GIVEN'S GOT HIS FEET ON THE GROUND

IT IS the eve of the new season and Mark Hughes has his players sat around in a circle.

For the first time, Sheik Mansour's millionaires are looking at each other.

One by one they must stand up in front of famous strangers and tell their new team-mates what they hope and dream of achieving in the new season.

Hughes is watching intently. Some players are nervous, out of their comfort zone. This is the first time the manager has watched his new group of players up close.

Kindred

Egos crumble. Material wealth melts.

Hughes is looking for a response. When Shay Given gets to his feet, it's as if Hughes is listening to a kindred spirit.

Because Given is the antithesis of everything the outside world believes to be true of Manchester City.

The greed. The arrogance. The vast dislocation between men earning more in a day than their fans can in a year.

Given doesn't hold himself up as some kind of embodiment of old-fashioned values - the kind too often missing from football at the highest level.

Community

But when he talks you are reminded of a time when players were actually part of some kind of community, not utterly disconnected from reality.

Yes, he's made enough not to worry about the interest rate. That fact, though, cannot disguise the humility within Given.

At 33, he is approaching his goalkeeping prime. There is an ambitious new club to fill his thoughts, a potential return to the World Cup stage next summer, the likelihood of gaining his 100th cap for the Republic of Ireland at Croke Park next month. A truly momentous occasion for a proud Irishman. His young family have settled with the move to Manchester but Given remains admirably grounded.

"Sometimes players get too much too soon and maybe don't know what a good day's work is," he admits.

Vegetables

"I had to work hard with my dad when I was a kid in the fields. We used to have a market garden sort of trade. We used to be weeding vegetables for nine hours, a full day on your hands and knees. I grew up with four brothers and three sisters.

"My dad had to make a lot of sacrifices to keep us all together and put food on the table.

"I know I'm very privileged with the job I have now. I left Lifford to go to Celtic when I was 16. I don't think I've changed. All my brothers were digging as well and it stood me in good stead.

"I still enjoy the same things I always have done. I like a Guinness with my friends, a meal with my wife and playing with my two kids.

Tricky

"I know what a hard day's work is and maybe some of the kids now have it a bit too easy. It's the way of the world and maybe I'm just getting old!

"I don't think you should ever change, no matter what you've done or how good you think you are or whatever.

"Nothing has changed me, nothing ever will and I don't think it should.

"There are some tricky characters in football but just because you kick a football around a pitch doesn't make you any more special than the man on the street. You play football, it's something you enjoy doing, but it doesn't make you better than anyone. It's important you respect everyone in every walk of life.

Shopping

"I'm picking up my son Shayne in a minute and then you lose yourself in the kids. I'm dad then. It's just a normal life like everyone else I suppose - I still do the shopping every week and nothing is going to change that."

It's why Given still experiences a thrill and sense of anticipation when he looks around at City's assorted superstars. A boy from Donegal rubbing shoulders with the cream of the world game. And he's modest enough to know his place in the grand scheme of things at Eastlands.

"Me? I'm just happy to be the supporting act," he cheerfully concedes.

"The first day back was like get your autograph book out time! There was a real excitement to meet the guys and go out on the training pitch.

"When you come face to face with new team-mates, you want to show them what you can do. You want to show them why you're here too.

Sharpen

"To work with the calibre of players of Adebayor or Tevez improves you as a player. The way they play, the way they finish, one touch, two touch, you have to sharpen up. We have started well. But that is all it is.

"People don't know how far we can go. We go out at the weekend and we think we can beat any team really. There is pressure on us because of the money we have invested in the summer but it's what I expected and it will get bigger.

"The players we have bought have been in high pressure situations before, they've played for big clubs. You would rather be at a big club with big pressure.

"You don't want to live in the comfort zone. You want to challenge yourself every week. That is definitely going to be the case here. You know you have to be right on top of your game because the spotlight is on the club so much.

Transformation

"When Manchester City roll into town now, people are coming to watch."

At £5.9million, Given is possibly the best pound-for-pound signing since the blue half of Manchester underwent its incredible transformation.

It was a different story at Newcastle where the Irishman was a leader in the St James' Park dressing room, one of the few true stars at a club riddled with acrimonious in-fighting off the pitch, and hideous complacency on it. Given spent almost 12 years in the north east nut-house, coercing a brother, a sister and an auntie to move from Ireland, starting a family in his new home.

Putting down roots. Caring for a club, loving a city, waiting, ultimately in vain, for success.

Record

He was 34 games short of becoming the all-time leading appearance maker for Newcastle - a record that has stood for 87 years.

He lost a Cup final to Manchester United. Saw a UEFA Cup dream die against Sporting Lisbon at the quarter-final stage - his lowest point - and played in two noteworthy Champions League campaigns.

After 463 games, unflinching service behind a litany of inadequate defenders, Given raced from St James' Park after a crushing 5-1 defeat at home to Liverpool - he was man of the match - unable to speak to anyone. Four days later a statement followed that he was considering his future. There were few dissenting voices, little blame.

Still the Newcastle hierarchy threw mud when finally, on January 30, he was given permission to speak to City. It still rankles.

Regrets

"I have regrets at the way the club handled it," he adds. "I was there for 12 years and the way they treated me was disrespectful, both to me and my family.

"They tried to make out they offered me a new contract and tried to make out all sorts of things and it was all way off the mark. They got a massive profit for what they paid for me and they got 11-and-a-half years' service.

"I had some great times at Newcastle. It was nearly 12 years of my life, you are going to have strong feelings for the area and the people.

"Newcastle was my home. I hope 95 per cent of the fans in years to come will thank me for what I did. I would love to have beaten Jimmy Lawrence's record but it wasn't to be. This opportunity came along and my gut feeling was that it was too good an opportunity to turn away."

Wowed

So he left, enthralled by his meeting with Hughes - "it got the heart racing" - wowed by what was about to happen at his new football club, believing that the major honour he so craves had been put back on the agenda.

And then he watched his adopted home city go down.

"It was hard watching Newcastle get relegated. You could see it coming, not just in the last month but in the last year or two," he admitted.

"Chris Hughton has done great this season and deserves credit but Alan Shearer will definitely manage that club at some point, and he is the right person to manage the club.

"He is a great player and a great leader, he was a great captain. He will be the same as manager. I don't know who will make that decision. Does anyone up there make any decisions at the minute?"

Expectation

But Newcastle is no longer Given's problem. Helping City to succeed is now imperative. Played five, won five, expectation boiling over, standards rising, fans salivating at the prospect of this afternoon's Manchester derby.

Given, with four clean sheets behind him, is still pinching himself. He said: "We are excited with the start we have made but I can't sit here and say we are going to win this and that. Is the top four possible? It is too early to say. The owners have said top six and there's no reason why we can't do that.

"Who knows if we will win something this year? I want to do it sooner rather than later. I've come here to win trophies and the manager is the same.

"He wants to win trophies as a manager, I want to win them as a player. When he walks in a room you sit up and listen. That's why the meeting we had on the first day of training was so important.

Rules

"We had that meeting to bring us together and see what we all wanted because so many players had arrived in such a short space of time.

"It was the gaffer trying to get us all together and show us we all had the same rules and where he wanted the club to go.

"It has worked. I thought it might take a bit longer to bond everyone together but we have gelled.

"As the manager has said, what we have done here would normally take four or five years. We have done it in less than a year."

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