Alex Miller (soccer player)

Alex Miller (born July 4, 1949 in Glasgow ) is a former Scottish football player who now works as a coach.

Career

Miller began playing soccer with the Clydebank Strollers . In 1966 he moved to the Glasgow Rangers , for which he first appeared in the junior team. After he was promoted to the first team under coach David White , he remained loyal to the traditional club from Glasgow for the following 17 years. In the summer of 1970 he won his first title with the team. At the side of William Jardine , Willie Henderson , Colin Stein and Ronnie McKinnon , he was part of the team that won the final of the Scottish League Cup in a duel against city rivals Celtic Glasgow through a goal from Derek Johnstone . Under coach William Waddell , however, he was usually only second choice. So it happened that he was not on the pitch in one of the greatest successes in the club's history, the triumph in the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1971/72 . Only after Jock Wallace had taken over the coaching office, Miller came back to use more often. As a regular from the mid-1970s, he won several titles alongside players such as John Greig , Tommy McLean and Derek Parlane .

1982 Miller left his home club and moved to South China AA as a player- coach . He then returned to Scotland in his own capacity and looked after Greenock Morton . After hanging up his football boots, he was responsible for FC St. Mirren from 1983 . With the club he occupied places in the middle of the Premier Division before moving to league rivals Hibernian Edinburgh in 1986 . After the club had played against relegation for several years, he led the club back to the European Cup. In 1992 he won his first title as a coach when Dunfermline Athletic was defeated with a 2-0 victory in the league cup final. In 1994 he moved with the team again in the league cup final, but this time his former player station Glasgow Rangers prevailed. After ten years in office, the club from Scotland's capital fired Miller in the fall of 1996.

Miller initially accepted an offer from his Scottish compatriot Gordon Strachan to work as an assistant coach at Coventry City . In November 1997, he accepted an offer from Aberdeen FC , who were in danger of relegation, and took over as coach. He was released after almost a year. In 1999 Gérard Houllier brought Miller to Liverpool FC as head of the scouting department . After Rafael Benítez became his successor as coach of the English record champions at the time, he implemented a change in the scouting system. As a result, Miller moved to the coaching staff of the Spaniard, under whose direction the club won the UEFA Champions League .

Surprisingly, Miller left the English Premier League in May 2008 and hired Ichihara Chiba as head coach at the Japanese club JEF United , who was in a relegation battle in the J-League . After taking over the club with two points from the first eleven league games, he managed to keep the league on the last day of the match. After he was represented with the team in the relegation zone the following year, the club fired him in July 2009.

After Miller had remained without engagement for a year, the Swedish club AIK signed him at the end of June 2010 as the successor to Mikael Stahre and the interim solution Björn Wesström . By the end of the season, he led the team to a place in the lower midfield of the table. Shortly after the end of the season, he announced his resignation on November 10th of that year.

In January 2012 he took over the post of head coach at the Russian second division club FK Sibir Novosibirsk , where he was dismissed in April 2012.

Web links

• Alex Miller in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ news.bbc.co.uk: "Miller time in Japan" (accessed on June 23, 2010)
2. ↑ news.bbc.co.uk: "Miller axed as JEF United coach" (accessed on June 23, 2010)
3. ↑ fotbolldirekt.com: "Skotte - ny AIK-tränare" ( Memento from June 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on June 23, 2010)
4. ↑ svd.se: "AIK: s tränare säger upp sig" (accessed on November 10, 2010)