Slow down: Shaun Maloney joins Celtic?

I'd say I can't knock him either but to be honest I'd be lying. We all know he was suffering from home sickness ever since he joined but I don't find that a viable excuse. Hundreds of players move home to join clubs, often many miles away, every year. Sure it might be tough at first, but you adjust. That's what players do. They man up and knuckle down, and to be honest if Maloney is moving primarily because he's still homesick, I'd say that's an awful excuse.

I don't like players leaving because they find things hard. As far as I'm concerned, when you're earning that much money every week you work your ass off to get into the first team. Maloney hasn't for my money. Jamie Carragher threw his toys out of the pram and retired from international football because he got tired of fighting for his place in the England team, and to be honest this situation isn't a whole lot different. If anything Maloney has less competition - there has to be a reason O'Neill isn't picking him, most likely because he's not showing him much reason to in training.

It's a shame because Shaun is very talented and I think he could have really made a name for himself had he hit if off. Perhaps O'Neill should have given him an extended run, but like I say, he obviously doesn't think he's good enough to get that.

I for one will miss wee shaun and wish him all the best back home. My fondest memory of him was when he was top scorer for my fifa 'soccer' team and I sold him to Arsenal for 16 million. thanks for the memories! (all 32 minutes as Damian said! Shame)

Nice little bloke,Very god player,I just think he was never adn isn`t really up for fighting for a place,He will be going home and walkin ginto the celtic team every week.Shame it didn`t work out at villa,Good luck to him.

He did know where the goal was and did get a decent return in games, but i always felt he was too lightweight and went missing for far far too long in games. I can only assume he is missing equally as long in training, because he doesn't seem to wow MON.

i saw him in the champions league for celtic and thought he looked great but i think what we all forget is gazza at the very end of his career looked good in scotland but i wish him all the best

Personally I was amazed that Shaun joined Villa to start of with.

It's just that O'Neill never played him when he was at Celtic, so why join a team where O'Neill was now the new manager, same reason you never see the best of Petrov, at Celtic O'Neill constantly played him on the right, and is still doing it now, on the odd occasion he was played in his best central position and this is were he shone.

The goals soon flowed.

Anyway, welcome back to Paradise Shaun! ;D

maybe its just me, but after all this transfer season, besides filling the right back spot, arnt we kinda back were we where..?

dont we need players still now, maybe 5, even though martin says he's only looking for 3?

damn. but still happy over the transfer market.

When GB follows him out of the door (kinda hope not unless we get someone like quality to replace) Joe Cole will be coming in. Robinho deal back on at Chelski, so Cole will be off!

Think there's going to be more ins and outs than we think in the next days before the window closes...Good Times! ;D

Adam, u say he looked great in the champions league and then go on about gazza looking gd in Scotland? theyre 2 different competitoons.

Not looking for an argument bout the spl here that jst annoyed me nyway dnt no y it didnt work out for shaun, 2bh it was a silly move for him he was flying with celtic but even we could see faults with his game and he had a poor run in the last 6 months with us. He will add some creativity to our side but doubt he will be as gd as he was before he left us. Another Liam Miller im thinking.

I think vivavilla is spot on, if he is home sick though, shouldn't he go to Malaysia, not Scotland???

One of the few flair player leaves the club..not good.

As highlighted by Damian, if we carry on this way all you'll have to do to make Villa predictable is block the left wing, man-mark Ashley Young and we're suddenly short of ideas and options..Joe Cole, anyone?

Hes going for sure. It doesnt bother me as i dont rate him, but he has scored a couple of cracking goals, if nothing else. I think that will mean some more news in regard to Milner or Santa Cruz. I still think we need at least four or five players, especially now that it seems Wee man is off. I think that we have upgraded a little in terms of quality, but it appears MON wants to try his luck with a smaller squad again. By the way, what is MONs fascination with tall strikers? I think Santa would be nice but we are also linked with this Zigic, who is like 6 ft 6 or something.......at least were not loaning players like Pompey and helping other clubs.......

He is a class player but its obvious he never settled. I dont buy into giving him a ten game run to see how well he would do, MoN is old school manager if a player does well and puts the effort in training he will get picked for the team, if he doesnt then he hasnt got a chance. And that looks to be what happend with Maloney

I will miss him and i'm in the 'he should have had a run of games' camp, anyone remember him tearing chelsea apart at the bridge on boxing day before he had to come off because knight got sent off??!! That for me was him at his best and why MON didn't give him a run on the right hand side of midfield is a mystery to me, but there you go. Good luck to you mate!!

well put it this way damian, the players we got rid of were all s*** expect for good old olof. oh well im sure we will all miss the wee lad.

right then whos up for cruz control and milner?!

UTV ;D

just not good enough simple,too lightweight,goes missing in games when he does get picked,perhaps mon has told him who he is signing and malony knew he was further down the pecking order.

Don't rate him.. Glad he is going back to the tattie pickers!
Byebye.

I think that if wee shaun is leaving then we must be signing someone !
Mon would not let one go without another coming in .
Please be SWP or J Cole . 8) 8) 8)

Maloney is shite gd ridence! ;D

He looked good in flashes and scored some very good goals but in my opinion when he faced a big, strong & well organized defense he really did struggle and there are too many big, strong & well organized defenses in the epl. Having Ashley as a team mate wont have helped either as the lad is pure class. I wish him all the best and i am sure he will thrive back at Celtic where he obviously feels at home.

The Sky Sports website says he's in talks with Celtic at the moment.

Tidy player but not good enough for PL. Mon won't sell him unless a) we have someone in first b) a player in is a cert.
The fact is with Maloney, we need to be at full throttle every game to get a result due to the size of the squad, no room for a luxury player. In other words stop opposition playing first and then aim for Ash!!

So our tiny not big enough "i took a gamble on the size of the squad in January" squad has no more players now than we lasty season. This is just madness.

we had last season

This could be a money plus player deal for aiden mgeady and he is a decent player and can play on the left or right jus like ashley and they could swap wud be gud buy cud happen u never no, i think he signed a contract earlier in the summer thow.

he never was given a real chance, and its a shame because when he did play he made the game seem different, hes a player i respect and i will be definantly be looking out for him in the future. good luck to him and its a shame that he couldnt achieve great things at villa. (thats if he does go)

No point in holdinmg on to players just to fill the squad up. In the Prem he just wasn't up to it. Also once he was homesick we all know that doesn't fit with MON's happy family vibe.

No panic there's more coming this way.

there is a point keeping him - so we can field players when we get injuries and suspensions and are playing 2 games every week. Surely we cant be letting any players go until we sign another 4 or 5 at least. It makes no sense to. there are 9 days left and we have the same size squad as last year which Oneil has clearly stated we were very lucky to have coped with and he wouldnt do that again. Must be an avalanche of players coming in this week??

look, maloney is rubbish. he's been at villa for 2 1/2 seasons and still hasn't really proved himself. Sure he's got the quick feet and skill but that doesn't get you a first team spot in the premier league. We all trust in MON and if he hasn't made him a first team regular I'm sure he shouldn't be a first team regular. 2 1/2 seasons is enough time to prove yourself and he hasn't. He obviously is shit in training as well.

All those that say the wee man is shit you have no idea what your talking about you small minded little numpties. Wee Shaun came on and did his jobfor Villa. He did his job in the reserves also. It just was not for him in the EPL. In the EPL to be top class all the boxes have to be ticked for a player. Unfortunately wee Shaun's boxes were not 100% ticked. I hope he does well north of the border and when I'm visiting my relatives up there I'll now go to a game to watch him.

Nan...Do you also know what I know about the players coming in? ;) The front page lot don't know about the wonders lurking in the Forum do they! ;D

Jinksy has officially taken over as king of the whingers! Where's taglor when you need him? ;D

Always wanted him to do well as hes got the skills. But remember watching Villa vs Fulham and Craven cottage he had a chance and he just didn't seem to take it. Just never seem to get going for Villa. Good luck to him but think we can sign a better winger, SWP or Milner are twice the player he is.

SHAUN MALONEY WONT 'WALK STRAIGHT INTO THE CELTIC TEAM', THE PEOPLE THAT ARE SAYING THAT DONT HAVE A CLUE, HE WILL HAVE TO FIGHT HARD TO REPLACE MCGEADY OR NAKAMURA, HES A SQUAD PLAYER

Still don't believe he's going ...

He's had his chances and to me he has always looked like quality when he's came on, so why he never kept a 1st team place is beyond me. He was awesome on boxing day against Chelsea, I'll never forget that =)

I agree with anarchist, Maloney kept his head down, never moaned and when he got the odd chance he did well, considering how scattered his appearances were. With respect, whoever claims Maloney was "shit", as put by some, can't tell arse from elbow, let alone judge a football player.

Few things;

Sad to lose Maloney but not if McGeady is coming the other way?!?!

Dont want Naylor!

Lookin forward to Stoke tomorrow, I pray for victory coz them boys are gonna be 'like well up for it!'

Was Damo's Ruben like poo poo or what!!!!

Never ever ever will we get Santa Cruz Doyle much more likely. I think Doyle, McGeady and Milner will be in by 1.9.08 and probably an unknown foreign left back?!

Up the Villa!

:( >:( :'(

I was disappointed when Shaun left us, but understood why he'd try his hand at the Premiership - even at the expense of trophies and champions league football. I back the doubts that homesickness is a viable excuse as the money these guys get are enough to make anyone adapt!!

However, to the claims he'll simply walk back into the Celtic team, I very much doubt that. Sure Shaun has great talent, but he has a lot of work to do to justify getting a starting place - he certainly isnt going to oust McGeady on the left and although I'd probably give him the nod before Naka (if he works hard and proves himself) Gordon Strachan cannot praise Naka highly enough and I just cant see him being dropped.

However the prospect of having McGeady on one side and Wee Shaun on the other is mouth watering if the wee man can regain his form - and with McGeady, Naka and Maloney - theres plenty of creative options!!

Welcome Back Shaun - Hail Hail!

Damian, regarding players in and out, I thought the comments made by AVmark the other day about the standard of those going out and those going in was a good one. I think everyone agrees were a stronger squad now (and not just stronger 11). Even if the numbers are the same, we don't need to play the same 11 game in game out (like we did last year).

Your right though, I hope he does have more signings lined up. If you watch the monthly chat with MON on the club website he is trying. He says he does not just want to bring in numbers, but quality in numbers and that is more difficult. Hopefully it will happen, but even if it doesn't I'm still optimistic we can do well this season.

Regarding Maloney, I liked him as a impact player, for goal scoring. But I don't think goal scoring is really the issue (look at our record last year). It's the rest of his game (ball retention, interlinking with other players, passing the ball about, holding it up) which was not really up to standard? Maybe a little to lightweight?

No one can blame him for wanting to go though, and I wish him all the best if he does, and thank him for his time at the club.

Shaun will walk back into the Celtic team but this is a Villa blog so not the place to discuss this.

IMO, it was a strange decision for him to go to Villa and would have been a boot in the chuckies for him when MON signed players that could fill the role he thought he was going to fill.

As had been said, maybe he deserved a run in your team, hey I don't know, but for sure I don't think you saw the complete Maloney really because you didn't need to see the complete Maloney.

Oh, yes, MON loves big unmobile strikers ;D