HoopedTeuchter

He's pretty pacy but he's not a speed merchant. Quicker than you and me. Agathe however was a speed merchant with afterburners but he seems to have lost it in the last couple of years - dunno what's happened to his game...

We're not all nutters you know! In fact, the majority of us are sane, reasonable, cultured, intelligent and unbigoted individuals. I think there would be a bit of umbrage if you got McGeady, but at the same time you would have to pay a pretty penny for him and apparently he's not that popular at Celtic Park as he's a bit of a Billy Big Boots. I've seen it quoted somwhere that someone at Celtic said that if he was made of chocolate, he'd eat himself. Kind of surprised O'Neill didn't take Thommo back as he was one of his stalwarts... he's scored 2 great free kicks for Leeds in his first 2 games for them...

I would say he is more of an attacking midfielder now. He started off as an out an out striker, but plays deeper now. In his best season, that stats here showed he got more goals than assists... But yeah, he can still play up front.

Why thanks, I like to think I am reasonably civilised! Maloney has been injured a fair bit this season and he's made the bench or started last few games so he's not far off being match fit. Probably would have played more but we have McGeady on the left and Riordon has been given a couple of run outs as well. Maloney can play on the right as well (he's right footed) but Nakamura (who's left footed) plays there and he's untouchable at the moment.

Come off it I know several Celtic fans and they are all keen to lose Balde, asap. Maybe O'Neill is mug enough to take most of your rubbish off you for a price, I'm hoping even he isn't daft enough to try for Balde. Both Petrov and Maloney have both won players of the year in Scoland, and are players that he knows well. Agathe and Sutton have been stop gaps. Word on the street means nothing, only actions. Get over it. Get over what? Balde is a pretty decent centre half, very powerful, if prone to the occasional rush of blood to the head. The reason Celtic fans wouldn't mind seeing him go is that he's on 28 grand a week and we'd probably get 2-3 mil or so for him. His wages are rather steep for Scotland - we only get around £2m TV money as champions, whereas in England the bottom team will get 30 mil!

The word on the street is that Bobo Balde would have been bought by Martin O'Neill as well if he hadn't been injured... Petrov's (who I believe has been playing with an injury recently, hence disappointing form) style of free kick involves a low piledriver of a shot that has fooled a few keepers over the years with the sheer velocity of it. None of this fancy bending it over the wall into the corner malarkey - leave that to Maloney.

As a Celtic fan I am sorry to lose Maloney and I am sure he will be a good aquisition for Villa. I should point out that Maloney was lattely more often used in an attacking midfield role on the left, in the hole, or occasionally off the lone striker on the rare occasions Celtic adopted such tactics. He is definitely not a poacher type striker - he does a lot of buzzing about on the edge of the box. Also, he can take a mean free kick. He invariably gets them on target, and has scored a few for Celtic, so move over Gareth Barry or whoever takes the set peices at Villa. Or Aston Celtic as we now know them!