Welcome back Shaun

Well we all make mistakes, some silly ones and some whoppers.

Some VIDEO CLIPS of Shaun from 2005/2006

Usually we don't get the chance to correct them and live in regret but Shaun Maloney is now back at Celtic and hopefully ready to develop into the player that he has threatened to become.

The baby face that emerged at Ibrox in April 2001 straight out of the youth team was never going to break up the Larsson/Sutton/Hartson axis of Martin O'Neill's team and was bound for Aberdeen or Livingston until thrown a proper chance by Gordon Strachan.

In the autumn of 2005 a brand new team emerged with Artur Boruc and Shunsuke Nakamura starring alongside some forgotton talents called Maloney, Stephen McManus and of course Aiden McGeady.

The title was won in a canter as Rangers crumbled into third place in a two horse race never recovering from back-to-back hammerings at Celtic Park in November when Maloney led the way with an amazing 25 yard effort that Stefan Klos is still trying to locate.

Not unusually for Celtic some contract issues were burning away in the background, the emergence of three prominent home grown players being a novelty as they expected hefty increases to match the wages of their illustrious team mates.

In the final year of his reserve team contract McManus was sorted out but Maloney's contract issue rumbled on ominously into the new season as Thomas Gravesen and Jan Venegoor of Hesselink joined on big bucks with even Derek Riordan taking home more than Player of the Year Maloney.

Riordan took advantage of circumstances just as Maloney 'suffered' from having signed a long term deal. Whether Celtic took him for granted or not we'll never know but in the January 2007 transfer window Maloney was off to Aston Villa for £1m while Paul Hartley avoided Ibrox to join the champions.

Villa was a very strange destination for Maloney, some games here and there, some great free-kicks scored and a double against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge showed promise but when push comes to shove O'Neill will always go for brute force in the shape of Carew/Hartson/Sutton over the craft of Maloney.

He gave it 18 months, was linked with a return in virtually every transfer window but is now thankfully back in hoops, ready to resume where he left off or perhaps an even better player after experiencing that the grass isn't always greener elsewhere.

Offering cover to both wide midfield positions, competition for Scott McDonald or creating a new role tucked behind two strikers Maloney is a welcome addition to the Celtic side and can hopefully spark some action into a team that has started the season looking as stale as they were for large spells of last season.

WELCOME BACK SHAUN.

Opening day nerves?

The build up was great... but there was little to get excited about by the 90 minutes that followed as the season got underway in tired fashion.

CHAMPIONSHIP CEREMONY AND SINGSONG

No new faces in the team, not even a left-back, and an unbalanced midfield due to the injury to Shunsuke Nakamura saw the champions stutter and stumble to victory.

Barry Robson struggled badly out on the right wing, continually turning inside where Celtic already had Paul Hartley and Scott Brown as St Mirren retreated to stifle the play.

All of this put the onus onto Aiden McGeady to provide some magic but with little space to operate in and few team mates to provide him with any sort of options it was a tough afternoon all round.

Brown was possibly the best player but I couldn't help but feel that the balance of the team had been disrupted to accommodate the former Hibs midfielder.

On recent form, last season, Robson and Hartley provide the best central midfield pairing but maybe Gordon Strachan is taking a medium term view and trusting his judgement that Brown is going to raise his game to a level that Robson and Hartley can't match.

If you throw in new signing Marc Crosas and the return of Nakamura there should be enough options coming up to provide the spark and excitement missing from the win over St Mirren.

Paul Caddis belatedly got a run out yesterday, replacing Robson late on despite being ready to come on just as Celtic were awarded the decisive penalty.

Caddis had less space, and time, to operate in than he had enjoyed against Manchester City. I like Caddis a lot, he has loads to his game but is largely untried defensively. Going forward he has everything, he has pace, intelligence, tackles and passes well but isn't yet ready to displace Andreas Hinkel.

The return to Tannadice next Sunday should be interesting and testing, picking up all three points will set us up nicely for two home games including the eagerly anticipated visit from Rangers when we should have a great chance to inflict a Kaunas type blow to Rangers season by emphasising our superiority and putting some daylight into the two horse race that is the SPL.

Shelbourne 1-1 Celtic

The reserves three match tour of Dublin ended tonight with a 1-1 draw with Shelbourne.

Rocco Quinn scored the second half equaliser with Scott Cuthbert, Simon Ferry and Mark Millar the top performers.

VIDEO REPORT

Newry 1-2 Celtic XI

The reserves just keep on winning making it four out of four today with a 2-1 win over Newry.

Derek Riordan and Mark Millar got the goals in the first half before the team eased up after the break allowing Newry to score a consolation.

Reports from my man at the match are sketchy but in the first half Celtic turned on the style and really put Newry to the test with Michael McGlinchey impressive in attack alongside Riordan.

On Wednesday the team moves on to Dublin where they face Shelbourne on Wednesday night at Tolka Park.

VIDEO REPORT