don't get these comments at all? Going to Celtic would be a damn sight better than sitting on the Man City bench. And with Celtic he is going to play ~10 - 15 tough, high pressure games a season where he needs to push himself and perform at a really high level. The most important thing is that he's starting, and influencing the defensive play of the club he's at / taking an active role in pushing them forward. Celtic would be fine from an Irish perspective. I mean, I don't think that as a goalkeeper dropping down to the Championship would adversely affect his skill set.

Just very odd statements, particularly the first one.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

LuckyLloyd

ziggy wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Oh yes, you're right. Didn't cross my mind, but now makes sense. Ignore list expanded.

Mitch Connor

According to 'Football Agent46' on twitter.... Given to Arsenal is very unlikely.

http://twitter.com/FootballAgent46

aidan24326

Xavi6 wrote: »

Do you honestly think that he has been banned for no reason?

I wasn't aware Bellamy was actually banned, until now. Thought he was just frozen out. I guess Mancini just doesn't like him, that's probably the bottom line. He is one of those players that isn't easy to like in fairness, but I still don't think he did anything terribly wrong other than kick up a fuss over what he perceived as being marginalised from the manager's plans i.e pushed out

eagle eye

Frisbee wrote: »

If Given wasn't Irish I don't think we'd be having this argument.

Personally I think City made the right call, they've gone with a guy who they can keep in nets for the next decade (probably) over someone with only a few years top flight left in them.

Also, Given was City's best player last year? Lol. As Xavi said I'd have Tevez and De Jong ahead of him, De Jong was imperious last year. Probably Bellamy too.

Firstly I'm not agreeing with Colm_Purchase in any shape or form. Personally I do believe that Hart has to get the nod.

But your opening line just made me think about if he wasn't Irish. If Shay Given was English then things would be different. He would be England no.1 and a ranked as one of the greatest ever and there would be no way his position would be under threat at this club. Hart would probably have been sold already but there is no way he would be getting Shay Given's spot.

Tevez was City's best player last year he was just awesome. I think Bellamy was the next best and then Given. I really am not a huge fan of De Jong, he gets a lot of credit for his tackling but his distribution was poor at times last year.

Pepe LeFrits

This is complete bullshít.

NabyLadistheman

In more ground breaking twitter news Lucas Leiva had this to say - "Im ready for Arsenal. Bunch of kids with no strenght. Not like me, I feel colossal. Or at least I did til I heard I might be benched"

eagle eye

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

This is complete bullshít.

What are you referring to?

keano_afc

All this Given to Arsenal nonsense I presume.

No way we're going to sign him.

Pepe LeFrits

This whole story. Barton never even said it was a done deal, all he really said was that Given going to Arsenal would make sense for both parties.

Wenger has had years to sign Given, he's not going to do it now.

DB10

Agreed, all rubbish. It looks far more likely that Fulham will take him and we get Schwarzer.

At this point as long as Fabianski nor Almunia ever play again, I couldn't care less.

MementoMori

City's third choice keeper is Stuart Taylor...why do people think City will even remotely let Given leave?

It's not as if they need the money.

Id imagine that they could easily play him in the Carling and FA Cup to avoid losing him to the whole sporting just cause thing.

Would be shocked if he left tbh.

eagle eye

MementoMori wrote: »

City's third choice keeper is Stuart Taylor...why do people think City will even remotely let Given leave?

It's not as if they need the money.

Id imagine that they could easily play him in the Carling and FA Cup to avoid losing him to the whole sporting just cause thing.

Would be shocked if he left tbh.

Shay Given doesn't want to be stuck on the bench and I'm sure he has it written into his contract about first team appearances.

It would be highly disrespectful to him as veteran professional to keep him there if wants to leave.

MementoMori

eagle eye wrote: »

Shay Given doesn't want to be stuck on the bench and I'm sure he has it written into his contract about first team appearances.

It would be highly disrespectful to him as veteran professional to keep him there if wants to leave.

Really doubt there is anything written into his contract. The idea of having appearances etc written into a contract has come up before but I've never heard of any confirmed examples of it happening.

As to the highly disrespectful sorry idea but that just doesn't fly; football is a cruel game and he wouldn't be the first lad to lose his place to a player of similar quality to him.

event

Colm_purchase wrote: »

Ever heard of a chap called richard dunne

yes

they sold him as far as i know.

its not like the shot his dog or pissed in his garden. the manager decided he wanted someone else and sold him.

i really dont see the issue with this. the manager made his decision. Now either given is a team player and gives Joe Hart encouragement, waiting for his own chance to play. Or he spits the dummy and demands to move.

if this was a "foreign" player, the player would get dogs abuse.

eagle eye

MementoMori wrote: »

Really doubt there is anything written into his contract. The idea of having appearances etc written into a contract has come up before but I've never heard of any confirmed examples of it happening.

As to the highly disrespectful sorry idea but that just doesn't fly; football is a cruel game and he wouldn't be the first lad to lose his place to a player of similar quality to him.

A lot of top keepers have the no.1 thing in their contract which is basically appearances.

I can't think of a top veteran stopper that lost his place through no fault of his own and sat on the bench for the season. Hart got to go out on loan last year which shows that even he was unwilling to sit on the bench.

And the respect thing does come into it when you are talking about a keeper who spent 12 years at his previous club and signed up to be the no.1.

Xavi6

Daily Fail reporting that Given is going be offered an increase on his £80k a week wage and a contract extension until he's 39.