Shay Given Retires From International Football

Degag

Just on SSN:(

Must say i'm very sad to hear this. Had hoped he would continue till the World Cup. Think he's still the best option we have and still had more to give. A fantastic servant and a fantastic goalkeeper.

Joekers

Best Irish goalkeeper ever

tolosenc

He tweeted it just now.

GLaDOS

Irish footballing hero, we'll miss him badly.

wandatowell

Quality goalkeeper, will be a huge loss to the Irish team.


On a side issue, who will be the favourite to step up and replace him??

Yakult

He will be missed!
How old is he anyway?

Soups123

Gutted absolutely gutted, still by far our best option

willmunny1990

Good news IMO. Given has been on the slide with Ireland for some time. He had a very poor Euros and made several mistakes in the lead up to the tournament. Clangers against Estonia and Armenia come to mind.

Degag

wandatowell wrote: »

Quality goalkeeper, will be a huge loss to the Irish team.


On a side issue, who will be the favourite to step up and replace him??

Westwood, he's our best option but worrying that he'll be most likely on the bench at Sunderland.

The_Kew_Tour

Some people have a short memory!

Lawrence1895

Joekers wrote: »

Best Irish goalkeeper ever

Packie Bonner was a bit better, imo.

But Shay Given can be very proud of his achievements :cool:

dan1895

willmunny1990 wrote: »

Good news IMO. Given has been on the slide with Ireland for some time. He had a very poor Euros and made several mistakes in the lead up to the tournament. Clangers against Estonia and Armenia come to mind.

I agree with this but thats not to take away the fact that he has been our best keeper ever and a great servant.

JPA

I think he had to do it, he's getting too many injuries, hopefully this will help him stay fit.

heavyballs

Joekers wrote: »

Best Irish goalkeeper ever

Apart from Jody Byrne i presume.:D

willmunny1990

dan1895 wrote: »

I agree with this but thats not to take away the fact that he has been our best keeper ever and a great servant.

I agree, fantastic servant for Ireland overall but his time had been clearly coming to an end and thankfully he realized that. If only Trapattoni and a few others could follow, the national team would be much better off.

PerrinV2

Fantastic keeper for club and country.
I always remember a game years ago for newcastle(maybe the year they got relegated or the year before) where they got thumped by united 6-2 or something but for the first half of the match Shay made numerous world class saves in an effort to keep newcastle in it.
First time I think after a scoreline like that the keeper still went on to win man of the match

GLaDOS

As mentioned, Westwood needs to be getting first team football. Having your first choice keeper warming the bench is useless.

Sergio

I must say some folk who post on here have no common sense and no respect for one of Irelands greatest players. Why people cant applaud the man for all hes done for his country in his career instead of picking out the few mistakes that he made while playing.
Today is a sad day for Irish football and he will be sorely missed imo!

blueser

Sergio wrote: »

I must say some folk who post on here have no common sense and no respect for one of Irelands greatest players. Why people cant applaud the man for all hes done for his country in his career instead of picking out the few mistakes that he made while playing.
Today is a sad day for Irish football and he will be sorely missed imo!

It is an internet forum, where people will express views that don't coincide with yours (or mine, or those of Mary down at the cross roads, or Uncle Joe).

sob1467

Bit biased but absolute legend of a goalkeeper, some people talking about the errors ( that you could count on one hand) in 125 international matches is unfair in my opinion. Hope he enjoys international retirement and is a great loss to Ireland.

Sergio

blueser wrote: »

It is an internet forum, where people will express views that don't coincide with yours (or mine, or those of Mary down at the cross roads, or Uncle Joe).

I take your point but today is the day he has announced his retirement from international football so TODAY should be the day he is applauded for all he has given to Irish football.
Tomorrow people can start another thread about all the mistakes hes made etc etc

madcabbage

Absolutely sicked to hear of Shay's retirement. One of the best keepers we ever had. It's a shame he didn't get to go out on a high.

Leiva

Thanks Shay you owe us nothing.

Seans_Username

PerrinV2 wrote: »

Fantastic keeper for club and country.
I always remember a game years ago for newcastle(maybe the year they got relegated or the year before) where they got thumped by united 6-2 or something but for the first half of the match Shay made numerous world class saves in an effort to keep newcastle in it.
First time I think after a scoreline like that the keeper still went on to win man of the match

Yeah I remember something like that too. When he was unreal but Newcastle got hammered. I always thought it was a 5-0 defeat to Liverpool but I was never too sure. Despite that game being club level, his retirement kinda brings the possibility of him retiring in the near future. Which will be a sad sad day.

Too anyone who says he had a bad time at the euro's, remember that he was injured leading up to it. I'd also agree with JPA that his retirement would be good to avoid more injuries, maybe he'll be back to his best for his club. Keepers normally peak around his age (36)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgKkRRom7vY

From a fellow Donegal man, here's hoping he'll still be involved with the Irish squad in some way!

McGrath5

Sad to see him go.

Donegal please send down your next goalkeeper.

PerrinV2

Seans_Username wrote: »

Yeah I remember something like that too. When he was unreal but Newcastle got hammered. I always thought it was a 5-0 defeat to Liverpool but I was never too sure. Despite that game being club level, his retirement kinda brings the possibility of him retiring in the near future. Which will be a sad sad day.

It might well be that game I'm thinking of,not sure to be honest

willmunny1990

Sergio wrote: »

I take your point but today is the day he has announced his retirement from international football so TODAY should be the day he is applauded for all he has given to Irish football.
Tomorrow people can start another thread about all the mistakes hes made etc etc

That's nonsense talk. Now is a very appropriate time to talk about WHY he has retired.

I agree it's also an appropriate time to praise his career overall for Ireland.

Lamper.sffc

A sad day indeed. Would have preferred if he had stayed through the next campaign but I understand why he had to do it.
Best of luck to him and I hope he is playing week in week out for villa and proving to all that he is still a loss to the national side.
An Ireland legend

Leiva

Sergio wrote: »

I must say some folk who post on here have no common sense and no respect for one of Irelands greatest players. Why people cant applaud the man for all hes done for his country in his career instead of picking out the few mistakes that he made while playing.
Today is a sad day for Irish football and he will be sorely missed imo!

Ahh don't worry your head off it's only Willy. You will get used to him.

He is like the jack russell that likes to think he is smart and brave and growls looking for a reaction .
Just stand your ground and bark back - he soon runs for cover .

Francie Barrett

Retiring at the right time if you ask me.

Degag

willmunny1990 wrote: »

That's nonsense talk. Now is a very appropriate time to talk about WHY he has retired.

I agree it's also an appropriate time to praise his career overall for Ireland.

I'd imagine he's retiring because he wants to concentrate on his club career, not because he may have made a few mistakes recently.

gosplan

willmunny1990 wrote: »

That's nonsense talk. Now is a very appropriate time to talk about WHY he has retired.

I agree it's also an appropriate time to praise his career overall for Ireland.

Cause he's read and been persuaded by all your sensible stuff regarding the Irish team on boards.ie, no??

RayCon

Thanks Shay. Hope you have many more years at club level ahead of you.

LuckyLloyd

Great, great player for a very long time. Leaves very big gloves to fill.

Jimmy Iovine

Sad to hear. One of the greatest players we've ever had. It won't be the same seeing them play without having the reassurance that he's in the goal. On his day he was up there with the best of them.

It's the right time though. It wouldn't have been right to continue on for another year and leave in the middle of the campaign.

WoollyRedHat

Wow, such a shame. Respect to Shay for all the years he has represented us, an integral part of the team, and a top person to boot.

The dilema we find ourselves in now is our next choice keeper, seemingly Westwood, has not been getting much gametime at all at club level and not enough time at international level to comfortably take over the position of goalkeeper.

Seaneh

Lars1916 wrote: »

Packie Bonner was a bit better, imo.

Not even close IMHO, Shay is one of the best players to ever pull on an Irish shirt in any position.

Our most important player for over 10 years.

Will be sorely missed, hope Westwood can step up.

G.K.

As a Welshman I could only wish for a keeper of Shay's ability for my country. Would have fitted in almost seamlessly after Neville Southall retired.

Fantastic servant for Ireland. I wish him every success in the rest of his club career and also hope that this will signal the NT beginning to transition to a younger base of players.

Francie Barrett

Seaneh wrote: »

Not even close IMHO, Shay is one of the best players to ever pull on an Irish shirt in any position.

Our most important player for over 10 years.

Will be sorely missed, hope Westwood can step up.

Packie Bonner had our best ever defenders playing in front of him. Shay has had clowns in front of him quite often.

Oscorp

Legend. We'd have been lost without him over the past 12 years or so.

I'll be excited to see how Westwood gets on. Club situation isn't ideal, but from what I've seen of him he looks a talented 'keeper.

Oscorp

Francie Barrett wrote: »

Packie Bonner had our best ever defenders playing in front of him. Shay has had clowns in front of him quite often.

Packie had just the four defenders ahead of him though, Shay once took to the pitch with a team of Gary Breens protecting the net.

GavRedKing

Big loss was hoping to get the qualifers out of him coz i dont think we'll be going to the WC but Shay owes the jersey nothing.

McGrath5

This is really not good for us, I hope Richard Dunne does not follow him.

Soups123

I'll eat my hat if in 6/9 mths time some of those who called for his retirement, and criticizing recent form as justification of it now are not the same people calling for his return in an 'Is it time to call Shay Given back' thread.

He is still are best option if Westwood can get a 1st team spot he can challenge that but at the moment he isn't

bren2001

An absolute servant to the country. Sad to see such a great keeper go out on such a low at Euro 2012. He was always first down on my team sheet and one of the great keepers of his generation. He is unlucky he didn't get to a bigger club (as he won't now). Hopefully he will still be available for us when Westwood is injured. Hopefully Westwood can step up.

G.K.

I suppose there's Stephen Henderson knocking about as well.

Augmerson

Best Irish Keeper ever, one of my hero's!

madma

sh&t news ;(

a great hero.. won us plenty of matches in his time

chopperbyrne

Not sure if the link still works (can't check in work), but it's a tribute video someone made when he left Newcastle that I posted before on another forum.

Sums him up pretty well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zchr95n3isg

Definitely our best ever international keeper and fantastic at club level for years.

rossie1977

Perfect Choice wrote: »

Donegal please send down your next goalkeeper.

sos to paul durcan

Wisesmurf

Absolute legend of a keeper. Made me feel comfortable despite the fact that we have had some really ropey defensive and midfield combinations during his tenure.

Extremely big gloves to fill and a position, I fear, we may have trouble with for a few years until someone steps up.