Shaun Maloney signed a pre-contract agreement with Aston Villa at the end of January 2007, and Celtic were set to get nothing for a player that they had invested so much in, however Martin O'Neil was keen to have him for the second half of the season so signed him for a reported fee of £1m moments before the deadline. Shaun never settled in Birmingham and pretty soon he was pining for Paradise but on his return to Celtic last season he found the reception from the support was lukewarm and his performances for the team could probably be described in similar terms.
The player knows he has a lot to prove to many within the Celtic support who didn't want to see him back at the club and he hopes that this year he can prove that Gordon Strachan was right to re-sign him. "I'm definitely looking forward to this season." he said "There were a lot of regrets from last season so this one can't come quick enough."
"The injury problems I had last season were difficult." continued Celtic's number thirteen. "I thought I was back to fitness but then ended up being out for double the length of time. It was very frustrating. When I say I had regrets, I mean in the sense of being inactive through injury for so long and not being any use to the team. I didn't really have any part to play for three or four months."
"Maybe I shouldn't have pushed myself so hard to come back. No, I take that back. When you are out, you work as hard as you can to come back in a good condition. The regrets are just over how it all worked out. Up until the injury I was doing all right, but I do not want to settle for all right. I want do better than last season."
Former boss Strachan actually voiced concern last season that, towards the end of his layoff, Maloney's problem was more psychological than physical but the player insists that he is in a positive frame of mind now and he'll prove it to new boss Tony Mowbray. "You have to prove to him you deserve to be in his best XI." said Maloney. "That's a massive thing. The atmosphere leading up to Moscow was really positive."
"The manager really did believe we were going to win the game and tried to put that across." he said. "It worked. I know our away record was not good, but the whole squad felt we could win. We thought we had better players and that if we finished the kind of chances we created in the first leg then we would go through."
The Scotland international was in the squad that travelled to Norway for the midweek World Cup qualifier but he's putting Scotland's 4-0 gubbing to the back of his mind for now to concentrate on Celtic and today's opening SPL match at Pittodrie. "There are still thoughts from the international game, obviously. The majority of people in this country will still be thinking of Wednesday." he said. "But we now have another game. By the time the Aberdeen match comes around I won't be thinking of what happened on Wednesday. I was part of the squad in Oslo even though I didn't play. I was still there in the dressing room after the game and on the journey home. Of course it still affects you."