Kenny Miller
As I sat and pondered who to cover next in this series of Rangers’ greatest signings I thought about what encapsulates a great signing, does it boil down to one sole factor? I mean would you go off player achievements at the club? could you pin it down to honours won while playing? personally, I didn’t want to pigeonhole a great signing just by what he’s accumulated in medals, I’ve gone for the whole package and I believe this next player fits the bill in many ways.
Kenny Miller has signed for Rangers on three separate occasions and the first of these coming in June of 2000 costing the Gers a fee of £2 million, he was signed from Hibernian shortly after winning the Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year and brought with him an impressive strike rate for such a young head. Kenny’s first year at Rangers brought a total of eleven goals and ten of those coming in a run of fourteen games. Kenny was loaned to Wolverhampton Wanderers for three months in September 2001, he then went on to spend close to five years down at Molineux. I remember I was working down in the midlands during the season of 2004-2005 and regularly went to watch Wolves, watching Kenny that season was a great memory of living down there as he was banging in goals for the Championship side.
I must touch about Kenny signing for Celtic after leaving Wolves for a few reasons, one being he is one of only five post-war players to play for both sides of the Old Firm and he’s also been only one of two players to cross the divide twice. I will expand on this shortly but Kenny’s single season with Celtic resulted in him winning the league and cup double, anyway enough about them.
Kenny left Celtic and spent a season with Derby County before moving back to Rangers for his second spell at Ibrox. Miller faced the monumental task of winning back the fans after playing for Celtic and even the players were split on the idea of him pulling on the blue jersey again, fortunately Kenny made sure his second time with the club was even more successful than the first outing. He managed to score some vital goals including a winner against St Mirren in the league cup final with Rangers down to nine men. For me the most memorable game Kenny had was in the 2-4 match at Celtic park, his first goal was a stunning volley finish past Boruc and his second was a howler from the Celtic keeper to gift a goal for the Gers striker, I should also mention Pedro Mendes scoring one of the best goals I’ve seen in an Old Firm game. It’s fair to say Kenny managed to win over both the fans and players with his performances in the end.
Miller moved to Bursaspor in January 2011 in what was an odd move to be honest and Kenny failed to settle in Turkey, leaving the club after 6 months and joining Welsh team Cardiff City. After a spell with Cardiff, he spent almost two seasons in the MLS with Vancouver Whitecaps before returning for his third spell at Rangers. Miller has recently signed a one year extension under the new manager Pedro Caixinha and personally I’m very happy that the Portuguese boss saw the value of having him in the squad.
Kenny oozes class and professionalism and you can see why the new manager saw fit to offer the contract extension, Kenny for me has proved his worth on many occasions and has demonstrated to be a leader in a team bereft of proper direction last season. He showed his maturity in handling the situation of playing for both Rangers and Celtic and I can’t imagine that was an easy task on or off the pitch. His work ethic during matches never goes unnoticed and a model professional still playing at the highest level at the age of 37 is something to be admired. The debate will rumble on about his credentials as a Rangers legend and I firmly believe he is, but a great signing for the club? I don’t doubt it for one second.