Shay Given hopes this trip to Wembley will spell success
“I don’t know where it is, if I’m being honest. Maybe it’s on eBay,” he says, with a sigh of resignation.
Because Given, 39 tomorrow, seems to have a history of scaling the heights only to fall off a ledge at the 11th hour.
It’s why Aston Villa’s run to a Wembley semi-final against Liverpool today is so important to the proud Republic of Ireland international, who is fed up of being the nearly man.
Given is the man who, as a young Blackburn keeper, saw Rovers win the Premier League 20 years ago with Tim Flowers in goal.
He is the man who was on the losing Newcastle side in the 1998 FA Cup Final as Arsenal destroyed his Wembley dream.
The man who, 12 months later, was told by manager Ruud Gullit he wasn’t playing in a second successive final for Toon against Manchester United, despite being ever-present in the cup run.
The man who, in 2011, watched from the bench as Manchester City acquired their first piece of major silverware in 42 years, beating Stoke in the FA Cup Final with the emerging Joe Hart in goal.
No wonder there will be around 20 of Given’s family members and friends at Wembley today.
Given, preferred in goal to Brad Guzan only for FA Cup games, will be hoping that Villa triumph against Liverpool and that his former Ewood Park team-mate Tim Sherwood continues the policy of selecting his No2 keeper for the final. Clearly the final four years ago, when he was back-up to Hart, doesn’t resonate with Given.
He explained: “It was nice to be part of winning it with City, but when you don’t play you don’t really feel that you’ve done anything.”
Liverpool under pressure , says Sherwood [AMBIENT]
Given still has another season on his Villa contract and isn’t prepared to disappear into the shadows.
“I left City to come to Aston Villa to play, so it’s frustrating when I’m not,” he said. “But this FA Cup run has helped me. It’s shown fans I’m still capable and it introduces a seed of doubt into the manager’s head if he wants to mix it up in the Premier League. I’ve shown I’m still good enough to play.
“I do feel I have maybe come a bit closer to playing again because of the new manager. I feel I can push Brad.”
In Sherwood’s first game as Villa manager, the FA Cup Fifth Round tie with Leicester, Given produced one of the saves of the season to deny Matty James. Given smiles: “I was hoping he might pick me in the Premier League then – but it mustn’t have been that good!”
If Villa defy the odds to knock out Liverpool, Given hopes Sherwood won’t emulate Gullit or Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino, who recalled Hugo Lloris for this season’s League Cup Final against Chelsea, even though Michel Vorm had played in all the preceding rounds.
Being told he wasn’t playing for Newcastle in the 1999 FA Cup Final has left a scar.
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“Ruud Gullit didn’t even tell me,” Given recalled. “He got the goalkeeping coach, Terry Gennoe, to tell me I wasn’t playing. That was a bit of a slap in the face.
“But you can’t look back in football. Maybe at the end of your career you look back and think you were harshly done by or whatever. I’m sure if we get to the final, the manager will make the right decision.”
Given is a Sherwood fan, having been banished from the first-team squad and loaned to Middlesbrough by his predecessor Paul Lambert, then asked to stand in as Villa’s assistant boss when Roy Keane left.
“They wanted players off the wage bill and I was one of them, so I was cast to one side,” he said. “It was difficult being out of the picture but I enjoyed my time at Middlesbrough.”
Then came the invitation to help with the coaching at Villa, which Given admits was “weird”. He said: “He (Lambert) asked me. I’d done my A licence, my B licence, and the club was in a bit of a sticky position because of the staff who had left.
“At the end of the day, I’m employed by Aston Villa and I felt I could help out. Of course I said ‘yes’.
“Life in general is too short to have grudges and stuff. Whatever way you’ve been treated, you’ve got to move on.”
