IBROX OUTCAST
WE CAN STILL BOND AT HOME Dumped Miller uses London awayday to craft Gers kids
DECLAN JOHN reckons Rangers’ cancelled Canada trip would have been great for team bonding but insists the players are still tight even without Toronto.
The full-back claims team spirit is not a problem despite reports last week Pedro Caixinha had accused some Scottish-based players of not making him and his foreign signings feel welcome.
The scheduled journey to play a friendly with Benfica this week would have been a great opportunity for 11 summer signings to get to know each other even better.
So it was frustrating when the game was cancelled at less than a week’s notice. But even without that epic away trip John reckons the players are already forming close bonds.
He said: “Going to Canada for the week would have been good.
“But we’re all together. Before training we are all together – whether that’s in the canteen or in the changing room, having a joke or whatever.
“After training we might all go for a coffee or stuff like that.”
John netted twice in Friday’s 4-1 win at Hamilton when the players swarmed Caixinha after Daniel Candeias’s third goal. But the Welshman said: “It wasn’t planned, it was something that just happened.” KENNY MILLER may have been silent off the pitch but did plenty of talking on it as he gave the Ibrox kids the benefit of his experience in Brentford.
Banished to the Under-20s by Pedro Caixinha the 37-year-old demonstrated his coaching potential by barking instructions and orchestrating the tempo in a 5-2 win over Brentford’s B team.
However, when Record Sport asked Miller for his take on the fall-out with Caixinha he claimed he was banned from speaking to the press and directed the post-match interviews towards hat-trick hero Ryan Hardie.
Miller was bombed from Caixinha’s squad after details of the Ibrox gaffer’s rant at home-based stars became public in the wake of last week’s Old Firm defeat.
He missed Friday’s 4-1 win over Hamilton and was instead handed an early start yesterday morning as the Ibrox youngsters took a 6am flight to London.
But the veteran didn’t take the huff. Dressed in his team tracksuit, Miller was all smiles before kick-off as he inspected the pitch with teammates who were half his age.
Caixinha is understood to have accused the Scots in his squad of failing to welcome him, his staff and foreign signings to the club.
Miller seems to have shouldered most of the blame but here, captaining the Under-20s, he could be heard shouting encouraging words towards his apprentices.
Wearing the No.10 shirt, Miller sat deep in Graeme Murty’s side and let willing runners move around him.
While Caixinha praised “silent leader” Graham Dorrans after Friday’s win, Miller was vocally