photo by Mike DiNovo/USA Today Sports

By FRANCO PANIZO

Shaun Maloney may be headed for the exit door, but do not expect Chicago Fire head coach Frank Yallop to be anything less than positive about the attacking midfielder’s time at the club.

The Fire are currently in the process of trying to finalize a move for Maloney to Hull City after the Designated Player requested that he be allowed to head back to England to be closer to his family. While nothing is official yet, Chicago anticipates a transfer to be completed before the end of the European summer transfer window.

That would mark the unexpected end of a brief stint in Chicago for Maloney, who delivered below expectations for a Fire team at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Still, Yallop is looking back on the 32-year-old attacker’s few months with the Fire in a positive light.

“I think everyone wants me to say, ‘He didn’t play well, he didn’t do this, he didn’t do that,'” said Yallop. “I thought he did fine, and it takes a while to settle into our league. I thought when we had Shaun on the field I thought we looked a good team and I’m not going to ever say anything different than that because he left for personal reasons.

“We can keep talking about it, but that’s the answer and that’s it. Absolutely no issues that he wanted to leave other than being closer to his family, which is a very important thing for him. He had some things going on during the year that we talked about, and the opportunity to get back is coming up with his move to Hull.”

Signed as a big piece in the Fire’s drastic offseason makeover ahead of the 2015 campaign, Maloney played in just 14 league games for the club after transferring from Wigan Athletic in January. He scored three goals and had two assists in those appearances, but struggled to consistently have the kind of impact that many expected of him.

His lack of production hurt the club, but is far from the only reason that Chicago sits in last place in the Eastern Conference with a sputtering attack that has mustered up a measly 27 goals.

Maloney’s unexpected move back to England has fueled some speculation that he’s leaving the Fire due to their poor performances, but Yallop reiterated on Monday that it was due to personal reasons regarding Maloney’s family.

“It doesn’t need to be public what that is, but that’s the reason I got,” said Yallop. “The reason that Shaun is being sold to Hull is he wanted to move back to close to his family, which unless he wants you to know what it is, it’s absolutely private. The club, myself, Andrew Hauptmann, the owner, have been very accommodating in making sure that can happen.

“I didn’t want to lose the player. He didn’t quite get the numbers, and didn’t quite do this and that, but when Shaun was on the field for us I thought we looked a good team. We’ve got to replace him, but I didn’t want to lose him. I think he’s a very good player.

“When the team’s losing, obviously, you’ve got to point fingers at everything. I’m no different – What’s happening, what are we doing, and how do we fix it? – but I felt Shaun for the most part – maybe the last couple of games maybe his mind was elsewhere because of the reasons we talked about – other than that I thought he gave everything he could for the team and the club.”

Yallop stated the the Fire hope to finalize Maloney’s move to Hull City in the next 24-48 hours. The veteran manager was reluctant to reveal, however, if Chicago was making out with a net profit on Maloney since nothing is finalized yet.

“We’re going to be fine,” said Yallop. “It’s going to be a good transaction once it gets done, and obviously we move on once it’s done.”