The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
No regrets for Millar over long stay at McDiarmid
Missing out on cup glory would have been hard for midfielder to bear
Chris Millar said he would have been “devastated” if St Johnstone had won the Scottish Cup without him.
The Perth midfielder has signed a new one-year contract that will make it 10 seasons at McDiarmid Park.
In that time the nearest the former Morton man came to leaving Perth was when an opportunity to move his family to Australia was put on the table.
Knocking it back and staying with Saints turned out to be the best decision he could have made.
“I almost left to go to Australia a few years ago but the gaffer was always on the phone telling me the grass wasn’t greener,” Millar recalled.
“Steve Lomas was the manager but it was the gaffer who kept phoning me and telling me to stay.
“It wasn’t that I wanted to leave here, not at all, it was a family decision I was weighing up because of the lifestyle.
“But in the end I wanted to stay here and I’m glad I did because I have realised the ambitions I wanted to do in my career.
“I’m glad I never went across there. I would have been devastated if I had left and then watched the team win the Scottish Cup.
“I would have had so many regrets about that. It would have killed me because my ambition was to achieve something like that.
“So while the lifestyle in Australia might have been good, it wouldn’t have come close to being part of what we’ve done here in the last few years.“
Millar’s career is nearer its conclusion than its beginning but he insisted he is not “winding down”.
“You want earn your new contract,” he said. “Over the nine years I’ve been here I feel I’ve done that.
“I’m delighted to get it sorted. It has been there in the background for a while.
“When you join a club you don’t envisage being here for a decade because football doesn’t work out like that very often.
“But moving here was great for me, there have been a lot more highs than lows.
“Sometimes you just fit at a club and that’s the way it has been here, it has just worked for me being here.
“I will always have a place in my heart for this club because it’s been brilliant.
“I want to add to that, though. I’m not winding down.
“I’m not the kind of person who would just sign and deal and think that’s me done.
“As long as my body is good and I’m contributing, which I think I am, then I’m happy.”
Millar added: “I know I might not play every week like I used to because we have loads of competition in midfield these days.
“But I still think I’ve got plenty to offer and will be working hard to get in the team every week.
“I’ve not been playing as much as I want to play recently but I’ve not stopped working hard in training and looking after myself.
“I want to get back in the team and playing week-in week-out once again.
“We want to continue the success we’ve had and I want to be a big part of that.” enicolson@thecourier.co.uk