Charlie Miller - Club Career

Club Career

Miller was born in Glasgow and started his career with Rangers and showed he was talented enough to make an impression in the nine-in-a-row team under Walter Smith. Indeed, when David Beckham scored his famous goal from the midfield against Wimbledon on 17 August 1996, he did so in boots custom-made for Miller ("CHARLIE" was embroidered on the boots), which had been given to Beckham by mistake.

A lifestyle of parties and an unhealthy diet followed, and Miller's career appeared to be on the wane. In 1996 he had engaged in a pub brawl after allegedly singing sectarian songs. Miller's accomplice, Jimmy Gardner, was convicted of assault in relation to the incident, while a verdict of not proven was recorded against Miller. He was loaned to Leicester City towards the end of the 1998-99 season before joining Watford for £450,000 in October 1999. Watford were relegated in their first FA Premier League season with Miller unable to make an impact, making only 15 league appearances. He played one more League Cup game for the Hornets in the 2000-01 before moving to Dundee United on a free transfer. Miller enjoyed a successful spell at United, becoming a firm favourite with the fans. However, in May 2004, a contract dispute saw Miller leave the club to join ex-Dundee United player Robbie Winters at Norwegian club SK Brann.

In Brann, Miller became one of the supporters' favourite players, due to his technique and passes. Despite this, he was in and out of the team, according to manager Mons Ivar Mjelde because of defensive considerations. In 2006, he started off as one of the league's top players, but gradually received some attention off the pitch, apparently provoked by lack of confidence from the manager. He made it clear that he was unhappy as a right midfielder, the position he had played in most of the season, and eventually that he wanted to leave the club. Miller also criticised Mjelde's unusually close ties to his rival for the attacking central midfield spot, Martin Andresen. Miller refused to participate in the silver medal ceremony after the game against Ham-Kam on 29 October. Since then, he was ignored by the coach, and only played the last minute of Brann's Royal League match against Rosenborg on 7 December 2006, in which he contributed to a winning goal.

During his time at Brann he went on trial at English Championship club Cardiff City, but was not offered a full deal. In early January 2007, Miller began training with Scottish First Division club St. Johnstone to top up his fitness during the Norwegian league's winter break. His contract with SK Brann was terminated after an agreement on 31 January. On 9 February, he signed a contract at the Belgian team Lierse S.K.

On 20 April 2007, he scored his first goals for Lierse against Germinal Beerschot in their fight to stay in the first division. On 27 June he signed a three-year contract with Lierse SK but was released less than a year later.

Read more about this topic:  Charlie Miller

Famous quotes containing the words club and/or career:

    The barriers of conventionality have been raised so high, and so strangely cemented by long existence, that the only hope of overthrowing them exists in the union of numbers linked together by common opinion and effort ... the united watchword of thousands would strike at the foundation of the false system and annihilate it.
    Mme. Ellen Louise Demorest 1824–1898, U.S. women’s magazine editor and woman’s club movement pioneer. Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mirror of Fashions, p. 203 (January 1870)

    Work-family conflicts—the trade-offs of your money or your life, your job or your child—would not be forced upon women with such sanguine disregard if men experienced the same career stalls caused by the-buck-stops-here responsibility for children.
    Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)