Kenny Miller – Potentially a Great Celtic Player

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The Bosman signing of Kenny Miller caused a great deal of debate among the Celtic support with opinion basically divided into four main camps. The first camp were those who welcomed his signing as signs of good planning by the manager and at last showed the club actively utilising the Bosman market to capture a player widely valued in the £2-3m bracket instead of seeing a conveyor belt of out of contract Celts leave the door marked ‘Exit’ on an annual basis.

The second group believed that on football ability alone the signing of Miller was another clear sign of Celtic’s downsizing since the heady days of Seville. The lad was clearly not what we required if we had any ambition to recapture those great Europe nights of only two to three years ago then players of ability far higher than Kenny Miller offered were required.

The third group contained the bigots, the scumbags or as they are more widely known nowadays ‘The Greenhuns’. Miller wasn’t fit to wear a Celtic jersey because he had played for them (Rangers) and no matter what they cannot stomach the sight of an ex-Hun player in the Green and White hoops. But for the fate of * this group would be seen spouting sectarian abuse outside Catholic Church’s in July and thankfully the low-lives who make up this group are so few in number they’d be lucky to fill a double-decker bus.

The final group and the one I was in are the undecided's. Didn’t particularly think he was a bad player but weren’t quite sure if he was the type of player who would help the hoops built on this season’s excellent foundation for our European challenge later this year. More evidence if you don’t mind please.

I’d remembered Miller playing particularly well for a pish-poor Scotland team against the likes of Norway and Slovenia but it was really his performance against Italy when he ran their defence ragged that I though maybe this boy is better player than I first thought. One swallow a summer doth not make so with a beady eye investigating his performances and importantly goals for Wolves this season I was left a tad deflated with a record of one goal every three games. With the scales about to be tipped over to the not good enough group and just as I was about to join the back of that particular queue an opportunity was to present it’s self in the form of an FA Cup tie televised live between Wolves and Man Utd.

Man Utd would beat Wolves as convincingly as we’ve beaten the Huns this season with neither Miller nor any of his team-mates playing particularly well in a dire Wolves performance. However, what was completely eye-opening was the sight of Scotland’s centre forward playing left midfield for his club side and totally out of position by manager Hoddle. Upon further investigation it appeared that young Kenny had been filling this role for the majority of the season and would go a great deal to explaining his below average goals per game record for a ‘striker’.

For further evidence of playing a striker in wide midfield and his GPG record not being overly flattering see a certain H Larsson’s final season stats at Feyenoord. I’m not suggesting for one second that young Miller will become the ‘New’ Henrik but it does give an interesting insight into how sometimes stats are nothing more than a big pile of * exploited by obsessed statisticians for their own erm, filthy statistical gain (points finger and shouts statto at the wee nerdy guy in the corner).

So with all of the above in mind I took my seat with great interest and watched how Miller would perform playing for Scotland against World-Cup qualifying Switzerland last night at Hampden. Walter Smith has always been tactically inept and it was no surprise to see him follow Hoddle’s lead and pitch Miller out wide left in the role of attacking midfielder with his preference for the attacking role filled by school playground dribbler extraordinaire James McFadden.

As expected this proved as successful as one of Wattie’s European campaigns when he was pulling the strings at Ibrox and it was with relief to see Smith the players positions around at half time and at long last Miller would be in his favoured position.

What a difference.

Those second half forty-five minutes proved that Kenny Miller has all the attributes to be an outstanding success as a Celtic striker.

Movement and Pace:

I’ve always known he was blessed with great pace but so has Peter Lovenkrands and he’s about as useful as a chocolate fireguard. What Miller showed last night was tremendous movement down both flanks and was crying out for someone with a modicum of ability to pick out his runs with a simple pass. Replace Fletcher, Quashie, Teale and McFadden with Petrov, Nakamura, Maloney and Zurawski and you’re starting to see a picture of what may be available to us next season.

Technique:

His technique was for some reason (maybe I’m as guilty as everyone else of letting negativity flow into my bloodstream at times without making a judgement based on the evidence of in front of my own eyes) a lot better than I had given him credit for as time after time he was surrounded by at least two Swiss defenders and the majority of time on both his right or left foot he would take an excellent first touch and find a team-mate.

Workrate:

His workrate is absolutely second to none as he doesn’t give defenders a minutes peace. Since the loss of Henrik this is something in my opinion we’ve lacked in attack. All good teams defend from the front and force their opponents into making decisions a lot quicker than they normally would prefer to do, which in turn forces them to change their game and also leads to Celtic gaining the ball in advanced positions as our opponents rushed tactics tends to lead to a number of misplaced passes in advanced areas for our midfielders and attackers to exploit.

Bravery:

Time after time Miller would go into challenges with bigger and stronger defenders invariably knowing in advance he would come off second best. It takes a brave player to constantly go in where it hurts, especially when they are playing with little or no support. Kenny Miller has a bit of bottle about him on-field but when you consider his original decision to refuse Rangers last gasp offer in favour of a move to Paradise has shown a great deal of bottle off the field.

Summary:

My mind has now been made up and I firmly believe Kenny Miller has all the attributes to potentially be a great Celtic player. The support always take to player who, when things aren’t going their way doesn’t hide and works his absolute baws off the team and this is what we’ll get with Miller, as well as a great deal of undoubted ability and a young man absolutely starving for success and desperate to do well for his new club.

If both remain injury-free the partnership of Magic Zurawski and Kenny Miller will destroy defences up and down the land and in my honest opinion will cause far better European rearguards a number of problems with their movement and pace as they look to get on the end of some of the guaranteed service they’ll receive from messrs Nakamura, Maloney, Petrov and Keane.

Kenny Miller is only 26 years of age and we are about to witness the peak years of his football career in our Green and White hoops.

Welcome to the Celtic family Kenny. You have the potential to be a tremendous success.

 

good research there mate i hope the bhoy does well for us and shuts up those greenhuns who dont appreciate the signing of him + coming into his peak years is always a good thing

 

Great * post. Hope he is as convincing as you .

 

ok im getting excited now i always welcomed miller mon the hoops champions league next season 06 is going to be a good year

 

im sure he will do well in the hoops

 

Miller will do well if he is durable!

 

His scoring rate is mediocre at best.

I think he'll struggle to get a game here with Magic, Hartson, Beattie and Maloney ahead of him.

 

Hartson wont be a problem for Miller!
Miller is way lighter than BBJ, in fact stones lighter! LoL
Oh and by the way, before some novice starts the Hartson scores goals issue, Miller with the same supporting cast will score more than Hartson does this season!

 

BBJ, great though he is won't suit the style of the team next year, which is going to be ball played on the deck and at pace.The big man has been brilliant for us but the team is evolving into a more modern european style where pace is going to be essential.

 

Agreed, Miller and Magic working hard as the first line of defense. They will cause loads of problems for defenders in the SPL & Europe where pace is so important. Just 1 thing when he went to Rangers from Hibs, could he have come to Celtic?

Hail Hail

 

Weight doesnt matter much, Hartson scores twice as much as Miller. And thats all that matters. Miller couldn't score for Rangers and they had a good team at the time. Potential and 26 dont go into the same sentence, He'll either have it or not and that will be clear after 30 minutes. He'll never be a regular goalscorer like Hartson is or Zurawski, he'd be lucky to score half of what Sutton got.

 

John Hartson is an invaluable player for Celtic....

He is as fit as anyone else on the team, his workrate throughout games is as much if not higher than the rest of the team, he defends as much as he attacks...

PPL give it a * rest about John Hartson. His goal scoring record is phenomonal(sp).

John Hartson is part of the Celtic Family, just as Kenny Miller will be come the summer.

Stop * about these guys and get behind them FFS, some ppl on here are the equivilant to a bunch of old women *...! Give it a rest!

BTW good post ogairbhith mate

 

i belive hartson will be sold in the summer its what he wants and we need forwards with pace and movement if we are to seriously compete in the champions league

 

Eh no, Hartson has strong expressed he wants to stay at Celtic.

I'd sell him for any decent offer in the summer. His wages are too high.

 

I think Miller will be a good signing even if Hartson stays. It'd b better if BBJ did cause we'll need as much attcking prowess as possible for the champs league. Did'nt know Hoodle was dumb enough to play Miller on the left. I'm not surprised Smith followed suit. He's a halfwit. Great post ogairbhith.

 

Dempsey check this post out, maybe then you can understand more?
There are more verygood Celtic players that need to go including Hartson, and I am certainly pleased that Sutton has left already, eg., what we have at Celtic presently, there is no way with the way things were with Sutton that it would have been an improvement for him to stay, same with the likes of Hartson!

 

Look Hubert if you bothered to read my posts you'd know that I'd think will be gone next season.

To clarify, i think and i've been saying it for a while, Lennon, Thompson, Hartson, Telfer, Camara, need to be shown the door after this season. Dublin is out of here then anyway. They are still needed for the season and have important roles to play. Next season if we get who we want in the transfer window we can offload all of the above because we do need 2 players for every position if we expect to do well in the SPL and CL.

I do believe Hartson isn't getting half the credit he deserves for his commitment and performances to Celtic this year.

 

He will not be another Mo Johnstone

 

an excellent post mate,ive said since day one i dont care who he played for in the past,its the present i care about,if he is willing to commit 100% to celtic and gs believes there is a roll for him to fill then i say give a chance as we should anyone who pulls on the hoops.

 

priceless