Arsenal finally willing to cough up £4m for Mark Schwarzer

• zocoss

  31 Aug 10, 00:52

  Shay Given chooses to stay at Manchester City and fight for No1 place

  • Goalkeeper persuaded to take himself off market
  • Roque Santa Cruz also pondering staying at City

  

  Given sits on the bench at Sunderland. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images

  
  

   

   

  Shay Given has decided to stay at Manchester City, turning down the chance to rejoin his former manager Mark Hughes at Fulham, after being persuaded to take himself off the market on the eve of the transfer window.

   Given had initially reacted to losing his place to Joe Hart by informing the manager, Roberto Mancini, that he felt he had been treated unfairly and was so aggrieved he wanted to leave the club. That immediately alerted Fulham, who have been looking for a goalkeeper so they, in turn, can allow Mark Schwarzer to join Arsenal. 

  Since then, however, Given has had meetings with Mancini and the club's football administrator, Brian Marwood, and slowly come round to the idea that he should remain in Manchester and do his best to dislodge Hart. That decision could conceivably have repercussions for Arsenal's hopes of signing Schwarzer, with Hughes having already gone on record to say he would allow the deal to happen only if he had a replacement lined up, although those attempts have been hampered by an injury to David Stockdale. 

  City were reluctant in the extreme to lose Given, mindful of the situation at the end of last season when he dislocated his shoulder, with his back-up, Stuart Taylor, recovering from a knee operation. The Premier League blocked an attempt to recall Joe Hart from his loan spell at Birmingham City and Mancini eventually had to sign Marton Fulop from Sunderland on an emergency short-term deal. 

  Uppermost in Given's mind was that he had joined City in the hope that he could win the first trophy of his career and that, by leaving for a smaller club, he would effectively be passing over that chance. He was also worried he might jeopardise his place in the Republic of Ireland team but the manager, Giovanni Trapattoni, has assured him that is not the case. 

  City are involved in four competitions and Given was assured that the club are taking them all seriously and that, at the very least, there would be opportunities for him to play in the Carling Cup and Europa League rather than expecting Hart to play around 70 games. 

  Roque Santa Cruz, the City forward, is also giving serious thought to staying at the club despite a loan offer from Lazio. Santa Cruz did not even make the 25-man squad that City submitted to Uefa for their Europa league qualifiers against Timisoara, but the £17m signing from Blackburn Rovers is said to have reservations about leaving the north-west of England and may reject the chance of playing in Serie A.

• zocoss

  31 Aug 10, 11:03

  

   

   

  ARSENAL have made a last-ditch £4million bid to nab Mark Schwarzer from Fulham.

  But now they have to wait to see if Cottagers boss Mark Hughes — who was hoping to bring in wantaway Manchester City keeper Shay Given to replace Schwarzer — allows the deal to go through.

  But City are reluctant to help their former boss and manager Roberto Mancini would ideally want to keep hold of Republic of Ireland star Given, 34.

  Hughes may turn to £2m-rated Reading keeper Adam Federici, 24, if he cannot get Given.

  The Gunners had a £2m bid for Schwarzer, 37, turned down, then angered Fulham by tabling an identical bid after he put in a transfer request.

  Boss Arsene Wenger has stood by error-prone Manuel Almunia but is desperate to bring in a reliable keeper to bolster his title bid.

• zocoss

  1 Sep 10, 11:50

  TRANSFER NEWS

  Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer staying at Fulham

   

  

  Mark Schwarzer wanted to join Arsenal.

   

   

  Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer has stayed at Craven Cottage, despite continued interest from Arsenal.

  Schwarzer was the subject of a £2 million bid from the Gunners, but they would not increase their offer and a spokesman at Fulham confirmed that the goalkeeper would be staying.

  Schwarzer, 37, has previously declared his desire to join Arsenal, but will now stay at Craven Cottage with England hopeful David Stockdale acting as his No. 2.

  The goalkeeper could return between the sticks for Fulham's next game against Wolves on September 11.

  Manager Mark Hughes told Sky Sports News: "We talked about Mark's situation on a number of occasions and ideally we wanted him to stay. We understood that there was an interest from Arsenal but given our current goalkeeping situation there was no chance of him leaving."

  Hughes also said he quickly ended any interest in Bobby Zamora, who was linked with Liverpool, but did target Manchester City striker Roque Santa Cruz.

  "I think there are always enquiries about good players, but very quickly we dismissed any interest anybody had in Bobby because he's key to what we're trying to do," Hughes said.

  "We enquired about that [signing Santa Cruz] but it wasn't able to be taken over the line. There were a number of targets we hoped to bring to the club.

  "We feel we have had a decent window, we have brought some good players to the club. We haven't been able to do anything on the last day but that doesn't mean you haven't had a good window."