• Goalkeeper persuaded to take himself off market
• Roque Santa Cruz also pondering staying at City
Shay Given has decided to
stay at Manchester
City, turning
down the chance to rejoin his former manager Mark Hughes at Fulham,
after being persuaded to take himself off the market on the eve of
the transfer
window.
Given had initially reacted to losing his place to Joe
Hart by informing the manager, Roberto Mancini, that he felt he had
been treated unfairly and was so aggrieved he wanted to leave the
club. That immediately alerted Fulham, who have been looking for a
goalkeeper so they, in turn, can allow Mark Schwarzer to join
Arsenal.
Since then, however, Given has had meetings with Mancini and the
club's football administrator, Brian Marwood, and slowly come round
to the idea that he should remain in Manchester and do his best to
dislodge Hart. That decision could conceivably have repercussions
for Arsenal's hopes of signing Schwarzer, with Hughes having
already gone on record to say he would allow the deal to happen
only if he had a replacement lined up, although those attempts have
been hampered by an injury to David
Stockdale.
City were reluctant in the extreme to lose Given, mindful of the
situation at the end of last season when he dislocated his
shoulder, with his back-up, Stuart Taylor, recovering from a knee
operation. The Premier League blocked an attempt to recall Joe Hart
from his loan spell at Birmingham City and Mancini eventually had
to sign Marton Fulop from Sunderland on an emergency short-term
deal.
Uppermost in Given's mind was that he had joined City in the
hope that he could win the first trophy of his career and that, by
leaving for a smaller club, he would effectively be passing over
that chance. He was also worried he might jeopardise his place in
the Republic of Ireland team but the manager, Giovanni Trapattoni,
has assured him that is not the case.
City are involved in four competitions and Given was assured
that the club are taking them all seriously and that, at the very
least, there would be opportunities for him to play in the Carling
Cup and Europa League rather than expecting Hart to play around 70
games.
Roque Santa Cruz, the City forward, is also giving serious
thought to staying at the club despite a loan offer from Lazio.
Santa Cruz did not even make the 25-man squad that City submitted
to Uefa for their Europa league qualifiers against Timisoara, but
the £17m signing from Blackburn Rovers is said to have reservations
about leaving the north-west of England and may reject the chance
of playing in Serie A.
