Shaun Maloney

What is his role? What does his day to day look like? It was a role invented for O'dea when we let Mcmanus take over the B team on his own

 

He does more. For me maloney is a brilliant appointment.

this whole partnership thing with clubs in the lower leagues. Maloney himself has been going and meeting the managers, seeing the set ups and analysing the data on how each team plays to see which suits our youngsters.

to have someone with maloneys experience in that role I believe we’re very fortunate.

 

And gone on to win trophies with Celtic. Move to the EPL and win trophies, have a successful playing career and then gone on to coach with brilliant managers, coaches and teams.

he is the epitome of what im sure every young player now sees of their career. Success-Celtic-EPL-Trophies-Coaching.

I’m actually really surprised maloney took this role.

 

Think you're giving way more credit than it's due here.

It's not like Celtic/Maloney has came up with the club affiliation idea on their own. It's a partnership been allowed by the league and we've went to the well of a couple clubs we think may take our youngsters. That's about the stretch of it.
Not sure we need someone who's worked with Martinez at Belgium to be able to identify Ayr United as a club to partner up with. More likely the fact their manager is our former captain may have been the deciding factor there.

Then to big Maloney up so much, to then say we are very fortunate to have him in that role is a bit weird - if his past experience is that great, surely a pathway manager job at Celtic is a little bit beneath him.
Considering Odea was the previous occupant of such a pointless position who has then went on to be an assistant manager at Swansea, not sure that's a ringing endorsement of Maloney's potential and experience.

Is his goal to follow in the dizzying heights of O'Dea and be an assistant at Blackpool next season?

It's a job for the boys at the end of the day. We've helped Maloney keep his career ticking over and more than likely eying him up as a potential successor to Rodgers, if not Brown.


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So he’s overqualified for the role then? But if we got o’dea in that would be an underqualified person in the role?

I wasn’t bigging up the ayr partnership actually. The info I knew of what he did was after him going up to Inverness for talks whether or not they’d be part of the partnership.

it’s not a job for the bhoys appointment at all. Maloney actually warrants it with his experience and quality. Working with Belgium alone is more than we could ever get for any position at the club apart from manager. Not sure why you’re so adamant to downplay having someone good in a pivotal role for the club? This season we’ve already got way better loans for our youngsters than usual

 

Yeah he's massively over qualified and I'd honestly question his motives for the job. It's the sort of position you want a long term appointment in.
The sort that perhaps a Tommy Burns or a Paul McStay would be good for.

I find it highly sus that a successful assistant manager and wannabe professional manager who's had numerous positions as an independent manager would want to drop down to a fairly new and so far unsuccessful position as Pathway Manager.

I'm very much sceptical on how pivotal the role overall is, considering our inability to develop youth through our system over near 2 decades and the complete lack of success the short lived Odea had, I'm yet to be remotely convinced that this position is actually of any real worth.

Put simply, this role in my opinion should actually be part of the Head of Youth development briefing and if he ain't up to that job, then perhaps we should also be asking questions of Chris McCart who held such position before it was renamed to Academy Manager (same job if you ask me) which was in 2023, interestingly enough less than a year later we created this magical Pathway Manager role and just so happened to give it to another one of the boys.



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I wouldn't necessarily say Maloney is overqualified for the job. He's been sacked by both Hibs and Wigan in his only two jobs so maybe this is the kind of level of job that is the height of his capabilities but I certainly agree with you the only reason he got the job was because he previously played for Celtic - the exact same reason why Lennon, Kennedy, McManus, Hayes and O'Dea. Charlie Mulgrew is currently doing a lot of auditioning for one too.

We don't appoint the best person for the job, we just look for former players who will be beholden to the board for a job they've not got on merit. You can guarantee Forrest and McGregor will be joining our coaching team in the near future if this board are still in situation.

 

Reckon if he does want a shot of the big seat, he won't be in any kind of rush - he knows the magnitude of the role. Strikes me as a guy smart enough to know that it would be better to have a full understanding of how the club works from top to bottom, how to communicate with the rest of the backroom team, have a good understanding of the academy players, and will take his time to analyze how everything works together and can be improved. It'll take a wee minute for all this to happen, if he wants it.

 

I'd say Kennedy is far more likely to get a shot at the job before Maloney will.

 

Laughable if he's even remotely an option

 

I think that Kennedy would be a highly successful manager for Celtic. Not sure i would like to take the risk though. But it would be interesting to see him work as he have experience from many great managers.

 

Don't tell me you've forgotten!!

 

Kennedy should go and prove himself elsewhere first before getting the Celtic job.

 

The wee man enjoyed himself tonight

 

Great to see, call it nostalgia or whatever you like but I haven't watched Celtic with a smile as big as the one I had tonight for quite some time

 

* yes wee man.

 

Callum McGregor speaking today about Shaun



And Shaun has been amazing. He’s come in and his work ethic is unbelievable. He’s making sure everyone’s okay, the training level was great, so it’s been a really positive bounce and I think we needed that. The spell that we were in was a little bit tough for everyone.

 

Think hes just a better coach than manager.
Coached with Belgium when they were playing very well. Just dont think he is club manager material.
Good blend with MON...wee shaun taking training sessions with saint Martin the inspiration

 

Will be interesting to see if that blend can work some magic for us up to the international window. Lets hope so.

 

He’s getting some amount of stick for some reason, I think it’s largely because the other guy that we would have to direct it at is Martin O’Neill. And as arsey as I think we’ve got, will we * do that.


Seen a lot of talk about having Martin there a few games before Maloney’s announcement as manager. I’d be willing to stake a large amount on him not being our manager anytime soon. I don’t think he’d want it for one.

But as a foil to MON? That’s a good match. Maloney by everyone thats mentioned him as a coach is highly regarded as one. He doesn’t have the intangible stuff as manager, I hate the description but doesn’t havr that aura.

Martin O’Neill has it in abundance and doesnt like day to day coaching when he was 50 never mind in his 70’s. It makes so much sense to have them as a pair

Maloney is unfortunate that we look to guys to employ first of all if theyve ever payed here, then what they can do secondly.

Maloney is a guy we would be very happy to get, and its helped us get him because he played here and is a fan.