Mancini: Given going nowhere

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has insisted that Shay Given will be going nowhere in the January transfer window.

Given himself had admitted he would be prepared to drop to the Championship in order to find first team football away from Eastlands.

But Mancini’s words look to condemn Given to the rest of the campaign on the substitutes bench.

“The window closes soon,” the Eastlands chief declared. “For us it would be impossible to find another goalkeeper like Shay. He must stay here.

“If we lose another player we need to bring in someone different. It is impossible if we have 19-20 players for the next four months.”

Given is desperate for regular football elsewhere, but City are keen to avoid a repeat of the goalkeeping crisis which plagued them last season.

With Joe Hart out on loan and Given himself injured, Mancini was forced into the emergency loan capture of Marton Fulop from Sunderland.

Leicester boss Sven-Goran Eriksson will almost certainly make another approach for the Republic of Ireland international, but his efforts may be in vain as Mancini remains defiant in his stance over the highly-rated stopper.