Celtic confirm Shaun Maloney’s return, replacing Darren O’Dea

Shaun will work closely with Paul Tisdale, the club’s Head of Football Operations, Men’s First Team Manager, Brendan Rodgers, Chris McCart, our Head of Academy and the club’s B Team and Academy Coaches and, in this hugely important role, he will work to ensure the effective development of players to play for Celtic.

Through the maintenance of strong relationships with clubs across leagues, both domestically and internationally, the role will also manage loan opportunities which support player pathway and development opportunities.

Shaun himself came through the ranks at Celtic before making more than 200 first team appearances and winning 5 League titles and 3 League Cups with the Club.

He has also played for Aston Villa and Wigan in the English Premier League as well as having spells in the English Championship and the MLS. Following the end of Shaun’s playing career, he held management positions at Wigan Athletic and Hibernian FC.

Speaking about his new appointment today Shaun Maloney, who was recently linked with the manger’s job at Dundee, said: “It is a huge honour to be given this opportunity to return to Celtic, in a role which I am really passionate about.

“My aim will be to work really closely between our Academy and the First Team and create the very best opportunities for success, which will ultimately be represented by more and more players reaching our first team environment.

“I have been fortunate enough to follow this same pathway and I am now excited about ensuring many more young players can take this same journey.”

Paul Tisdale, Celtic’s Head of Football Operations had this to say about Shaun Maloney coming back to the club to fill the vacancy left by Darren O’Dea leaving to join Swansea City as their Assistant Manager: “I am delighted that we have been able to bring Shaun back to the club in this role.

“Shaun will be tasked with developing the internal and external processes necessary to ensure we optimise the talents of our young players.

“Through his experience and knowledge, we believe Shaun will add significant value to the role”.

Brendan Rodgers, of course will have played a massive role in this appointment, which we talked about last night on The Celtic Star. The Celtic manager said: “I am really pleased to welcome Shaun to this post. He is someone I believe will make a great contribution to the club in this area.

“He is an intelligent guy who knows what it takes to be a successful Celtic player and I think his experience will be invaluable in this role.

“He has all the credentials to be really successful in positively developing our younger players.”

So not for the first time and maybe not for the last we can say welcome back Shaun!

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