Alex Miller (born 4 July 1949) is a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and former player. As a player, he had a 15-year career with Rangers, winning several trophies. As a manager, he won the 1991–92 Scottish League Cup with Hibernian. He subsequently worked for

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

for nine years, assisting

Gérard Houllier Gérard Paul Francis Houllier (; 3 September 194714 December 2020) was a French professional football manager and player. Clubs he managed include Paris Saint-Germain, Lens and Liverpool, where he won the FA Cup, League Cup, FA Charity Shield, ...

and

Rafael Benítez Rafael Benítez Maudes (born 16 April 1960) is a Spanish professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player. He was most recently the manager of La Liga club RC Celta de Vigo, Celta Vigo. Beníte ...

Playing career

Miller started his playing career with Clydebank Strollers before he made the move to Rangers. He played for Rangers from 1967 until 1982 and made 309 appearances during his spell at Ibrox, scoring 33 goals. After being coached by David White he was promoted to the first team, and won his first medal in the 1970 Scottish League Cup Final. He impressed the supporters having played in the 1971 Scottish Cup Final against

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despite having a broken jaw. However, under coach William Waddell, he was mostly a second choice player and was not in the squad in one of the biggest successes of the club's history, the triumph in the

1972 European Cup Winners' Cup Final The 1972 European Cup Winners' Cup Final was a football match between Scottish team Rangers and Soviet team Dynamo Moscow. It took place at the Camp Nou in Barcelona on 24 May 1972 in front of a crowd of 35,000. It was the final of the 1971–7 ...

. It was only after Jock Wallace took over as coach that he became increasingly used, often as a substitute. As a regular from the mid-1970s, he won multiple titles, contributing to three

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

championships, three

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

s.(Rangers player) Miller, Alex
FitbaStats

Coaching career

Early coaching career

Miller was appointed as

player-manager A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

when he played briefly for

South China South China ( zh, s=, p=Huá'nán, j=jyut6 naam4) is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is ...

in Hong Kong in 1983, but was unable to save the club from relegation. He then had the same role at Morton in the first part of the 1983–84 season before contentiously joining the

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

club's rivals, St Mirren, who were at that time in a higher division.

St Mirren

Miller managed St Mirren from 1983 until 1986. He guided the Paisley club to qualification for European competition. One of their all-time great nights came in a European campaign when in 1985,

Slavia Prague Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in t ...

were knocked out after a 3–0 ''Saints'' win at

Love Street "Love Street" is a song performed by the American rock band the Doors. Sequenced as the second album track on ''Waiting for the Sun'' (1968), its lyrics were written by lead singer Jim Morrison and as with other songs, it was dedicated to his gir ...

. Miller moulded a side that would win the 1987 Scottish Cup Final, but departed during that season.

Hibernian

Miller was then manager of Hibernian from 1986 to 1996, through a "difficult" period in the club's history, as the club came through financial problems. He led the team to victory in the 1991–92 Scottish League Cup, beating Rangers in the semi-final (1–0) and Dunfermline Athletic in the final (2–0). Hibs qualified for the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, losing on the away goals rule to

RSC Anderlecht Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht, commonly abbreviated to RSC Anderlecht (, , ) or RSCA (, , ), is a Belgian professional association football, football club based in Anderlecht, Brussels Capital-Region. Anderlecht plays in the Belgian First Div ...

, then reached the 1993 Scottish League Cup Final, but this time lost out to Rangers (1–2). Hibs finished the 1994–95 season in third place in the league. Miller was sacked by Hibs in 1996, with some observers accusing him of having betrayed Hibs' "cavalier ideals".

Coventry and Aberdeen

Miller then moved to Coventry City, accepting an offer from his Scottish compatriot

Gordon Strachan Gordon David Strachan ( born 9 February 1957) is a Scottish former football coach and player who is currently Technical Director of Dundee. He played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Sc ...

to become assistant manager. A year later, unable to resist the challenge of being his own man again, he moved to

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

taking over the manager's post from Roy Aitken. However this stint was not a successful one and he was replaced in 1998 by

Paul Hegarty Paul Anthony Hegarty (born 25 July 1954) is a Scottish football player and manager. He was captain of Dundee United during their most successful era in the 1970s and 1980s, winning the Scottish league championship in 1983 and the Scottish Le ...

Liverpool

Miller joined English Premier League side

as Director of Scouting under

in 1999. However, when

was appointed manager of Liverpool in 2004, he overhauled the scouting system. Miller then subsequently worked as first team coach, helping the club win the Champions League in 2005 and the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

in 2006. Miller left Liverpool in May 2008 to manage Japanese side

JEF United Chiba , full name and also known as , is a Japanese professional football club based in Chiba, capital of Chiba Prefecture. They currently play in the J2 League, Japanese second tier of professional football. History Furukawa Electric SC (19 ...

JEF United Chiba

Despite taking over the club when they had taken just two points from eleven games, Miller managed to guide the team to safety from relegation. However, following a string of poor results in the next season which the club was in the relegation zone, Miller's contract was terminated by the club in July 2009.

AIK

Miller was appointed manager of Swedish team AIK in June 2010 as the successor of Mikael Stahre and the interim solution Björn Wesström. AIK had been in some danger of relegation when Miller was appointed, but they eventually finished 11th in the 16-team division.

Sibir Novosibirsk

Miller was appointed head coach of Russian First Division club Sibir Novosibirsk in January 2012. Miller became the first British head coach in Russian football. Miller left the club after just nine matches in charge.

Return to St Mirren

Miller returned to St Mirren on 3 November 2015, as assistant manager to Ian Murray. He became caretaker manager after Murray resigned in December.

Managerial statistics

Personal life

Two of Miller's sons, Graeme and Greg, both played for Hibs while Miller was manager there. Miller also employed Greg as a coach while he was manager of

Honours

Manager

St Mirren * Renfrewshire Cup: 1983–84, 1984–85, 1985–86 Hibernian *

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

: 1991–92 * Tennents' Sixes:

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

East of Scotland Shield The East of Scotland Shield is a Scottish football trophy awarded by the East of Scotland Football Association. The only older cup competition in Scottish football is the Scottish Cup. The tournament is the third-oldest in world football st ...

: 1989–90 Aberdeen *

Aberdeenshire Cup The Aberdeenshire Cup is a Scottish football tournament for all senior clubs affiliated to the Aberdeenshire and District Football Association (ADFA), being clubs from the historic counties of Aberdeenshire and Banffshire. The Aberdeenshire ...

: 1997–98

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Alex 1949 births Footballers from Glasgow Living people Scottish men's footballers Men's association football defenders Rangers F.C. players South China AA players Greenock Morton F.C. players Scottish Football League players Hong Kong First Division League players Scottish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Hong Kong Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Scottish football managers South China AA managers Greenock Morton F.C. non-playing staff Greenock Morton F.C. managers St Mirren F.C. managers Hibernian F.C. managers Aberdeen F.C. managers Liverpool F.C. non-playing staff JEF United Chiba managers AIK Fotboll managers FC Sibir Novosibirsk managers St Mirren F.C. non-playing staff Scottish Premier League managers Scottish Football League managers J1 League managers Allsvenskan managers Russian First League managers Scottish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Hong Kong Expatriate football managers in Japan Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate football managers in Sweden Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate football managers in Russia Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Russia