THE FORMER Hibs, Dundee, Falkirk and Dunfermline Athletic player Tam McManus is Kenny Miller's lifelong friend. Now with Colorado Rapids in the Major Soccer League, McManus keeps an eye on his old chum. This is what he said: "There may be doubters among the support, but I can assure them Kenny is 100 per cent focused on doing the business. There's always that little bit extra focus when you've played for the other half of the Old Firm but if Kenny can score the winner in his fir
Except that McManus made those remarks in May, 2006, when Miller had just signed for Celtic after a spell at Wolves.
His sentiments are entirely accurate, however, as one Maurice Johnston would testify. In July 1989, when Johnston signed for Range
rs instead of re-signing for Celtic, he became the club's first high-profile Roman Catholic player in modern times. Owner David Murray and manager Graeme Souness had been determined to end Rangers' policy of signing only non-Catholics, and they did so in spectacular fashion by signing a former Celtic hero.
Some fans of the Ibrox club vowed never to return, some burned their scarves, but many others were delighted that the club was shaking off shackles that had stopped them signing good players.
In his second Old Firm match as a Rangers player, Johnston scored the only goal of the game two minutes from time. In a split second, he became the darling of the Rangers' support, and he did it again by scoring the winner twice more against Celtic.
Johnston went on to score 51 goals in 110 games for Rangers. In his first season, Rangers went on to win the league for the second successive time, and did so for 11 of the next 14 seasons with teams that had numerous Catholic players.
Fast forward to the second half of the 2007-08 season and the following ditty sung repeatedly by a fair proportion of the Rangers support: "You can stick your Kenny Miller up your arse." And all because the Ranger turned Celt turned Derby County player was rumoured to be coming back to Ibrox.
A Catholic might be okay, but a former Celtic player? Even one who has played 37 times for Scotland, scoring 11 goals? Apparently not, and of course, every fan who sang that song did so because Miller was rubbish, and nothing to do with his topsy-turvy allegiances… aye, right.
When Miller signed for Rangers for the second time on Friday, he was greeted in some quarters the way George W Bush might be welcomed if he walked alone down Baghdad High Street. The player knew he wasn't exactly going to get the red carpet treatment, but did he really deserve the bile and hatred that has poured out in radio phone-ins and on the internet?
According to fans on the BBC's open-to-view 606 Rangers website, paid for by licence payers, Miller "runs like a headless chicken… we've just wasted a chunk of our transfer fee on a Celtic reject… he is not welcome at Ibrox… kissed the Septic badge after scoring against us."
Despite resurrecting a fallow club and giving them a season to remember including two trophies, Walter Smith came in for mind-boggling opprobrium: "Kenny Miller will prove to be the first nail in Wattie's Rangers career. The fans didn't want him. Wattie carried on regardless." Those were just some of the printable ones. We won't even bother going into the sectarian bile heaped on the former Celt.
The real reason for Miller's signing by Smith is obvious. The Rangers manager has realised that last season's cautious approach – not anti-football, but defensive-minded – can bring only limited returns, and more goals must be scored, which by definition requires more attacking play.
"There are areas of the pitch where we could be doing with more flair, but in Scotland we really only have one winger in our country in Aiden McGeady," said Smith in a revealing interview last month.
"Yes, we could do with someone like that, but unfortunately it would cost a lot of money. If not, then experience tells us to look in another direction."
Smith operates on a limited budget, and can't pay for real flair. His decision has clearly been to get someone affordable into the Rangers' strike force who can both run with the ball or hold the ball up until the midfielders arrive at the charge. In short, a workhorse. To most right-thinking Rangers fans, it should not matter where Miller has been, it should matter only where he is going. Emulate Maurice Johnston and score a few winners against Celtic, and they will happily kiss the place they sang about sticking him.
RANGERS have been given the go-ahead to sign Viking Stavanger striker Andrius Velicka. The Norwegian club have reluctantly agreed to let the former Hearts frontman leave them for a fee expected to be around £1m, and the deal is set to go through next month.
Velicka, 29, has already confirmed his appetite for a move to Ibrox and personal terms are not expected to present a problem, with Rangers chief executive Martin Bain set to conduct negotiations.
Viking sporting director Egil Ostenstad said: "I have had a very good dialogue with Martin Bain. Andrius has been given permission to discuss a contract with Rangers over the next few days. At this stage in his career it wouldn't have been right for us to block a move to one of the biggest clubs in Europe. He will earn considerably more than he earns at Viking." The full article contains 949 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
