ON THE WAY UP
Returning Rangers hero Miller believes the Ibrox side will only rise to the heightened challenge of their Championship test
FOR the past two years, Kenny Miller has used Canadian cable television to watch Rangers turn in a series of performances good enough to romp to a title yet way below the levels demanded by the club’s supporters.
This season, the former Vancouver Whitecaps striker expects the standard to rise and not just on account of the fact he has re-signed for the club after a three-year absence.
Manager Ally McCoist expects Miller to lead from the front and set the tone, but the veteran striker insists the heightened level of competition in the Championship will naturally bring out the best in his team-mates anyway.
Shorn of a competitive edge in both the old SFL Third Division and last term’s League One, McCoist’s team has almost sleepwalked its way to successive promotions but with Hibs and Hearts relegated simultaneously, the second tier threatens to deliver a three-way title fight. Now 34, Miller started his career at Easter Road before joining Rangers for the first time and admits he was shocked to see a second capital club slide out of the top flight following Hearts’ administration-fuelled demise.
He does not welcome the Edinburgh development on any level but believes it could bring some fringe benefits. ‘I was very surprised to see Hibs go down and I wouldn’t say I was delighted about it either,’ he admitted.
‘But Hibs coming down makes it challenging and I think this squad needs challenged. We’ve played at a level in the last few years where we’ve won games comfortably but maybe we’ve not had to get out of second or third gear.
‘It will be competitive because you have Hibs and Hearts — but you also have Livingston, Falkirk and Queen of the South. It will bring the best out of the players we have.’
Miller insists he has no qualms about dropping into the lower leagues of Scottish football and claims he would have done so two years ago after an unsatisfying stint at Cardiff City ended.
Instead he pursued the chance to play Major League Soccer and pitched up in Canada.
‘I’m not stupid, I know where we are,’ he continued. ‘It’s about playing for this club again.
‘I would have come back two years ago and played in the Third Division if I had the chance.
‘I just want to help this club get back to where it belongs, challenging at the top of Scottish football.’
Although his on-field efforts have always been exemplary, Miller has had a restless career which even saw him play for Celtic between his first and second spells at Rangers which required him to win over a section of the Ibrox support. But any opposition to his latest re-emergence as a Rangers player is more based upon his age.
‘To move to Rangers when I was 20 was a dream come true and back then you’d never ever imagine I’d be away, play for Celtic and come back again twice,’ he said.
‘Opportunities present themselves at various points in your career but this time I pursued it — I’ve wanted to come back for a long time.
‘I honestly think that it doesn’t matter if you play for one side or the other.
‘Half the city might support you — or in my case a quarter of the city! But the fans have been great. I’ve never bumped into anyone who has given me real stick. When I came in 2008, Celtic were on three in a row, and we ended up winning three in a row ourselves. That helps.’
Miller shares a bond with Rangers boss Ally McCoist that stretches back to the latter’s time as assistant to Walter Smith with the Scotland team.
The management duo moved to Ibrox in 2007, with McCoist going it alone in 2011 just at the point when Craig Whyte took over and triggered the process that saw the club put into administration, liquidated and forced to re-emerge at the bottom tier of Scottish football.
Although he’s achieved back-toback promotions at a canter, McCoist has been criticised for the club’s poor cup record. Miller insists he should be cut some slack but admits the coming season will be a real proving ground for everyone at the club.
‘As a Rangers manager, you are expected to win things. Doing it at the level we’ve been at has been a given — we should have won the leagues we’ve been in, but Rangers players are still expected to win cups.
‘When you go through a season unbeaten at any level then you have to be doing something right.
‘I’m sure when Rangers stepped out of the top-flight everyone expected Celtic to get trebles and we’ve not seen that yet.
‘I’ve no doubt that this squad will rise to the new challenge and we’ll be at the top of the Championship.’