sweep said:
Of course he'll respect the manager's decision, he's under contract. The wording might have been very slightly more diplomatic but, spin it any way you like, he's saying exactly the same as you've been slagging Hart off for the last few weeks yet you defend him purely because he's Irish.
For me, there's nothing between them in terms of ability right now and while Hart has years of development ahead of him, Given isn't going to get any better and has had a nasty, and likely recurrent, injury. If I had to choose, Hart wins.
Hart has constantly moaned to the press, Given answered it, but made the point that he genuinely wants to stay and fight, Hart doesn't sound as commited.
Of course he'll respect the decision..nothing to do with his contract, players like Tevez, like Robinho..etc didn't respect their managers decisions, fuck it there's a list as long as England filled with brat type players that didn't respect the managers decisions. Contract or no contract.
And don't talk to me about saying it because he's Irish, half of ye all want Hart to start purely because he's young and English, not because he's better. The amount of posts I've read that say Given's good, nothing between them, but Hart's the future and should start. Or something to that tone.
And all these so called expert doctors opinons are different to the actual specialists themselves. The reason surgery was done on Given's shoulder was to stop it from happening again, something that has been very succesfull in the past, especially with the likes of rugby players, the likes of Brian O Driscoll got an awful dislocation after being dumped on his head in 05, had surgery on it and took much longer to recover than Given, and has no problem with it since. It sounds to me that some people are genuinely hopefull that the injury is worse than it is.
Keepers are Hart's age are very suspect, keepers at Given's age are top of their game or nearing it.
Look at the likes of United and Van Der Sar, he's 39, and they've had him as their number one for years, they could have gone for a youngster with potential, like they tried with Foster, but as always they don't do so well and are moved on. They could, to an extent have anyone, and the likes of Van Der Sar have beaten off the young English promises that have been the likes of Foster. You don't go and buy promising young keepers if you're looking for one to join a top 4 (or aiming for) team, you go and buy an old enough keeper, there's a reason for that.
