Season ratings: Goalkeepers

Shay Given (21 starts, 0 goals)

If you ever want to remind yourself how far we've come in the last ten years, draw up a 'best City players since I've been supporting' team. If you're under fifty - and I imagine that most of my readers are - the likelihood is that quite a few of the names on the teamsheet will be from the Eriksson and Hughes era. In terms of talented players, we're as lucky as we've ever been at the moment, even if it doesn't always seem that way. No player represents that better than Shay Given; he may have only played twenty-one games for us, but he is surely the best goalkeeper we have had for thirty years. Of all the players we've bought since the takeover, he is the only one I almost feel guilty over - he's just too good. Some of the saves he's made since joining have been breathtaking - a few from Afonso Alves, the Aalborg penalty shoot-out and one from Marouane Fellaini - which helped him to my April Player of the Month award - stand out but there have been many more. Probably the best move Hughes has made, if one of the easier too. If we ever win anything, it will largely be down to this man. A

Joe Hart (33 starts, 0 goals)

Given's arrival made Hart one of the few real losers from the ADUG takeover, in what was ultimately a season of frustration for him. He had a good start to the season, recalling the form that had made him such a good prospect last season. His heroics in the shoot-out in Midtjylland brought back memories of another young English goalkeeper making a name for himself nine years before. But he could never quite do enough to dissuade Hughes from deploying our new found wealth at the top end of the market. When he conceded two soft goals at the Hawthorns on Boxing Day, his fate was sealed. Hart has not had another touch since, and a loan deal to Birmingham City suits all parties. I'd be surprised if we see him again in a City shirt. B

Kasper Schmeichel (2 starts, 0 goals)

Unplacing Joe Hart was always going to be difficult for Kasper; unplacing Hart and Shay Given is impossible. Chances were limited this season to just two games, but even when he did play he never excelled. At the Withdean Stadium he conceded two soft goals and became the only City goalkeeper to lose a penalty shoot-out this season. Surely has no long term prospects at City and will move in the summer. C-