Interview / Liam Miller: Michael Walker reports on the week that Roy Keane joins Celtic Liam Miller is still looking to make his mark at United
Lunchtime, Thursday and a Cork-born midfielder is talking about his recent, abrupt departure from Manchester United. But Liam Miller, as he points out, is not Roy Keane. Besides, Miller has a return date at Old Trafford that he wants to keep to prove that he should not have had to leave in the first place. He is on a two-month loan at Leeds United; it ends on January 3rd and that morning Miller will return to Manchester to discuss with Alex Ferguson what the future holds.
"I don't know, to be honest with you," Miller said of how he sees that discussion developing. "I just see myself here until January 3rd and then I go back to Man U. I'm contracted until 2009 and that's so far away. I want to be playing football and I know where I want to be playing it. But I'm here for now and I'm focusing on that.
"The way the move came about was so quick. We were away in Europe, it was the Lille game in Paris and when we came back the next day the manager said Leeds are interested and how it would be good for me to get matches. I thought, 'Jesus, it would be great to be playing again.' And obviously Leeds is a massive club.
"As for what I see, I see myself going back to Man U, we'll see how the manager sees it. I've just thought of playing well here and impressing him while I'm here. But I don't know what happens on January 3rd, we'll see what he says."
Softly spoken to the point of reticence - this was Miller's first national newspaper interview - it is difficult to imagine a quiet, polite young man marching into Ferguson's office and demanding another chance. But, not very deep down, that is what Miller wants and feels he deserves. He knows that he has failed to light a candle at Old Trafford, never mind electrify the place in the manner he did briefly at Parkhead with Celtic, but Miller thinks he could do so - if given the opportunity.
So, does he feel he has had a fair chance since his arrival on a free, controversial transfer from Celtic 18 months ago? "Personally, no, I don't think so. Others can argue with that but I don't think so, no. I think it's always up to the manager. You can put pressure on him, y'know, but the manager sees it his way and he picks the team. I want to go back and I want to play there without doubt. But it's the manager's decision.
"It hasn't gone as well at Man U as I would have liked, I know I can do a lot better than what I've shown so far. It's just a case I feel of getting a steady run in the team to prove that. I still believe, myself, I have inner confidence, that I can play for Manchester United. I haven't given up at all and hopefully I can prove the manager wrong."
Ferguson might like the note of defiance in Miller's attitude. It requires a certain personality to cope with being a Manchester United player. Some may think it is too late, that Ferguson has already made a negative decision regarding Miller, but after he scored the 86th-minute winner for Leeds (down 3-0 at half-time) in their 4-3 win at Southampton four weeks ago, Ferguson was in touch.
"The manager phoned me to say well done and to keep going," Miller said. "I was definitely encouraged by that. Obviously I was hoping he'd be watching the games I was in, but for him to phone, I appreciate that."
Miller may have played comparatively little football for someone who turns 25 in February - injuries have colluded in that - but he has scored thrilling goals and attracted his share of attention. Just two years ago there was hullabaloo after rousing displays for Celtic in the Champions League. The Lisbon Lion Bobby Lennox declared: "I don't think Celtic have seen such a talented player since the days of Kenny Dalglish." Magnus Hedman, then Celtic's goalkeeper, called Miller "probably the best 22-year-old in the world". Ferguson was convinced, too, and got Miller on a Bosman free.
"It was very difficult to leave Celtic," Miller said, his Scottish father Billy having been a Parkhead season-ticket holder for many years. "When I heard Man U were in I was gobsmacked, delighted as well, but at the same time I was thinking I'd be leaving a club that I'd been with since I was 15. There was probably only one club I would have left for and that was Man U. The chance to play for the two clubs was great. I made my decision and I don't regret it."
Public awareness of his move caused Miller to be booed by some Celtic fans, distraught that they were losing someone special. It is a portrait United fans simply will not recognise. They thought they were getting a cross between Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, what they got was a part of the side that drew 0-0 with Exeter City in the third round of the FA Cup at Old Trafford. Miller has started just three Premiership games for United in the 18 months. "That was the worst, Exeter," he said. "I didn't play well at all in that game." Why? "I have asked myself that so many times. I know what I can do, I just haven't shown it. It's frustrating, Jesus, no one wants to go and play badly. I just feel that the more games you get the better you play. It gets to your confidence when you're not playing, or getting on for five, 10 minutes.
"When I signed, the manager said he saw me more as a central midfielder than a wide player. He said he saw me as someone different to what he had already, someone who could make runs beyond, third-man runs, playing off the strikers and scoring goals.
"I know I'm not Paul Scholes and never will be. I'm my own player. The Roy comparison has been made a few times but the only thing Roy and myself had in common was we both come from Cork and both played for Man U. On the pitch we're totally different."
Given events in Glasgow, Keane was always going to be part of Thursday for Miller for whom, being 10 years younger, Keane was his idol as he grew up in Cork. "He was the hero, without doubt, up on a pedestal. Everyone in Cork thought he was a legend. I didn't know Roy and I didn't speak to him about Man United. When I was with the Ireland under-21s they would play the first team, that was the only time I would have seen him in the flesh.
"There'll be big cheers up there (at Celtic). It'll not be a bother to him. I'd thought of him as 'Mr Man U'. He was the ultimate player, he had everything. Everything." Including opinions about his team-mates. The notorious MUTV tape in which Keane criticised the performance in the 4-1 defeat at Middlesbrough allegedly included some abuse of his hometown colleague. But Miller didn't play at Middlesbrough, didn't even make the bench, and he is, anyway, phlegmatic about Keane's critique. "As long as it's constructive I wouldn't have a problem with it. You're a grown man, you take these things on board."
The coincidence of Keane going to Celtic on Thursday came hours after watching United beat Wigan on television, where Miller again saw Alan Smith appearing in a position Miller considers his. At Elland Road, Miller wears the number 17 shirt Smith wore for Leeds.
Today Miller will wear that jersey for his first-ever trip to Wolverhampton. It is the next stop on Liam Miller's incredible journey. No one in living memory can match playing for Celtic, Manchester United and Leeds United. January 3rd could provide the next turning point.
Guardian Service
