 Malcolm has played just twice in 2007 and started 14 games this season |
Edgeley Park is buzzing.
Stockport County are the country's form team having won their last six games without conceding a goal.
Going into Christmas they were 15th in League Two, but now, 10 matches on, they are in the play-off picture and up to sixth in the table.
Boss Jim Gannon hopes there is more in the tank, starting at Accrington on Saturday, and is setting his sights high.
"We're a good team," he said. "In fact, a very good team. But I want us to be a great team."
The last time County went six games without conceding was also the last time they won promotion, going up into the second tier of English football after the 1996/97 season.
Greatness could beckon. The omens look good, the form is fantastic.
But in the midst of this picture perfect scenario is Michael Malcolm, who at the moment is the definition of confused.
At Christmas, then Bundesliga leaders Werder Bremen came in with the offer of a trial and a prospective move for the striker.
 | Michael's agent tried to deal with the club directly and German clubs won't have that so the trial is off Jim Gannon, County manager |
But that fell through, it is now more than five weeks since Malcolm pulled on a Hatters shirt in anger and he is the first to concede that everything has gone "downhill".
The 21-year-old is confused as to why he is now on the fringes of the first team, confused as to why the move went pear-shaped and confused how it even came about.
"I first heard about their interest about two weeks before we played Watford in the third round of the FA Cup and I was shocked," Malcolm told BBC Sport.
"What was a big team from abroad like that doing at a game like Stockport against Grimsby? Maybe they had got lost on their way to Old Trafford and Manchester United!
"I'd seen Werder Bremen play in the Champions League on TV and I know some German internationals like Miroslav Klose play for them, but that was about it.
"The lads at Stockport were pleased for me and were telling me I should go over and see what it was like, but I never got the chance.
| STOCKPORT v WERDER BREMEN League position:
County: 6th League Two
Bremen: 2nd Bundesliga Top honours:
County: Division Three North champions (1922 & 1937)
Bremen: Bundesliga champions (1965, 1988, 1993 & 2004) Europe:
County: Not until the holidays
Bremen: 1992 Cup Winners' Cup and reached Champions League in last three seasons Ground capacity:
County: 10,651
Bremen: 43,087 |
"My agent made a couple of calls to see if everything was still alright, what sort of offer it was for the club and for me, that sort of thing, but they thought he was getting too involved.
"I found out from Ceefax that it wasn't going ahead."
So instead of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund with Torsten Frings and Tim Borowski, it was Boston at home in front of 4,568.
Or not, as it turned out.
That was the start of Stockport's six-match winning run and Malcolm's spell on the sidelines after starting in the FA Cup loss to Watford seven days earlier.
He is blatantly bemused by the personal downturn, which seems magnified as the club's fortunes have picked up.
And to muddy the waters further, Dutch Eredivisie side FC Utrecht also came in with an offer.
| ENGLISH LEAGUE FORM TABLE Last six games: 18 points: Stockport (Lge2) 16 points: Derby (Champ), Reading (Prem), Sunderland & West Brom (both Champ) 14 points: Hartlepool (Lge2) |
"The team are getting up the league, the boys are buzzing and it's very frustrating not being involved and I can't see why I'm not in the team," added Malcolm, who has scored three goals for County this term.
"I'm confused because I can't get in the Stockport side yet teams from abroad want to have a look at me and must think highly of me.
"But I've decided I'm still young, I'm from England and I want to play my football in this country.
"I'd like to stay at Stockport for as long as possible and play in the first team, but if that's not offered to me then obviously I'd have to look somewhere else."
And there is now an extra obstacle to achieving that dream at County in the form of Anthony Elding, who has scored four goals in five games during the winning run following his transfer window move from Boston.
"That makes things a bit harder for me in attack, although the gaffer hasn't been using me as a striker, he's been using me as a winger," Malcolm explains.
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"Every time I've played in attack in the first-team this season I've scored - against Macclesfield, Lincoln and off the bench when I went up front against Grimsby."
That was the match Werder Bremen were watching and from where things slowly but surely began to unravel.
But if goals equal greatness then Gannon knows where to look if Elding needs a new partner in attack.
And a place on the bench in the win over Mansfield last time out, with Tes Bramble sidelined through injury, suggests things could be getting back on track for Malcolm.
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