Following his recent transfer from Aston Villa back to Celtic Shaun Maloney declared that he had come home but John Carew, in Maloney's homeland for Norway's international against Scotland today, thinks his former team-mate should not have given up on the Premiership so easily.
After wandering all over Europe and having moved to seven different clubs in the past nine years it seems that Carew has settled into the Premiership well and the 6ft 5in striker says that for him Birmingham feels just like home. He joined the midlands side at the same time as Maloney but he feels that his physical attributes were probably more suited to Aston Villa than were the diminutive Maloney's.
"In training he was always the best, but maybe for our way of playing he didn't fit in a physical sense, because of his height," said Carew, who is a full ten inches taller than the Scot "But at other Premiership clubs I think he could have been perfect. I don't know if it was the right choice for him to go back, and have that stamp that he was not good enough."
Carew is clearly a fan of Shaun's and is impressed with his ability "Maybe be should have stayed a bit longer, and proved he could play in the Premiership," he said "I thought he was a great player, and was really impressed with him. And the fans loved him because he usually scored when he came on, from free-kicks or whatever."
Perhaps John Carew is forgetful of the stature of Maloney's new club but it seems that the Norwegian has been in England long enough now to adopt that EPL superiority complex. He's of the opinion that the Premiership is the only show in town for any ambitious footballer if his comments on the Celtic midfielder's decision to rejoin Celtic rather than move to one of the smaller clubs in the Premiership are anything to go by.
"It was difficult for him to get into the team at Aston Villa, but that does not mean he could not have played at another club, one maybe not as good as Aston Villa. There are a lot of teams in the Premiership, a lot of them are below Aston Villa." he said, perhaps unaware of how offensive his remark was.
On his own wandering lifestyle he said "I was younger than Shaun when I first left my country and I coped with it and had a fantastic time in Valencia. I can't complain.,". He did acknowledged that his character was probably more disposed to change and new adventures " We have different personalities. I am a bit more out-going and he is a bit more quiet, and perhaps needs to be with his family more. He is very family orientated and I could see he was missing his friends, and I think maybe his girlfriend still lived here as well."
Carew has warned his team-mates about the danger his ex team-mate presents as "one of Scotland's weapons" but he's hoping Norway can repeat the performance and result from their last visit to Hampden Park in 2004 when they won 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier.
"We have a big expectation and hope we can take three points here," he said. "We managed to do it last time but we know it will be even more difficult this time. If you want to qualify you have to believe in yourself in these types of games. We look forward to the atmosphere. It will be a beautiful game to play for all the players."