SOCCER NEWS:LIAM MILLER would have been forgiven for watching last night's Champions League final with a sense of "what might have been", knowing if he'd lived up to the hype that accompanied his move from Celtic to Manchester United five summers ago he might well have filled a spot in their midfield against Barcelona.
Instead, the 28-year-old is on international duty with the Republic of Ireland, “unattached” now appearing beside his name in the squad list after Queen Park Rangers, who he joined on a six-month deal from Sunderland in January, decided against offering him a contract.
When he turned down the offer of a long-term deal from then Celtic manager Martin O’Neill in 2004, Miller’s only difficulty was deciding whether to join United or Liverpool, the latter’s late effort to persuade him he would have a brighter future at Anfield ultimately rebuffed. Five years on and it’s all gone horribly wrong for the Cork man, who describes the season just ended as the “worst I’ve had in football”.
Has he any concrete offers from clubs? “Jesus, I would never say anything is concrete, but one or two clubs have expressed an interest in us, so we’ll wait and see what happens,” he said.
“Hopefully something will work out in the next week or two, I’ll sit down with my agent and discuss things, and hopefully find the right club. There’s no major rush, you see players getting signed in late June/July, but at the same time it would be nice to get it sorted in the next couple of weeks.”
His experience at QPR proved to be a miserable one, just at a stage in his career when he desperately needed a fresh start, his time at Sunderland all but ended by then manager Roy Keane who transfer-listed him after accusing the player of being late for training “six or seven times”.
But the Championship club provided little stability, three managers in one season not quite what Miller was looking for.
“Things didn’t work the way I would have liked, it’s just the way it went. The manager left, things seems to change, I didn’t play the last few games.”
Were you happy enough to leave at the end of it? “I was in the end, yeah, I just grew really frustrated with the place – it’s a good club, don’t get me wrong, I just didn’t enjoy it towards the end. I thought I was good enough to be playing, but I wasn’t getting picked – so that was it really.
“It was all very frustrating, not having a run of games and struggling to find my form at stages. But I just have to try and stay positive and look to next year. The next move will be very important for me, that’s why I’m not going to rush in to anything. I have to get it right.”
“I wouldn’t say no to any team,” he said, when asked if he was hopeful of getting an offer from a Premier League club.
“I’ll keep my options open, but I’ll just wait and see. The Championship can be 100 miles an hour at times, it’s tough, but it’s football, you have to adapt to it. And football is an easy game if you don’t complicate it too much.”
He won’t, he insisted, despite the rumours, be joining Cork City, his spell training with the club purely a favour from them to help him maintain his fitness. He is hoping to get a run-out against Nigeria tomorrow, but concedes his chances of getting a regular place in Giovanni Trapattoni’s side will remain remote until he’s playing regular club football.
Things, though, can only get better. “I’m glad to see the back of this season, I’m just hoping for a fresh start, that’s all I want.”
** Stephen Hunt said yesterday that he will “think about his future” at Reading, who missed out on promotion to the Premier League this season, after the Republic of Ireland’s games against Nigeria and Bulgaria.
“I have a three-year contract so until told otherwise I’m not going anywhere, but I’ll think about it after these two games. We’ll see,” he said.
