Given may be on the move in January

Brad Friedel of Blackburn Rovers is the man Newcastle United would turn to should the goalkeeper Shay Given leave the club.

Newcastle's chairman Freddy Shepherd said yesterday that Given "is not for sale and that's the end of the story", but he made similar comments about Jonathan Woodgate before he was sold to Real Madrid.

Friedel (34) was signed for Blackburn by Graeme Souness and the new Newcastle manager is having to plan in case of Given's departure.

Souness, already under pressure from fans, just over three months after succeeding Bobby Robson, yesterday cancelled the players' Christmas party, an indication of the tumbling temperature on Tyneside. It would get colder still if Given left.

Manchester United are monitoring Given's situation, as are Arsenal, but there have been no bids as yet.

Given (28) has two years remaining on his contract. But this is the Irishman's eighth season at St James' Park and the club look as far away from winning a significant trophy as at any time in that period. Given is known to be irritated by this, and at the end of last season he urged Newcastle to spend heavily in the transfer market.

Yesterday, Given said: "I am as frustrated as anyone by our lack of success but I want to stay and win things with Newcastle."

Manchester United and Arsenal are believed to have reservations over Given's height - he is 6ft - but recognise his quality behind a notoriously carefree defence.

Given would cost approximately £7 million-£8 million in the current transfer market, a fee that may put him beyond Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, but both managers have goalkeeping issues and could address the lack of cash with the offer of swapping players.

Rumours of Ryan Giggs moving to Newcastle have been prevalent on Tyneside, although, with Souness's desperate need for defenders, John O'Shea would be a more obvious candidate and he, too, has been rumoured to be moving to Newcastle.

However, only when a bid is lodged for Given will the situation escalate and Shepherd added: "Nobody has contacted us about him."

Shepherd, whose popularity on Tyneside is decreasing, knows that Given is in the Alan Shearer-Craig Bellamy bracket in terms of supporters' faith and if Newcastle's descent in the Premiership continues, then by next month Shepherd will be under severe pressure. Nevertheless, he increased his stake in the club yesterday. By buying 1.1 million shares at a cost of £431,000 he took his ownership of Newcastle to 25.4 per cent. The Hall family, John and his son Douglas, remain the largest shareholders.

Shepherd's purchase coincided with Souness's decision to forbid his players to go on their planned Christmas outing in Edinburgh. "I'm not having any of that," Souness said. "Word would leak out and all sorts of people would be up there waiting for them."

They face Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday and after that Blackburn away.