Shay Given retires from international football

[trileacman]

Seen him play for Newcastle a few years ago when Liverpool put 5 past him......and he still got man of the match!

Would be in the top 3 keepers of the premiership era.

I greatly admire Given (and dearly wish he'd been born a few miles to the East!), but I can't agree he makes the Top 3 EPL keepers, ahead of Schmeichel, Seaman, Van Der Saar and Cech, all of whom I believe to have been at just that higher level.

Beyond that, you might argue he is 'Best of the Rest', though fans of eg Reina, James, Schwarzer, Friedel, Martyn and Flowers etc may disagree.

P.S. I personally would also argue the case of another (unheralded) keeper, Bolton's Jaskalainen (sp?), on the basis of having seen him live on 4 or 5 occasions. He was never less than excellent, and on one occasion where he conceded 5(!), he produced one of the greatest goalkeeping displays I've seen in 40 years. It is no exagerration to say that without him in nets that day, Bolton would easily have conceded double figures.

With the exception of Schmeichel, Jaskalainen is as good if not better than any you mentioned.

[AQMP]

I hope we don't end up missing him.
I had thought for a long while that goalkeeping progenitor Alan Kelly snr was the best of the FAI's goalkeepers, he had that 'Jennings-like' ability  but Shay has probably just edged past him. Apart from his goalkeeping ability, what impressed me about Given was his professional attitude from the moment he came on the pitch for the warm up, while other players just appeared to go through the motions of warming up, he was an object of intensity and meticulous preparation. He wasn't amongst the goalkeeping greats because he had some weaknesses in his repertoire of goalkeeping skills.

BTW, Given was born in Derry, wasn't he?

I always though he was born in Donegal Town

He will be a big miss to the set up. He has done some coaching badges I wonder if he would be a good coach in the future

He's from Lifford, is he not??

[trileacman]

I hope we don't end up missing him.
I had thought for a long while that goalkeeping progenitor Alan Kelly snr was the best of the FAI's goalkeepers, he had that 'Jennings-like' ability  but Shay has probably just edged past him. Apart from his goalkeeping ability, what impressed me about Given was his professional attitude from the moment he came on the pitch for the warm up, while other players just appeared to go through the motions of warming up, he was an object of intensity and meticulous preparation. He wasn't amongst the goalkeeping greats because he had some weaknesses in his repertoire of goalkeeping skills.

BTW, Given was born in Derry, wasn't he?

I always though he was born in Donegal Town

He will be a big miss to the set up. He has done some coaching badges I wonder if he would be a good coach in the future

He's from Lifford, is he not??

From Lifford, born in some hospital, Derry or Donegal Town, i'd imagine that's what all this is about.

[Main Street]

Maybe it was his brother who was born in Altnagelvin hospital.