10 Players Who Proved Life Isn't Always Better After Newcastle

10. Shay Given

Absolutely no one can blame Shay Given for leaving Newcastle United back in 2009. He jumped from a ship that was sinking faster than the Titanic as he sealed a move to a highly ambitious Manchester City for around £6 million, a matter of months before United dropped into The Championship. The Republic of Ireland international had a good first season-and-a-half as City's number one before a certain England stopper jumped ahead of him in the pecking order. Ahead of the 2010/11 season, City manager Roberto Mancini had an important decision to make as Joe hart, who had just finished an amazing breakthrough season on loan at Birmingham City, returned to the club. Would the Italian choose Shay or would he choose Joe to be his first choice? Unfortunately for Shay, Joe, who was also made England's new number one around the same time following that disastrous 2010 World Cup, was given the nod and hasn't relinquished the number one spot since. So after a season of sitting on the bench, Shay was transferred to Aston Villa of all places. Who wants to play for Aston Villa for crying out loud? And after a season as their number one he found himself behind Brad Guzan in the Villains' pecking order, which in turn forced him out to Middlesbrough on loan. He's now back at Villa and ended the season as Tim Sherwood's number one. Good for him. Even though Newcastle got relegated no too long after Given left you can't help but feel there was a little part of him that regretted leaving. If you look at the way Newcastle initially resurged after their promotion in 2010, even though he will have undoubtedly been happy for us, Newcastle's former number one must have been ever so slightly envious as his career took a pretty severe nosedive...