was keen to bring Maloney to Villa for the second half of the season however and moments before the deadline he signed for the Midlands club for a reported fee of £1 million. He made his debut in the 2–0 defeat at Reading on 10 February 2007 On 28 April 2007, Maloney scored his first Villa goal in a victory against Man City at the City of Manchester Stadium from a free kick which was curled around the wall into the bottom right of the goal. Maloney had trouble settling into the club but after a somewhat lacklustre start to his Villa career, he began to show his best form. Maloney has acknowledged that his football had been suffering but remained optimistic about his future at the club: "Homesickness has affected my form. I haven't played well enough to play in the team and I think that has shown, so hopefully now things can change." Both O'Neill and teammate Stiliyan Petrov, who were both at Celtic during Maloney's time there, had expressed their desire for Maloney to stay at the club despite reports linking him with a move back to Scotland. Maloney scored a brace for Aston Villa in a 4–4 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day 2007. However, after that Maloney did not play a lot of matches as half of his last season appearances were substitutions, and he also said that he would like to one day go back and play in Scotland. Return to Celtic On 22 August 2008, Celtic announced the signing of Maloney on a four-year deal for a fee of £3 million. Maloney marked his return with a Man of the Match performance and two assists in his first match, after coming off the bench for Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink in a 3–0 victory over Falkirk at Celtic Park. Maloney scored his first goal after his return to Celtic in a 4–2 away win over Motherwell and managed his second the following week in a 3–1 away win at Kilmarnock. He finished the season with five goals, taking his total Celtic goals tally to 42. Under new manager Tony Mowbray, Maloney played in 17 of Celtic's first 18 fixtures of season 2009–10. However he began having trouble with his Achilles tendon after the 2–1 defeat against Rangers on 4 October 2009. Maloney played a further four matches after that, but was