Agent claims Given reneged on City commission

[Thespence]

FASCINATING details concerning Shay Given’s move to Manchester City last January have emerged in legal documents submitted to the High Court in London by a top Irish agent who is suing the player, alleging he was elbowed out of the deal at the last minute.

 

Fintan Drury, the head of the leading sports marketing firm in Ireland, Platinum One, is suing Given, saying he was cut out of a multimillion-pound deal he set in motion that saw Given quit Newcastle United for Manchester last year. Drury said Given made a verbal agreement to pay him “a reasonable commission” of his contract if he signed with a club the agent introduced him to, but that he hasn’t received any money. He says the contract is worth more than £17m, with a weekly wage of £75,000 over four-and-a-half years. Drury is claiming 3% — £526,500 — but says he’ll accept half of that, £263,250.

 

Given’s intention to leave Newcastle first became obvious on January 2, 2009. That was when his solicitor, Michael Kennedy, announced that “Shay feels compelled to consider his position” following the club’s 5-1 defeat to Liverpool, which he described as “the lowest point of his football career”.

 

The papers submitted by Drury also indicate that Given had been contemplating quitting United over 11 weeks before the January announcement.

 

Given and Drury met on October 13, 2008 when the goalkeeper was over in Dublin on international duty. The court papers say that Given first instructed Drury at a meeting at the team hotel in Portmarnock, to seek out new clubs from a shortlist he had drawn up. It was agreed Kennedy would stay on as the player’s solicitor and any commission would be split between the two of them.

 

The meeting came eight days after Newcastle drew against Everton in Joe Kinnear’s first match as caretaker manager and Drury then set out to discover which clubs would be interested. Newcastle continued to struggle and towards the end of October Given spoke of his unhappiness: “I have been here 11-and-a-half years and I know how all this is hurting the fans — just as much as it is hurting me.”

 

On November 12, Drury says he came to Newcastle to meet Given and talk about the deal he wanted and the duration and salary. Two days later, Drury says he held talks with Manchester City's then manager Mark Hughes and the club’s technical director Mike Rigg.

 

Drury says City was the only club he claims was keen to sign Given — even though Kennedy said Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal were also interested. Given told Drury he wanted a deal of £80,000 a week over five-and-a-half years, but he had to wait until the end of January before Newcastle bosses gave him official permission to sort out transfer deals.

 

Meanwhile, Kennedy, who represents other top figures in Irish football such as Roy Keane and Niall Quinn is said to have warned Given that Manchester City might not make a deal if wage demands were too high.

 

After another meeting at the Ireland team hotel on November 17, Drury emailed Given his views on what he thought was realistic. Media reports suggested Manchester City were interested in getting other goalkeepers, but Rigg called to say this was untrue.

 

A few weeks later, after sending a detailed email to Given laying out his realistic expectations over his contract and salary, communication between Drury and Given appeared to falter. On January 29, Drury says he told Given that Kennedy wanted to cut a lower deal than he should go for.

 

The following day, 48 hours before the transfer window is due to close, Newcastle gave Given formal permission to negotiate a transfer deal.

 

According to the court papers, Given sent a text asking Drury to call Kennedy to relay details of the discussions with Manchester City. Over the following day neither Kennedy nor Given returned Drury’s calls and he learned about the completion of the deal with City through media reports.

 

Drury will not comment on the case, while Kennedy says: “It would not be appropriate for my client or myself, at this stage of the proceedings, to make any comment save to say that the claim is being vigorously defended by my client.”

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article7026208.ece

[Guest neesy111]

FASCINATING details concerning Shay Given’s move to Manchester City last January have emerged in legal documents submitted to the High Court in London by a top Irish agent who is suing the player, alleging he was elbowed out of the deal at the last minute.

 

Fintan Drury, the head of the leading sports marketing firm in Ireland, Platinum One, is suing Given, saying he was cut out of a multimillion-pound deal he set in motion that saw Given quit Newcastle United for Manchester last year. Drury said Given made a verbal agreement to pay him “a reasonable commission” of his contract if he signed with a club the agent introduced him to, but that he hasn’t received any money. He says the contract is worth more than £17m, with a weekly wage of £75,000 over four-and-a-half years. Drury is claiming 3% — £526,500 — but says he’ll accept half of that, £263,250.

 

Given’s intention to leave Newcastle first became obvious on January 2, 2009. That was when his solicitor, Michael Kennedy, announced that “Shay feels compelled to consider his position” following the club’s 5-1 defeat to Liverpool, which he described as “the lowest point of his football career”.

 

The papers submitted by Drury also indicate that Given had been contemplating quitting United over 11 weeks before the January announcement.

 

Given and Drury met on October 13, 2008 when the goalkeeper was over in Dublin on international duty. The court papers say that Given first instructed Drury at a meeting at the team hotel in Portmarnock, to seek out new clubs from a shortlist he had drawn up. It was agreed Kennedy would stay on as the player’s solicitor and any commission would be split between the two of them.

 

The meeting came eight days after Newcastle drew against Everton in Joe Kinnear’s first match as caretaker manager and Drury then set out to discover which clubs would be interested. Newcastle continued to struggle and towards the end of October Given spoke of his unhappiness: “I have been here 11-and-a-half years and I know how all this is hurting the fans — just as much as it is hurting me.”

 

On November 12, Drury says he came to Newcastle to meet Given and talk about the deal he wanted and the duration and salary. Two days later, Drury says he held talks with Manchester City's then manager Mark Hughes and the club’s technical director Mike Rigg.

 

Drury says City was the only club he claims was keen to sign Given — even though Kennedy said Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal were also interested. Given told Drury he wanted a deal of £80,000 a week over five-and-a-half years, but he had to wait until the end of January before Newcastle bosses gave him official permission to sort out transfer deals.

 

Meanwhile, Kennedy, who represents other top figures in Irish football such as Roy Keane and Niall Quinn is said to have warned Given that Manchester City might not make a deal if wage demands were too high.

 

After another meeting at the Ireland team hotel on November 17, Drury emailed Given his views on what he thought was realistic. Media reports suggested Manchester City were interested in getting other goalkeepers, but Rigg called to say this was untrue.

 

A few weeks later, after sending a detailed email to Given laying out his realistic expectations over his contract and salary, communication between Drury and Given appeared to falter. On January 29, Drury says he told Given that Kennedy wanted to cut a lower deal than he should go for.

 

The following day, 48 hours before the transfer window is due to close, Newcastle gave Given formal permission to negotiate a transfer deal.

 

According to the court papers, Given sent a text asking Drury to call Kennedy to relay details of the discussions with Manchester City. Over the following day neither Kennedy nor Given returned Drury’s calls and he learned about the completion of the deal with City through media reports.

 

Drury will not comment on the case, while Kennedy says: “It would not be appropriate for my client or myself, at this stage of the proceedings, to make any comment save to say that the claim is being vigorously defended by my client.”

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article7026208.ece

 

given is a twat, so he was looking for moves well before he said he wanted to leave behind the clubs back as well

[Guest toonlass]

I don't like Shay Given and every goal he concedes makes me smile.

[Robster]

Why are people surprised about footballers only looking after themselves ?

[Guest Heneage]

It's just another bloke who proved he saw the game as a business.

[thenige]

Quite rightly left a shambles of a club with an awful manager, money or not he absolutely 100% made the right move. Good to see an agent getting screwed over for once too. Some of the bitterness towards one of the best players this club has had in the last ten years, a player who if we'd have had in the great Keegan sides of the early 90's we'd have probably won the league, really does make me pity our fans sometimes.

[Gash]

I'm not saying it's wrong, and i may be missing something but why is there all this animosity towards Given? He gave you over 10 years of magnificent service and wanted to win something before he retired, he seemed a good guy.

[dcmk]

I'm not saying it's wrong, and i may be missing something but why is there all this animosity towards Given? He gave you over 10 years of magnificent service and wanted to win something before he retired, he seemed a good guy.

 

He did, the timing of his move was bad.

 

I wish the guy luck, he was a terrific goalkeeper for us.

[Guest firetotheworks]

I'm not saying it's wrong, and i may be missing something but why is there all this animosity towards Given? He gave you over 10 years of magnificent service and wanted to win something before he retired, he seemed a good guy.

 

Put very simply, because it's been talked about loads, it's because he left in January when we were in the middle of a relegation battle, instead of seeing that out and then leaving in the summer. The way he went about getting a move got a lot of peoples backs up too. Being out with a phantom injury to force the club's hand.

[Guest toonlass]

I'm not saying it's wrong, and i may be missing something but why is there all this animosity towards Given? He gave you over 10 years of magnificent service and wanted to win something before he retired, he seemed a good guy.

 

Put very simply, because it's been talked about loads, it's because he left in January when we were in the middle of a relegation battle, instead of seeing that out and then leaving in the summer. The way he went about getting a move got a lot of peoples backs up too. Being out with a phantom injury to force the club's hand.

 

The fact that a couple of weeks before the transfer window opened he reckoned he was happy at Newcastle too.

[Interpolic]

The general consensus is that he should have waited until the summer to move rather than going in January.  I agree with this I suppose, but I think a lot of the criticism is to do with the fee that we got for him.  If we'd got 11 or 12 million for him and invested it in the right players to keep us up then I don't think there'd be quite as much bitterness.  That's not Shay Given's fault - it was the idiots at the top that prompted him to request a transfer, and it was them that accepted a stupid transfer fee and spent it on crap and made a profit in the transfer window.  Admittedly Given's angling for a transfer restricted our ability to demand a sky-high fee, but are you telling me we had no option other than to accept £6m for Given from Man City, who were spending money like absolute fuckwits at that point in time?  Bollocks did we.

 

Some of the vitriol directed towards him on this forum makes me cringe, it's way over the top.  I've still got a lot of respect for Shay personally.

[Tooj]

Bastard I was hoping to get in to make a few sarcy comments about him being a Judas cunt etc but it looks like those who actually mean it have got their first.

[Guest malandro]

Quite rightly left a shambles of a club with an awful manager, money or not he absolutely 100% made the right move. Good to see an agent getting screwed over for once too. Some of the bitterness towards one of the best players this club has had in the last ten years, a player who if we'd have had in the great Keegan sides of the early 90's we'd have probably won the league, really does make me pity our fans sometimes.

Agreed.  Shay made over 350 appearances for NUFC, it’s not like he buggered off at the first opportunity.  He also conducted himself in a professional and dignified manner on and off the pitch and was (and probably still is) heavily involved in supporting cancer charities in the region. He was/is also one of Europe’s top keepers and I wouldn’t blame any player for looking for a move when JFK walked through the door.

 

Throwing a huff because he chose to move to club that was going places (and I don’t mean the CC) beggars belief.

 

[Tooj]

I'm not saying it's wrong, and i may be missing something but why is there all this animosity towards Given? He gave you over 10 years of magnificent service and wanted to win something before he retired, he seemed a good guy.

 

Put very simply, because it's been talked about loads, it's because he left in January when we were in the middle of a relegation battle, instead of seeing that out and then leaving in the summer. The way he went about getting a move got a lot of peoples backs up too. Being out with a phantom injury to force the club's hand.

 

How do we know it was a phantom injury?

[Ameritoon]

I'm not saying it's wrong, and i may be missing something but why is there all this animosity towards Given? He gave you over 10 years of magnificent service and wanted to win something before he retired, he seemed a good guy.

 

Put very simply, because it's been talked about loads, it's because he left in January when we were in the middle of a relegation battle, instead of seeing that out and then leaving in the summer. The way he went about getting a move got a lot of peoples backs up too. Being out with a phantom injury to force the club's hand.

 

The fact that a couple of weeks before the transfer window opened he reckoned he was happy at Newcastle too.

 

He's certainly not the first person, or the last to do that.

[Guest firetotheworks]

I'm not saying it's wrong, and i may be missing something but why is there all this animosity towards Given? He gave you over 10 years of magnificent service and wanted to win something before he retired, he seemed a good guy.

 

Put very simply, because it's been talked about loads, it's because he left in January when we were in the middle of a relegation battle, instead of seeing that out and then leaving in the summer. The way he went about getting a move got a lot of peoples backs up too. Being out with a phantom injury to force the club's hand.

 

How do we know it was a phantom injury?

 

He was available as soon as he went to Man City, and there was no mention of any injury at all prior to the match he sat out. Speculative obviously, but all the signs were there.

[LesPaul]

Quite rightly left a shambles of a club with an awful manager, money or not he absolutely 100% made the right move. Good to see an agent getting screwed over for once too. Some of the bitterness towards one of the best players this club has had in the last ten years, a player who if we'd have had in the great Keegan sides of the early 90's we'd have probably won the league, really does make me pity our fans sometimes.

This.

[Dinho lad]

I'm not saying it's wrong, and i may be missing something but why is there all this animosity towards Given? He gave you over 10 years of magnificent service and wanted to win something before he retired, he seemed a good guy.

 

Put very simply, because it's been talked about loads, it's because he left in January when we were in the middle of a relegation battle, instead of seeing that out and then leaving in the summer. The way he went about getting a move got a lot of peoples backs up too. Being out with a phantom injury to force the club's hand.

 

How do we know it was a phantom injury?

 

And we don't know if he "forced" the clubs's hand or they (ashley, llambias) invented that "injury" because they knew that he was going. (and didn't want to take the risk in seeing him get injured.)

 

For me, it's obvious that it was the latter. It seems, when it comes to the Given issue, Ashley and his crew are not the bad guys all of the sudden.

[Crumpy Gunt]

Judas bastard.

 

Although go back to posts at the time and I did say he'd been tapped up by City.

[QBG]

Cunt, was great to see him stood there like a lemon for Stoke's equaliser today.

[Crumpy Gunt]

Quite rightly left a shambles of a club with an awful manager, money or not he absolutely 100% made the right move. Good to see an agent getting screwed over for once too. Some of the bitterness towards one of the best players this club has had in the last ten years, a player who if we'd have had in the great Keegan sides of the early 90's we'd have probably won the league, really does make me pity our fans sometimes.

 

He left NUFC 13 games prior to our relegation. He left NUFC a multi millionaire so he was provided for quite well for his 'loyalty'

Why did he not see the season out? The greedy bastard engineered a move away which appears now was instigated a month or two earlier than Judas twat would want folk to believe. What price loyalty? The same keeper who you think would have won us titles under Keegan might just have kept us up.

There really are none so blind ...

[Kaizero]

I'll always respect and like Given for the service he's given us, but naturally he went somewhat down in my estimation because of the way he left. But that won't discount the actual service he's given, as we were shit for quite some time before he left, but he sticked with us. At the time it seemed like he knew where we were going, and I don't blame him for being disillusioned at staying here the way we were heading.

 

I wish him well, even if the way he left made my heart crack a bit not waiting until the summer. I'm just grateful he stayed as long as he did, all things considering. One of the few players in the latter part of the 00s to wear our shirt and actually have real talent. He didn't owe us anything, we, on the other hand, owed him the chance to win something with us, but we never paid up and went more and more downhill as Given became older and older. I, for one, believe he has actual feelings for the club and the region.

[Stifler]

I'm not saying it's wrong, and i may be missing something but why is there all this animosity towards Given? He gave you over 10 years of magnificent service and wanted to win something before he retired, he seemed a good guy.

 

Put very simply, because it's been talked about loads, it's because he left in January when we were in the middle of a relegation battle, instead of seeing that out and then leaving in the summer. The way he went about getting a move got a lot of peoples backs up too. Being out with a phantom injury to force the club's hand.

 

The fact that a couple of weeks before the transfer window opened he reckoned he was happy at Newcastle too.

 

On top of plenty big defeats to top 4 clubs in the past aswell, why pick to move then?, hmm £75,000 a week might have something to do with it. Given said after he moved that we could of done more to kep him, you mean something along the lines of the contract extension, pay increase and being made the club captain?

 

Fuck off Given, I hope you and Man City win fuck all.

[Guest neesy111]

Given is a grade a twat of a footballer

 

he said the club had treated him badly and give him nothing;

 

we finished in the top 5 3 seasons

 

been in 2 champions league campaign's

 

two fa cup finals

 

uefa cup semi final

 

also paid him in the region of 15-20M over the 12 years he was here

 

so fuck off shay that we didn't give you anything, and it's likely you won't achieve the same feat's at city imo

[macca888]

Can you really blame him for leaving? The writing was on the wall the day we failed to appoint a decent full time replacement for Keegan and Given wasnt the only one wanting out. They have professional standards to be the best as long as possible and staying with a slowly decaying club when opportunities to continue playing at the highest level were available, is a no brainer in my opinion.

 

However, I do remember Shay cracking a few wobblies in years gone by when Harper played instead of him but to all intents and purposes, the writing was alrady on the wall long before he left and whether he was capable enough of saving us from relegation is heresay.