MARK WILSON has branded Shaun Maloney the ‘most professional and dedicated’ of all his team-mates.
And he is convinced that same single-minded drive and determination will ensure his former Celtic pal is a success as Hibernian manager.
The pair were colleagues at Parkhead over the course of four seasons and Maloney made a massive impression on Wilson on and off the pitch,
The new Hibs boss has since applied his commitment and work ethic to life after playing, first with Celtic’s development squad and then as assistant to Roberto Martinez with Belgium.
Now in his first full managerial role at Easter Road, Wilson has backed the former Scotland, Aston Villa and Wigan Athletic attacker to be a hit in the dugout.
He said: “I was lucky enough to play with Shaun and he was probably the most professional and dedicated footballer that I ever came across.
“I was chatting to him a couple of weeks before he got the Hibs job, with no clue that he was getting that, and he was still the same guy.
“He’s still very driven, very smart and takes his football very seriously.
“There is a difference in football management - it’s about controlling the dressing room and the characters within that.
“But I think Shaun will take that on board no problem at all, and he’s also got a good staff round about him.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here