Miller urges caution over hiring manager
KENNY MILLER has urged the Rangers board not to rush in to appointing its next permanent manager and cautioned against a summer clear-out at the Ibrox club, writes Stewart Fisher.
The 37-year-old, whose talks over a new contract have been put on hold while the club considers its options for replacing Mark Warburton, has been encouraged by the suggestion the club is to recruit a director of football as well as a head coach.
“Of course we want to see some fantastic manager come in, whether he be Scottish, British or foreign, but for me it’s just important we get the right man, whoever it is,” he said.
“The noises I’m hearing about the structure they’re trying to put in place are positive. If a new manager comes in on a permanent basis then he can assess the squad and see where he is at, build his own opinions on where he needs to improve and then that can be done in the summer.
“But a major overhaul of a squad is never a recipe for success. There is no way you can keep turning over eight, nine, 10 players every summer.”
Personally, I don’t think bringing in an interim manager is the way forward. That obviously looks like it is not the road that we are going to go down . . .
ONE of the many strange aspects of the Rangers saga is that the club’s board has never formally sought Kenny Miller’s views on the way forward. Indeed, with negotiations over a thoroughly-merited new contract at the club parked until further notice, the 37-year-old still doesn’t even know if he has any part to play in it all.
But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have some forthright views on the subject. Indeed, while he still feels he has enough to offer as an every-week starter at a club of this stature, he is also willing to put himself forward for a lead coaching role in the new structure, how to improve the club’s fortunes is a topic which he spends most of his waking hours obsessing about.
“I know it’s not my place, but I can’t switch off to how I’m thinking,” said Miller, speaking as St Cadoc’s youth boys’ club handed over cheques from the recent charity dinner, which he attended, to the Beatson Cancer Centre and St Andrew’s Hospice. “I wish I could switch off sometimes, get away from it, but it means a lot to me – I’m passionate about it.
“I’m constantly trying to think about what I can add to help make it better,” he added. “I’ve lived with football for a long time, that’ll never change, but when you’ve had so much experience like me you start to think like a coach, like a manager, about how you can help and things you can do better to improve yourself and the team.
“I enjoy the process. Lee Wallace and I sit every morning and discuss game day scenarios – what happened here, how could we have changed that there. There is constant chat and dialogue.”
Miller – who has consistently risen above the occasional malaise at Ibrox this season – is correct to diagnose that he has most still to offer on the field, but these days there is more and more besides – even if he says his role hasn’t changed “that much” since the departure of Mark Warburton and David Weir.
It usually manifests itself with a word here or there in the dressing room, a life in football having furnished him with a wealth of experience with which to diagnose the club’s current predicament and offer potential solutions.
But let’s deal with them one at a time. Having made his first steps into youth coaching alongside Graeme Murty, Miller isn’t convinced that parachuting in an interim manager in the short term – at least ahead of the Old Firm match at Celtic Park on March 12 – is the way to go.
“Personally, I don’t think bringing in an interim manager is the way forward,” said Miller. “That obviously looks like it is not the road that we are going to go down, although somebody might be brought in to help Graeme.
“If that is what the board feels is the right way then great, but for me it would be, ‘Find the right man’,” he added.
“If we can get someone in tomorrow who is 100 per cent the right man then great. But if it is going to take a matter of a few weeks then I think we need to take our time and make sure we get the right permanent appointment.”
As far as that process goes, he is encouraged by the “positive noises” he is hearing about getting a director of football in place to drive the club’s strategy. The likes of Southampton’s Ross Wilson, former Rangers manager Alex McLeish and former Celtic recruitment chief John Park have been linked with that role, but Miller feels the buck will always stop with the head coach or manager.
“If we can help the manager and take the strain off in any way then great,” said Miller. “But, ultimately for me, the manager should always be in charge of picking the team, training sessions, ultimately the decisionmaking on players. For me, the rest is all a support network. At a club like ours, you could do with any help you can get.” What about the players themselves when this new structure finally clicks into place: is another clear-out needed this summer?
“Again, that’s not my place to say,” said Miller. “But what I can say is a major overhaul of a squad is never a recipe for success. There is no way you can keep turning over eight, nine, 10 players every summer and expect to be successful.
“That’s not how it works. You just need to look at successful teams. It is two, three, four or five at a push – and integrating them into an already existing and decent squad.”
To be fair, Miller accepts that the additional numbers added to the squad last summer were required simply to make sure Rangers had enough bodies to fill the bench.
And, for all this crisis talk, the 37-year-old has also been around the block often enough to know that a good consistent run of form could yet
see this group of players attain their realistic seasonal target of finishing second. Scoring the first goal in games – rather than consistently playing from behind – for a change would help. All starting with Inverness Caledonian Thistle away tonight.
“As a group, we have got to get together and make sure we put a good consistent run of form together for these last 13 games,” he said. “If you look at the 13 games prior to the St Johnstone game, if we can match that form then it will be good enough to get second. So it is in the lads.”
All the rest, things like whether owner Dave King should be in Scotland rather than South Africa fronting up, is background noise. “I don’t want to waste time worrying about where somebody is in the world,” he says.
“Listen, it’s not ideal. Would I love to have a new contract signed by now? Of course I would. But I can’t force a contract in front of myself and then sign it. And of course I would change things in terms of points and how far we are from Celtic this season and the fact we’re sitting third in the league at the moment.
“Of course you’d change it, but this is Rangers. I love being at this club. I thrive on it. That’s why I want to be here next year.”
Kenny Miller was speaking as he handed over cheques for £8,000 to the Beatson Cancer Charity and St Andrews Hospice on behalf of St Cadoc’s Youth Club, which recently held its first annual Gala Charity Dinner.