Shay Given signs amazing £15million 5 year contract; but at 35; is he still worth it?

This Shay Given save booked Ireland's place at World Cup 2002

           Aston Villa have signed 35 year old Shay Given on a remarkable £15million 5 year contract, but is it a lucrative retirement pacckage or will it re-ignite the Donegal native's stalling career?

          The length of the cotract is a gamble. Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish says that Given has a point to prove, but, in reality, there is more than just one.  On the face of it, he is taking a massive step down in leaving England's most upwardly mobile entity to join Villa, a selling club that consistently flatters to deceive, a midlands club firmly planted in the middle of the road.

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           Another question now lingers. After signing a bumper club contract that looks like keeping him in senior football until the age of 40, will Given seek to extend his international career in tandem?

           Trapattoni is desperate to stay on until the 2014 World Cup in Brazil; he shouldn't find it too hard to convince Given to stick around as well when that tournament is just over halfway into his existing club deal.