Some may say he is still the number one goalkeeper in English football.
So to be elbowed out of the picture by Manchester City shows a complete lack of respect for a truly world-class stopper.
Joe Hart is a top young keeper. But is he better than Given? I don't think so.
Hart, given time, will become one of the Premier League's top keepers, but Given IS one of the league's top keepers and does not deserve to be sidelined like he is.
It's not just the fact that Hart is starting the Premier League games.
It's that Given hasn't even had a look in in the cup competitions or the Europa League.
He has played one game all season, and that was in the Carling Cup.
To act like that when a goalkeeper like Given is sitting kicking his heels on the bench is plain stupid.
He was one of the lynchpins of a Newcastle side that reached the Champions League twice, and was also one of the main reasons Newcastle didn't get relegated before they did.
As soon as he left, Newcastle slipped down the league and into the Championship.
With Given between the sticks, who knows what might have happened? Given was so influential that it is fair to say with him in goal, relegation may never have happened.
He is 34 years old now, still a great age for a goalkeeper.
He is a tremendous shot-stopper, has good command of his area and is a calming influence on the rest of his team.
The mistakes which blighted his early career are behind him now, you rarely see a mistake from him any more.
He is being wasted by City, where Mancini has seemingly been influenced by Hart's international career with England. Fabio Capello obviously wants Hart to play and so Mancini is giving his fellow countryman his wish.
But for all the talent Hart possesses, he is still not in the same league as Given.
Any club in need of a goalkeeper would be silly not to go for Given.
Arsenal, for all the trouble they have had with keepers, should have signed him in January. It really is a no-brainer.
City wouldn't let him go to their rivals, but Given would be the ideal replacement for Edwin van der Sar at Manchester United when he retires in the summer.
That's fair enough, as Mancini knows how good Given is and that a decision to let him go to a rival could come back to haunt City.
But this isn't about City. It's about Given.
For years at Newcastle he forced Steve Harper, an excellent goalkeeper in his own right, to sit on the bench every game.
Now he is experiencing it at City and needs to get out of there before people forget how good he is.
City should let him go where he wants because he has showed incredible patience this season and has not publically voiced his discontent at the situation. He deserves better treatment than he is getting.
He would be the ideal solution to any club looking for a goalkeeper, and must leave City this summer to stop his career fizzling out.
City won't realise what they've got until they've lost him.
If signed by another Premier League club, he will show City exactly what they missed out on.
Last season his performances were, as always, faultless. City owed many of their wins to him, yet seem to have forgotten how good he is.
Hart should have been sent out on loan for another year, then the situation could have been re-assessed this summer.
Given is too good to be a number two and needs to leave City now.
There should be a massive queue for his signature.
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