Grass not alway's greener

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2361811/Shay-Given-joins-Doncaster.html

Shay has been given the boot by Villa and has joined Doncaster.
Like a lot of Toon fans I was gutted when he left but understood his reason's.
Shay and Villa just didn't fit well and Brad Guzan became Villa's first choice.
Good luck to Shay and Doncaster.

 

I feel Shay is much better than Doncaster

 

Yes, good luck to Shay, I'm sure he'll do a great job for them and the Doncaster fans will come to hold him in the same high esteem as we did.

 

Agree ACS still think he's a class goalkeeper, shame it didn't work out for him at Villa.

 

Wish him well. The Man C move was a no brainer at the time. Then came Joe Hart..............

 

Doncaster's a good move for Shay because he wasn't at the races at Villa....

 

They just have greyhounds at Doncaster, not thoroughbred stallions like Shay.

 

I think he could still be a prem class keeper. Shame he has been not played much since he left. I have watched donny a couple of times over the last few years and if your gonna drop down the leagues he could do worse. They try to play proper football.

 

Shay will be one of the finest keepers to grace SJP and the premier league. It was the right move at the time to Man City. Even Villa was the right move, it was the change in manager that altered things for him. Time catches up with everyone and at 37 he doesn't have that many years left in him, so better to play somewhere than sit on the bench all season. Apparently Doncaster have been taken over by an Irish consortium who will be pumping money into the club, so who knows they could be the surprise package in the championship next season. Good luck to him.

 

I will get over to the keepmoat at some point this season to chant his name

 

Good luck to Shay. He was a loyal servant, and it took a plan of rank stupidity in the running of our club to feel that he needed out.

 

According to today's Mail it looks like Shay has turned down Doncaster. He's better than that.

 

He can still do a good job for somebody and will make a great coach for younger keepers.

 

are you lot 4 real,we were going through a hard time ,he seen the iceberg n jumped ship when we needed him,iv said it before and i will say it again,he put a dress on and got in the life boat,this is the guy that said if you dont drop harper when im fit im leaving, harper was playing out of his skin but got dropped

 

Title should've read
"Grass is greener is not a given"

 

Yes I am for real but are you? Do you really expect complete 100% loyalty regardless of situation from modern day footballers? Its naive in the extreme. His move was just part and parcel of football.

Good player, good bloke and moved for a great deal of money too. Hardly surprising he wanted to play and demanded to do so. Do you think Shearer would have stuck around if we'd played an inferior player in front of him? Nah he would have said "play me or I'm going". Forget form, that is just the reality of football at an elite level. More so when they are not even from the area.

As for seeing the iceberg, he was right wasn't he. Lets face it he stuck it out for 2 or 3 years after Bobby left to see if we could get ourselves back into a position that a player of his calibre deserves. Unfortunately we lurched from one **** up to another. So he saw the iceberg coming for quite a while yet took a while to put the dress on and jump ship.

So as a bloke who made over 350 apps for the club, I think he deserves a bit of respect and well wishing.

 

This.

 

I think both sides of the argument are valid, in truth. Certainly there's no clear evidence of motive to leave, so it's all speculation, so there's little need to have a verbal punch up without me

All I can say about Shay is that he was an outstanding goalkeeper, one of my favourites for a long time, and I respect his time here. He left and both us and him majorly regressed and only he will be left with regrets.

Now I'm afraid he's lost quite a lot of his powers. He's not one of those keepers who's still as good at 40, and no wonder, considering he's not the best at anything but shot-stopping, which inevitably is more difficult with time when you're essentially a flying midget. He was terrible for Ireland at the last championships, and so poor for Villa he's not got a look in over Guzan, who's basically just solid. I think he should retire.

 

I agree but many footballer are like boxers, they don't know when to stop because of their love of the game. As you say his main attribute was shot stopping. The first thing that starts to go a little. His problem is his command of his area was never great but that's what you mainly get from a lot of older keepers. That ability to make the job easy for the back four.

Each to their own on the judas front but for me its about as far fetched as misunderstanding loyalty as it gets.