As a winger who swapped the Granite City for the East End of Glasgow, Joe Miller knows a thing or two about what is required to make the step up from Aberdeen to Celtic, and he believes that Jonny Hayes has all the attributes to make a success of his own big move to Celtic Park.
Miller was delighted to see Celtic secure the signing of a player he rated as the best in Scotland outwith the Celtic squad last season, and even at the age of 29, he feels that Celtic manager Rodgers can squeeze some further improvement out of the Irish attacker.
“He’s a good player, and he was also Aberdeen’s best player over the last couple of seasons,” Miller said.
“They’ve challenged Celtic, so I’m sure he will fit in and do well.
“When you come to a team that is full of good players, your game will then be enhanced too. He’ll find the set-up totally different, but Brendan Rodgers has worked with him before and you can’t argue with his judgment.
“I think he knows what he gets from Jonny Hayes. Brendan was different class in his first season improving players, and even though Jonny is a bit more experienced, he’s probably at the peak of his career and I’m sure he’ll do well.
“He was probably the best player outwith Celtic last season, and he proved that in the Scottish Cup final. He was a thorn in quite a lot of the other sides and he’s always willing to take people on.
“He can change a game, so it’s a good fit. If all the avenues are exhausted regarding Patrick Roberts, then it’s definitely a good fit.”
Miller knows that Hayes is not the sort of big name that some Celtic supporters are desperate to see arrive at the club this summer, but he has urged them to give the winger a chance.
“Of course, fans would like to see a few big names, and I’d like to see that too, and Brendan is obviously going to have that ambition of doing well in Europe,” he said.
“I don’t think he really needs to sign big names to do that. Sometimes when you’ve got a good side like he has, a good young side, you can work with them and they pick up experience along the way.
“They did very well in the games in the Champions League last year, so it’s all about taking it further the next season.
“You can’t judge [Hayes] just now, although a lot of fans might. You’ve got to give the guy a chance. He’s a good player, he’s there on merit and he’s worked his way up. I think everybody should just sit back and see what he can bring to Celtic.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here