The wee man Shaun Maloney may be on his way home

Agree about the chances, but Damian alot has to do with the form of Ashley Young, he is playing in Maloney's favoured position. A choice of the two, Ashley Young by a Million Miles for me. I would only sell him though once we have a replacement.

I think this might be closer to the truth than we would like. He didn't even make the bench yesterday and his only chance of getting a decent run is a couple of players being knocked out through injury. It would be a shame as I think he's half decent but as the squad size increases it is inevitable that some players are going to get pegged further back and I think Maloney could be one of them.

When we only have 1 more player than we had last season's tiny squad why are we selling players? We are desperate for players and are not in a position to help Celtic out & deplete our tiny squad.

Jags Singh

I just would have liked it if he was given 10 games ... I think if he was given a proper run in the team he may have come good - but we may never know. I say this bit also, because Maloney is more than just a left sided midfielder/winger; he used to play upfront for Celtic and there were times last season he could have given Gabby a rest and played Maloney ...

Ach - it doesn't matter ... but 5 goals from 30. What could he have scored had he been given a proper run?

For Me MAloney doesn't do enough over a sustained period of time during a game. It's probably the same in training too. Potentially he has the ability to be a good player but i think he might just me a bit of a whinger and lazy. imo... But i could be wrong.. Players need more to their game than a few step overs and a decent free kick.

Not good enough for me, biggest disappointment of all MON's signings. Anyway, he'll never get a game when De Le Red signs ;)

'Maloney to Celtic' has been going on longer than 'Barry to Liverpool'!!

I hope he stays as we could end up playing 50 games this season and will need a squad to get through it. That would be great for Villa, but not good for Maloney as he would be in and out of the team.

If he leave Villa, I wouldn't be surprised to see him at Sunderland.

Signed for £1M and will be sold for more than that so can't complain really, whats the point of having him if he can't get ahead of Osbourne, Routledge and Salifou on the bench.

Agree with you though Damo, he has not been given a sustained run of games, he would have been off in January but scored a couple against Chelsea and that seemed to change his mind.

It narks me off that MON doesn't use him as an impact player even, coming off the bench for the last 20-30 minutes but time after time we see a game go by with no subs. Players are going to get fed up of not even getting a sniff of a game, Gabby looked knackered against Odense in the first leg but he completed the 90 minutes while the players on the bench stayed there.

he has definately been given enough chances hes just not good enough. If he was good enough he would be able to do it from the bench. He is brilliant at free kicks but his general play just isn't good enough and because he scores so many from free kicks he seems like a better player. when ashley young is ahead of him he wont get a look in unless he or ashley is played out of position. so i don't think he deserved more of a chance and i don't think he did enough to worry about us losing him.

I'd be dissappointed if he left as I don't feel he's had a fair crack really. His goals to minutes on the pitch ratio must be extremely high

ive read your blogs all close season damian and not one person put the wee man in their potential teams. were looking for top four this season, so can we afford to give him ten games and find out what mon prob already knows,(sadly hes not prem standard ).

askpaul68

probably not - but maybe he could have been given a run last season when gabby so clearly needed a break?

hes still alot better than knight though :D :D ;)

The Villa website has more on the story -- the Daily Record claims Villa have agreed to sell for £1M. It reads to me as the same story the Daily Record ran the August after we signed him. Whilst MON might have let him go for £1M then why would he now? If anything, I think it is the Daily Record that wants to sign Maloney, not Celtic.

Really pleased with result yesterday but why didn't MON give players like Routledge a run out when we were cruising at 4-1?

I feel for the lad as he's got the quality but its just not worked out. I think maybe Villa should loan him back so he gets his confidence back - At least Villa if needed can call him back or sell him if other things happen in the market. I think that he's no more than a bit player which for him isn't enough and I understand that.

Maloney will play this season. We will have good runs in all 3 cups & MON is planning to play all his squad players so that none gets overtired, Remember the league cup last year? This is a good way to bring fringe players on whilst keeping the premiership squad fresh.

I agree with the substitutes issue, i hope that for the Uefa return leg the likes of Gabby, Carew, Young and Davies are rested ahead of the Liverpool game, im sure we can hold our own against the Icelanders with the likes of Knight, Maloney, Harewood and Delfuneso, what does everyone think??

So many that praised him all the time and from what? just blind faith, he really isn't good enough to get into our team and that's a team as small as anything. Just shows some people just say things all the time to sound like they support villa more than others in a really childish way. Truth is he's not that good like a lot of mon's signings.

ps gabby was awesome, anyone who doesn't think barry is so important or wants him to go is mad

Although Gabby's hatrick was awesome, the real stand out star for me was Barry. He was a class above the rest (on both teams) and will be severely missed in the midfield should his protracted move to Liverpool go through.

On a completely different note, the sooner we sign a right winger so Reo-Joker doesn't have to start the better, MON must not value Maloney that highly if he can't get into the team ahead of NRC! It would be a pity to see the wee man leave but as with the Barry saga if he wants to go, let him, one man does not make a team! PS Great result and generally good display UTV

Vijayd, spot on man, it should be carling cup team against the icelandic team, lets have Sali, Sali-fou! on from the start and Routledge and Maloney on the wings, Guzan/Taylor in goal and Delfuenso up front to give them all a bit of experience and get them comfortable with the pressures of big (lol) games.

Taglor, Barry is vitally important, the past few games have shown why MON wants to keep him so badly. I was saying f*** him and let him go, £15M would have been a good price etc. But Rick Parry has to look at Barry's performance yesterday and remember Hargreaves (permanently injured) and Carrick (Not as effective since he left Spurs) went for similar fees and currently are not England regulars. You know what? Screw it, lets ask for £25M, i think hes worth it.

I feel Maloney has the attacking skill, but doesn't track back enough, i think we could use him, when it comes to games like the 2nd against FH, carling cup ties ect.. we need players like him in the squad, we can't rely on the youngsters, look what happens against Leicester City in the Carling cup last season, squad players like Maloney, routledge, Harewood have experience and will help us out, but they need the odd 20 mins in prem games, instead of them all starting against a lower league team, to gain match experience. I agree with the earlier post about MON not using subs, yesterday at 4-1 up he could've bought Routledge on, he looked good on Thursday, tracks back, likes to take players on, and can cross the ball, he could've taken NRC off, give him a rest and build's Routledge's confidence in prem match situation

he's better then routledge

I was so chuffed for Gabby yesterday. I really hope he can now kick on and score 20 goals for us this season.

Damian- Any new transfer news? And whats the latest on the fantasy football?

i thought you sed it was your day off today

well, MON rate him high, and he has 3 years left contract.I would bother too much if he score some free kicks.

BTW: the real wee man(Jason Acuna) is brillant on Skateboarding:) LOL

Maloney doesnt prefer the left wing so its nothing to do with Youngs performances. As far as im aware his favoured position is behind the main striker, he has commented that he doesnt like playing on the left

jclaytoravfc

it is; i'm at home in front of the tv, thinking about maybe showering sometime before the wife gets back from work ;)

Maloney is surely off, and I can't blame him. I've always liked the wee lad. As Damian mentioned, Maloney should've been given a run alongside Carew last season when Gabby went weeks without scoring.

Great result over the weekend lads. Only saw the goals and the last 2 Agbonlathor goals looked offside to me. Not the final balls but the ones before and he obviously had a direct impact in both of them!!!
Just wondering how Corluka played?
Concerned Spurs fan

The bottom line is that Maloney is/was homesick - I know it's been a while but some folk just don't settle away from home. If he can't get over that he won't be right in the head to play and MON is the kind of guy who won't even countenance ruining team spirit something like that.

Nobody can be in doubt of Maloney's innate talent and I agree with the posters who've said he will get his chance more this year if we manage to keep an assault going on at least three fronts, hopefully four.

Barry was magnificent and if we lose him we are going to have to spend huge to replace him and the kind of people who would replace him wouldn't come because we aren't in th CL. Vicious circle but I hope Barry can at least give us until Christmas to at least try and show that we've got what it takes.

Whoever suggested "He's small, he's quick, he likes to flash his dick..." We did try from K6 yesterday but didn't catch on yet.

Maloney comes under the heading “Flatters to deceive”. Tremendous talent but becomes anonymous for long periods. Doesn’t work hard enough. Whatever. Great pity because he can surely strike a ball from a long way out and with very little back-lift, which is a tremendous asset for a striker. I believe he was an out-and-out striker at Celtic which may be where he’s learned the habit of not getting back. As someone has pointed out, if you can’t make the bench, let alone get picked ahead of Coker, the future at VP is a bit bleak.

A lot of today’s posters seem to think that when we’re 4-1 up it’s time to give the subs a run out. Right on fellas. I mean it’s not like the Villa can surrender a 3 or 4 goal lead is it? Added to which it’s not like we’ve bought in half a dozen new players and they need to get to know each other in match day conditions.

But it was great stuff on Sunday. Can you feel the ground rumbling? That’s the plates moving.

Yeah Maloney's innate talent that has all the premiership clubs bidding for him lol

For the first time ever I agree with Taglor. Barry's excellent cross and pass set up Gabby's last two goals. We need to keep hold of him or it will be very expensive to replace him. Still in need of a right sided player and Maloney just isn't consistent enough. Better to sell and put the money towards Milner. Any way good win and hopefully Young signs a new deal soon.

it just defeats the purpose of buying squad players to make our already brittle squad bigger to then just sell squad players.... what im saying is whats the point making the squad bigger to then just sell... were still in desperate need for players i feel.. we need a right winger cover for l.young a striker and possibly a creative midfielder

Yesterdays Game reminded me how we done over newcastle? You know when it was 4-1 then it went 4-2 i had visions of spurs all over again? we play to deep and get sidetracked always in the last 10 mins 'if we were playing utd.... you know the rest

I've been a little harsh on Gabby over the weeks, but at half time you could have not predicted that So i guess i should give him a bit more credit??? He has set a benchmark now and can't go back to being very poor! so well done

I do like Maloney he never really got a proper run out for me! As sated above when gabby was going through his drought he should have played more fixtures' instead we kept the same squad week in week out? We got found out and ended up 6th instead of 5th you never know! On the whole i would like him to stay and fight for his place.

But Don't dwell on the past

Chill with all this talk of routledge should be playing 'the man plays 10 mins in a game against some rubbish team and every1 is praising him? The man hasn't done nothing but has he had a chance to? Im sure he will soon

I'm still hoping for signing 13 days left!!! Now other teams have heard about his 2nd quickest hatrick it gives villa more exposure......

On that note David Bentley must be thinking he's made the wrong decision again ;D ;D ;D 8)

I really hope Maloney stays, he's never been given much of a chance but the glimpses we've seen show he's got a lot of quality.
The thing that's most in his favour is that he offers something totally different to any other player in the squad- deft touches, shooting from range, that bit of vision and occasional magic.
Perhaps Maloney producing these qualities doesn't happen often enough, but maybe given a run and feeling a bit of warmth from the boss and the holte and he could surprise us all :)

Just sell him. He hasnt settled. Why? Because hes not a first team regular. Why? Because he just isnt good enough. Taglor, on your comment on Barry, i believe anyone who thinks he will be a Villa player past January (if not before) is mad. Liverpool will offer the money just before the window closes so we cant replace him. If that is the case, MON will hold on to him until January, when he can replace him. Im convinced he will leave Villa and what will that say about him if we are in a better league position than Pool. Ideally, having a De la Red type player AND Barry in the midfield would give us an awesome edge, providing we get a right winger that can run on to the through balls (NOT MILNER!)

I really don't think weshould sell him. I think he is a really good player that can change games if used as a sub - MON just doesn't want to do it. If we do well in the cups we could really regret losing him for 1m.
I feel sorry for the lad but he needs to stay at least until we can sign some more players.

lets be honest its very hard to give him a couple of chances last season as the first team stayed fit and on form. he is an average player in my book, but he has a touch of baros about him. you keep thinking he is going to show everybody what he is capable of and then doesnt. dont get me wrong i like the kid in all, i hope he stays and proves me wrong but i just cant see it.

i think maloney is a wkd player
its just he doest and wont get a look in
if he leaves it will be a shame cause he has one cracking shot on him and celtic would be gaining a great player
although its only a rumor i hope he stays

So why has MON stuck with Petrov? Surely this was his worst buy. Thought MON would work with Maloney to get through any problems either may have. If players took offence to not playing or fitting in what would stop the likes of Taylor leaving now the 2 Brads have been brought in?

shaun maloney is a bunch of shite!
he's not premiership standard! he needs 2 go bac 2 scotish premier league (the equivalent of our league 1) n be a fans favourite there.
all he can do is take a gd free kick, every now and again he does a bit of skill.
not strong enough 4 the premiership.
id rather have hadji back at villa than maloney. :P

he can take free kicks,he can do some tricksand afab 25 yard shot like ashley really but his brillant and i dont want him to go!
UTV ;D ;D