With Celtic playing Cork City tonight it’s ironic that one of the rebel counties most famous, or infamous, Celts is currently out of football.
When Martin O’Neill stalled and stalled on a new contract for the emerging Miller the screams and hysterics from the Celtic support were long and loud as the midfielder signed a pre-contract with Manchester United.
What do you expect a club and player to do?
Miller hadn’t been given a meaningful contract offer from Celtic and was available on a free.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Wouldn’t you love your club to sign an emerging 23-year-old that had scored twice in the current Champions League campaign and who was out of contract in six months time.
With a wage of less than £1,000 a week how attractive would a transfer to Manchester United be?
Not unexpectedly Miller never established himself at Old Trafford, not many players do, ask Carlos Tevez.
After 22 appearances for Manchester United Miller moved onto Sunderland, signed by Roy Keane and then cold shouldered by his fellow Corkman before being sent on loan to QPR for the end of last season.
Throughout these difficult times Miller has made 19 appearances for Ireland and bizarrely is currently without a club.
TRAPATTONI
At the age of 28 Miller should be in his prime, he is still rated by Giovanni Trapattoni but is unable to get into the international side due to his lack of first team football.
After beating South Africa last night the Irish manager explained: “Liam Miller is a good player and he is in our squad. If we had scored a second goal I would have played Miller.
“I have spoken to him about his situation and his morale is not great. He’s a clever kid, he’s very humble. He’s not presumptuous and arrogant. I hope he gets a club soon.”
Miller could be playing in the World Cup at the end of the season, or he could be forgotten, left to rot in footballing Siberia.
A return to Celtic has been on the rumour mill for long enough, he does fit the Mowbray identikit style of player but I wouldn’t hold my breath on seeing Miller return to Paradise.
Guilleme Beuzelin on trial with Celtic
what goes around…
A tale that could only be written by someone sympathetic to the Miller myth. Here was a guy that had been injured on and off for a few years, Celtic then start to play him and he appears to be a very real prospect. On first sight of a fancy immediate payment, he is off. Not only that, comment on moving from primary to secondary school as further dig at the team that nurtured him through the injuries.
Welcome to the real world the ignorant, ego-driven world that is Liam Miller……I'll give my season ticket up if we ever re-sign this ignorant little man
what a pile of tosh…. its amazing how someone tries to rewrite histroy and the truth. is liam miller himself writting this rubbish?
1)miller WAS offered a contract by celtic before man utd.
2) miller spent 2 years out with shin splints and was farmed out to marc riepers team to help him get back to fitness as it was doubtful if he could ever manage to play football with the injury failing to fully clear up.
3) miller was still an unproven talent and was only begining to show it during his run of games under ONeill.
4) miller was unable to play all the games under ONeill due to injury because he wasnt strong enough to shrug off the normal wear and tear of of the SPL.
5)if miller was as good as HE and the writter thought/thinks why didnt REAL, BARCA fight it out with man utd for him or even after he was kicked out of man utd for being PHISH????
6) in short he was a dafty that could play a bit and not good enough to be a pro.
does the above warrant celtic spending loads of OUR hard earned cash on such a unknown player with injury problems and no gartitude to the club that help bring him on?
With respect to Anonymous 3 Alex Ferguson, Roy Keane and Giovanni Trapattoni all rate Miller as a player.
Transfers don't work out for loads of players, that's the nature of the game.
When it comes to Martin O'Neill some Celtic supporters just can't think objectively.
If Miller was good enough to attract the attention of Manchester United he should have been signed up on a new contract, maybe just two years, at the start of the season.
Real and Barca didn't come in for Johan Mjallby, Chris Sutton or Alan Thompson, that doesn't make them bad players, they were great Celtic players during a great era for the club.
Anyone out of contract and scoring in the Champions League is going to attract the attention of other clubs, if Miller was good enough to be selected to play against Lyon and Anderlecht his future should have been secured.
For all the great things that O'Neill did for Celtic he had flaws, he discovered a goalkeeper in Javier Sanchez Broto but wouldn't offer him a contract comparable to Rab Douglas and Magnus Hedman.
In the season that Celtic lost Miller both John Kennedy and David Marshall played against Barcelona in the Nou Camp with their contracts expiring within four months, both players could have signed on elsewhere during the January 04 transfer window.
If they were good enough for that level their Celtic future's should have been secured.
These areas and only noticing the opening of the transfer window in the last 48 hours were flaws in the management of a very succesful Celtic manager.
There is no mystery…this is a player ho showed NO loyalty to CELTIC after being offered the highest amount of money to stay with us that any player his age had ever been offered…..he followed the buck to play in MAN UTD reserves at the expense of less wages and in excess of thirty or forty games a seasons….I have no doubt in his own head Liam knows he mae the biggest mistake of is life and wish him well as eveyone deerves a second chance but lets not kid ourselves here with the poor Liam Miller TALES…
reply from anonymous 3 to mr joe mchugh
joe your correct in stating that oneils habit of leaving every thing till the last 2 mins of the transfer window did put celtic a disadvantage and showed a lack of foresight, perhaps too much faith in aging players signed by him and judgement. even when the rest of the world knew it was doomed.
Alex Ferguson rated miller that much he put him up for sale and sold him
Roy Keane rated him that much he put him up for sale and he was given a free? or sold by sunderland.
he also had various loan spells and those managers didnt sign him.
Giovanni Trapattoni is hardly blessed with loads of midfielders and if stephen ireland chose to play for eire again one could imagine Trap telling miller to "take stephens bags up to his room son and heres a tip for your trouble son, try joinery for a living"
when it comes to signing 22 year olds with injury problems and no track record in senior football i am glad celtic dont throw money about or heaven forbid we might have half of glasgows neds on the books cos they played a good once in school and therefore we signed them up on 10 year contracts.
again miller had just recently came back from years of injury, been given a run a of games to prove he could cut it, showed promise and was offered a contract, which was the highest at that point offered to a young player and stalled on it. as is his right to gain the best deal. was reoffered a contract and again stalled on it. at this age miller was to old for celtic to buy his mum a new washing machine and his dad a new garden shed to swing the deal, hence the years with injuries and no track record. who knows if we acted sooner we may have got him for a new video player from the barras. hind sight i suppose….
tevez was good enough to play for man utd but not good enough to have his future secured. and as man utd have more wealth than celtic is this the fault of the manager or the board in not giving the manager funds even though they knew 8 months in advance that CR7 was leaving for a world record fee.
was oniell in a simialr situation with broto and the board not giving the money who knows? though i do agree not signing him up at the time was a mistake by celtic.
anyhow clubs, managers and players stand and fall by their actions
Anon 5
I don't think it's a poor Liam tale just a case of what might have been if the club had their eye on the ball and the player was maybe better advised.
Maybe A Stokes feels the sameway…