Given ready to take pay cut to join Aston Villla
London: Manchester City keeper Shay Given is ready to take a 25,000 pound-a-week pay cut to join Aston Villa.
Keeper Given, 35, is close to a four million pound move from Manchester City, but Villa is unwilling to match his whopping 80,000-pound weekly wages.
Villa''s top earners are all paid around 55,000 pound before bonuses and Given has been told that he can expect to join them, a newspapers reports.
Given, likely to agree a three-year deal this weekend, has fallen behind Joe Hart at Eastlands.
A close pal said: “Shay knows Villa will not pay the wages City do but this is a football decision and he wants to play.”
Villa is prepared for an improved 18 million pound bid from Liverpool for winger Stewart Downing. But sources insist they will stand firm.