Height: 5.07
Weight: 10.06
Date of birth: 13-02-1981
Place of birth: Cork
Position: Midfielder
Nationality: Ireland

[Player Pics]

Summary
Liam Miller on paper seemed like a great fit for Celtic. A talented player with good pace and stamina, many saw a good future for him at Celtic.

The high point of his career with Celtic was definitely his goal for Cetlic against Lyon in 2003, where he was the final man at the end of a magnificent 24 passing sequence by Celtic of a kind many of us thought could never be achieved by an SPL team, let alone by us against European opposition.

On various occasions, if the team needed a boost the cry for "Miller time" (a pun on the beer's catchline) was called for to help out.

Sadly though the problem was though that he was very injury prone, which held back his career, and when the crunch time came for contract negotiations, a variety of events and issues happened which led to his decision to move Man U (the club he supported as a boy). Man U were willing to pay him more for a longer contract, and we weren't willing to, and the result is viewed differently depending on where you look at it from. The furore amongst Celtic fans about loyalty and so on didn't help the club, but his move thankfully did not affect us on the pitch (although a transfer fee would have been nice).

In any case, his move to Man U didn't work out and has since moved on, and at time of writing he is currently at Leeds. If only he had held out at Celtic, he may have got himself more appearances, a longer run out and thus more experience, but that's another story.

Celtic Career


Quotes
"And while we're talking about Next Big Things That Never Quite Happened, we ought to mention that Sheffield United are planning a bid for Liam Miller - you know, the new-Roy-Keane-except-he's-half-the-size-and-a-bit-rubbish."
(Guardian July 2006)

"Liam Miller leaving was a devastating blow for everybody. He was such a talented lad and him being allowed to leave was very disappointing for people who are working down below. You get some talent and all of a sudden it's away, à la Maloney, which was the same thing."
(Tommy Burns Apr 2006)


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(The Liam Miller situation by StevieFromBelfast of the KStreet forum) Feb 08

"Liam Miller had spent six years at Celtic during which I think he had made one sub appearance and the rest of the time mostly injured. (He did spend a season in Copenhagen but I seem to remember he was injured for a lot of that season as well).
During pre-season 2003-2004 he played, and played well, in a number of the friendlies. He was going into the third year of a three year contract. He started the season well and in August MON started to negoiate a new contract with him and his agent. (Given his previous six seasons of non-contribution and terrible injury record I don't think MON could have been accussed of dithering at that point.)
In October Miller shook hands with MON on a new three year contract. All that was needed was the agent to appear to finalise the signing of the papers.
At the stage the agent disappeared and couldn't seem to find the time to travel to Glasgow. In Ireland rumours of a move by that shower from Manchester were starting - even in the media.
End of October Miller plays a stormer against Anderlecht at CP, his best game for Celtic imo - in Scotland the media wondered who Sir Bollix was up watching. Even when he left after Miller was subbed they couldn't figure it out! In Ireland the headlines were 'Miller for Old Trafford'.
Through November, as reported by Celtic, the agent still wasn't available. Miller was telling us every day in the press how he loved Celtic and wanted to stay.
In December he pissed off to Manchester and signed the contract.

There are many things Celtic & MON can be criticised for - not signing up Liam Miller soon enough though is not one of them. The villians of the piece were quite clearly Miller himself, the agent and Sir Bollix - and even the great Keano was involved a wee bit.

Be that all as it may. I remember posting at the time that I was glad it was someone else paying him £20K a week and not us. The guy had talent but imo was always too weak and too injury-prone to justify those type of wages from us. Nothing that has happened since has changed my mind."