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Maloney Wishes He’d Never Moved To Villa

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Vital Celtic have an interesting article on Shaun Maloney and his doomed move to Villa and subsequant departure. Looks like the stories were true, he was unhappy from start to finish!

By Jamie @ Vital Celtic:

‘Shaun Maloney’s career has been stuck in neutral for some time. From Celtic to Aston Villa to Celtic, the only constant has been the injury problems that have plagued the little man’s career.

But things seem to be changing. Not only is Maloney fit again (will it last?) but he has admitted he ‘probably shouldn’t have left Celtic in the first place’. Few would disagree with his observation, as not much good came of his reunion with Martin O’Neill when Aston Villa signed Maloney on the last day of the January transfer window in 2007.

Interestingly, for those who think Martin O’Neill is the Messiah while Gordon Strachan is the Devil, Maloney has also shed some light on his falling out with the boss at Villa. A miss against Manchester United, in a game Villa went on to lose 4-0, and Maloney ‘lost all relationship with Martin for about three months’.

Maloney was quoted by The Times as saying: ‘It’s easy to say so now, but I probably shouldn’t have left Celtic in the first place – it was mostly my own fault. For about six months prior to leaving Celtic, I hadn’t dealt with my contract situation very well.

‘It was eating away at me, it wasn’t getting sorted and I didn’t cope with it properly. We couldn’t agree terms and it all came to a head on the last day of January 2007, when Villa came in with their offer.

‘I never felt comfortable at Villa, and I didn’t play great, either. It was a bit like when I was with Martin O’Neill at Celtic. I was a sub, and I would come on and do OK, and that was my role. I didn’t enjoy it, but to be honest, I didn’t do enough to be a regular in Villa’s starting XI. It just wasn’t the place I wanted to be.’

For the rest of the article and quotes, My Aston Villa Hell by Celtic’s Shaun Maloney

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