I never thought I would ever write this – as a Toon fan or a sports blogger, but Shay Given has left Newcastle United to join Manchester City. It just shows the depth of crisis the club are in for a firm favourite such as Given to want to leave. I don’t think this one will sink in for quite some time. Shay left for an undisclosed fee, which is believed to be around the six million pound mark.

I don’t think we could blame the bloke though. Who wouldn’t want to leave our shambles of our club? Good luck to the man, he’s a class act. No doubt Owen will be following him out the door sooner rather than later.