The Graham Spiers Interview: Willie Miller

The Aberdeen legend is buoyant and healthy at 60, doing his punditry on BBC Radio Scotland. On air, Miller speaks with easy authority and a sense of conviction about what he is watching on the field, and is enjoyable to listen to. Nonetheless, Roxburgh's words point to a life after football that didn't quite pan out.

Miller's playing career requires no further eulogy: he was among the greatest defenders in Europe. But it is 20 years now since he was sacked as Aberdeen manager, having twice led the Pittodrie side to second place in the old SPL, and to two cup finals. When he considers Derek McInnes today, does his mind ever wander back to his own time as a manager?

"You get well paid for being a football manager, but the stress of it is with you all the time, it consumes you," says Miller. "I felt it a lot when I was the Aberdeen manager, particularly after having been the player that I was. I had two reasonably good years as Aberdeen manager - good, certainly, by today's standards - but it wasn't good by the standards of Aberdeen at the time. The fans back then wanted to win the league and win cups and have decent runs in Europe."

Miller is unstinting in his praise of McInnes, but he smiles at the differences in the north-east outlook compared to 20 years ago.

"The expectations today are completely different," he says. "Derek McInnes did what the club has been crying out for for 20 years - he won a trophy. Indeed, Derek was the first manager since I was the manager to finish second in the league. He has won a cup, and finished second, and been a manager of the year. So he has been rightly applauded.

"But the difference is, when I was the manager of Aberdeen, it was about winning things, not finishing second, or just pushing for a European place. Also - and I take nothing away from Derek, he has been terrific at Aberdeen - many of the big hitters have been missing. Rangers, Hibs and Hearts were all there competing when I was a manager, and when I was an Aberdeen director.

"So you've got to factor that in somewhere - it is only fair to a manager like Jimmy Calderwood, who faced a Hearts team spending big money on players' wages, plus Rangers, and also even Dundee United, who splashed out on players when Eddie Thompson was in charge. So, I take nothing away from Derek McInnes, but it remains true that in those other years you had a number of big spenders out there that Aberdeen had to contend with.

"When you factor it all in, the expectations are different. Derek has won a cup, and is held in high regard, and so he should be, because he has done a fantastic job. But finishing second with Aberdeen is more than acceptable these days, compared to when I was the manager."

Back then, too, I can testify from personal experience, Miller could be a wary, guarded figure before the press. I told him it makes me smile today, hearing him happily debating and bantering on radio, when I recall his sometimes mild contempt for the media in the past.

He can smile, too, at his change in attitude, having been reared in Sir Alex Ferguson's siege-mentality at Pittodrie.

"In the pundit role I'm in now, I can see the importance of the press, and what it has to do," he says. "But in my previous life, when you are cocooned in the north-east, especially in that Fergie environment, you don't look at the press that way at all. Maybe I was brainwashed just a little too much to that effect. It's only once you get away from it that you can see things differently.

"Nobody likes reading negative things about themselves. It is the same in any job: anything said negatively about you is pretty difficult for your brain to process. That is why, as a manager, you quite often feel you've got to keep the press under control. Sir Alex did that all his life, it was very much a Fergie thing.

"It is only once you are released from that environment, and you see the way the press works from another angle, that you understand it a bit better.

"I enjoy the punditry I do today, although I wasn't that enthusiastic about it at the start. As a player, you had to have that certain barrier with the media, so I wasn't sure if it was something I wanted to do. But I have to admit, it is something I've come to enjoy."

Apart from his playing brilliance, there were two other Miller themes from his career that I wanted to explore with him. First, there was the hoary old line about "Willie Miller refereeing games", rather than the match referee himself. This was stated repeatedly throughout his playing career, and there are some amusing archive photos of an irate Miller, giving a referee what for on the pitch. Did this reputation ever annoy him?

"Aye, it used to irk me a bit. It was a different era when I was a player - you were allowed to talk to referees. For instance, the Hope brothers, Douglas and Kenny, were always talking to you, always shouting something in your ear.

"But I always laughed when people said 'Willie Miller referees some games.' I mean, how could I referee a game, at Celtic Park, in front of 50,000 crowds, in front of that old Jungle? By the way, the stuff that used to come out of that Jungle - both verbal and physical - was incredible. It was an amazing atmosphere to play in. But all I was trying to do was counter the fact that 50,000 fans were trying to influence the ref one way, so I was on my own trying to influence him the other.

"I did get a bit fed up with my 'refereeing' tag. It was almost like saying, 'Aye, that's the only way you manage to beat us ... you became the ref.' Basically, I was just fighting my corner. I wanted to make sure that my team got a fair shout."

The other extraordinary thing about Miller's career was his sheer longevity as an Aberdeen player, from 1972, when he made his debut for the club, through to 1990. It was a colossal innings which, for a player of his ability, would be inconceivable in today's game.

He twice had the chance to leave the Granite City - first from Rangers in 1979 and then Sunderland in 1980 - but declined both opportunities.

"John Greig was the manager of Rangers, and he phoned me up and asked me to join the club. In fact, he wanted me to become the captain of Rangers. But I didn't fancy it. And, to be honest, the finance side of it didn't really come into it, because Rangers didn't pay big money back then, in the pre-Souness era. So the lure, for what it was, amounted to a little bit more money, plus me being made the captain of Rangers.

"I thought about it, but I decided that, from a playing point of view, I was better off staying where I was. We had a better team and a better environment at Aberdeen, and I think my decision was vindicated.

"As for Sunderland, in 1980 I went down to the old Roker Park to see their manager, Ken Knighton. They had just been promoted to the old English First Division. The finance there on offer to me was a lot better: about three times what I was on at Aberdeen. So, from the financial point of view, I had a bigger decision to make.

"I looked around the old Roker Park, and it was crumbling, it was like a mausoleum. And, apart from the stadium and the Sunderland area, which I couldn't really take to, another factor for me was that Ken Knighton had never actually seen me play, he only had a recommendation. So I decided, although the finance was good, that I didn't want to go to Sunderland.

"Other chat went on - joining Manchester United and other stuff - but at the end of it all I was with Aberdeen all my days. I can't say I have many regrets about my playing career. I was pretty fortunate."

Not half. What a great footballer this man was. And he's not bad as a pundit, either.