Mock The Mags POST OF THE DAY 050209 Todays installment "Shay Given blasts Newcastle UTD FC" Manchester City keeper Shay Given believes his former club Newcastle could have done more to keep him. "There are a couple of things they could have done to keep me, but I think in the end they just wanted to take the money," said the 32-year-old. "I just felt that after the service I gave the club, then the regime at Newcastle could have handled the whole thing a bit better." The Republic of Ireland player joined City last week for an undisclosed fee. Given spent 12 years at Newcastle but admitted that by the end of his stay he was no longer happy. "They made me do things I didn't want to do and this was an opportunity to further my career and pick up more silverware," he added. "In the last six months it has been fizzling out. It has not been enjoyable going into training. "Maybe it's myself just being selfish, but I think I deserved a little bit better than that." Although he signed a five-year contract extension in 2006, he said he was disillusioned with life at the club and disappointed that the promised push for honours had failed to emerge. Newcastle lie 15th in the Premier League, one point above the relegation zone. Their highest finish since Given signed from Blackburn in 1997 was third place in 2002-2003, with the past two seasons spent in the bottom half of the league. "The Liverpool match was a low point in my career," he said. "It was one of those points where if I had left the pitch and never seen a football again I would have been happy, I was that low. "I didn't know if I was going to leave but a lot of people said I was happy and settled, which I was in a way, but I wasn't comfortable. "I wasn't comfortable with the way the club was going. I wanted to be challenging for honours. "By coming here I thought I could be at a club that is challenging for honours. I didn't want to finish my career regretting not taking up this offer."
he's probably right. we were a club that he loved playing for, indicated by his 12 years here' and we even managed to piss him off to the point that he no longer wanted to play for us. ashley & co being happy to take the money doesn't surprise me at all, and the fact that we ended january £8m better off when fighting relegation is disgraceful. we should never have let shay go.
