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.