I was thinking about Alex recently and obviously I was hoping he was doing well. Sounds like he is by this 
Seeking the perfect ending to Alex Miller's tale
Published Date: 14 October 2008
By DAVID HARDIE
FOR years Alex Miller had been a familiar figure, sitting at the right hand of Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez as the Anfield club enjoyed those big Champions League nights, culminating in that dramatic win against AC Milan.
But he stunned the football world five months ago when he announced he was turning his back on all of that to become manager of Japanese outfit JEF United Chiba. Eyebrows were raised even further when it was realised the former Hibs boss was taking over a club which was deeply mired in a relegation battle, having taken just two points from their opening 11 matches.
But for 59-year-old Miller is was an opportunity too good to resist. Yes, the money on offer over the three years would set him up for life, but it was the chance to fulfil a long-held ambition to work abroad.
Agreeing he couldn't have gone much further abroad than managing in the J League, Miller today spoke for the first time about why he chose to swap the glamour of one of Europe's leading sides for a struggling team on the other side of the world.
He said: "I'd always wanted, before I chuck it, to manage abroad, to see what it was like trying to coach foreign players, the pitfalls and the like.
"If I hadn't taken this chance I might have had regrets and I don't want to have any."
Having begun his own managerial career with South China in Hong Kong after a long playing career with Rangers, Miller built up years of experience on that side of the game, taking charge of Morton, St Mirren, Hibs, assisting Gordon Strachan at Coventry City, and Aberdeen before he became Gerard Houllier's director of scouting on Merseyside nine years ago.
The arrival of Benitez in 2004 saw him promoted to first team coach under the Spaniard and, while he enjoyed working with Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Fernando Torres and the like, he retained a hankering to be his own man once again.
He said: "I've learned a lot over the years, I started in football at the age of 17 and now, at 59, I am still in the game. But at Liverpool I wasn't the manager and I just wanted that chance to be a manager again.
"It was the putting my name on the line type of thing, I wanted to really challenge myself. I thought when I finished at Liverpool I'd go back to take a smaller team in Scotland and try to take them up through the divisions, working with young players and trying to improve them."
A call from an agent just before the end of last season, however, totally changed Miller's train of thought. He said: "I was asked if I'd be interested, I told him to find out what was involved and to come back to me. He did, and I quickly said yes.
"I loved being at Liverpool, I had a great rapport with Rafa but they understood what I was doing."
Before agreeing to such a dramatic move, Miller did contact one of his old Easter Road players, Steven Tweed having spent a number of years in Yokohama. Miller said: "I spoke to Steven very briefly, to ask him about the pitfalls, what were the Japanese players like."
The enormity of the task ahead, however, didn't come until Miller arrived in Chiba, a town some 25 minutes by Bullet Train from Tokyo, and found his new club struggling badly.
He said: "It was a big, big challenge. We only had two points and the nearest team to us had ten. There's only 34 games in the league and, with 11 already gone, I only had 23 matches left to catch up."
However, since arriving back in May, Miller has become the second-top manager in terms of taking points, Chiba winning their last five matches, including a 3-2 win over Asian club champions Urawa Reds last time out and victory over league leaders Kahima Antlers.
He said: "We are not out of the woods yet, we need to keep things going over the last six matches. This is a young club, it's only been going 15 years and hasn't really had a lot of success other than second in the league once and winning the league cup. Winning that particular type of trophy is familiar to Miller of course, for he managed Hibs to Skol Cup glory over Dunfermline in 1991.
"I've told the players that if we escape relegation this season it will be a bit of success but I've also told them that they'll never hear me say that again because, to me, success is winning the league."
Miller accepts that's not going to happen this year but he admitted he'd love to take Chiba into the Asian Champions League, having been highly impressed both by the standard of the J League and his own club's set-up.
He said: "This isn't a footballing backwater, Urawa Reds have a 52,000 sell-out for every home game and when we beat them at our own Fukuda Denshi Arena we had 19,000. And, for instance, the likes of Pierre Littbarski and Lubomir Moravcik played for Chiba in the past." While his side is predominantly made up of Japanese players – clubs are allowed only three foreigners with many making up that number with Brazilian stars – Miller does have an interpreter at his elbow while Australian centre-half Eddy Bosnar and a couple of the local players speak English.
He said: "What I found was that while the players have a good technical level they could, tactically, be a bit naive at times.
"We've worked really hard together, practised a lot, done loads of training. The facilities we have here are good, the club is very professional and the president and general manager couldn't do any more for me.
"Whether we go down or not we have come a long way from where we were. We've beaten all the top teams. Everyone sees an improvement in the team, so much so we have had one of our players called up to the international squad. One of the Brazilian guys we have also came up to me and said that if I'd been with them from the start of the season we would never have been bottom."
Having become a grandfather for the first time over the summer, Miller admitted the biggest drawback to the latest chapter in his career has been missing his family, saying: "I enjoy it but not seeing the family is the hard thing. But we realised it was only for three years."
As such, much of Miller's spare time spent studying the Japanese game. "Many a night I just spend watching videos of the opposition, working on tactics, planning training," he said.
"If there's a game on then the interpreter and I will go and watch it.
"I have to admit I didn't realise how big a country Japan was. You can fly for two-and-a-half hours and not be out of the country.
"We have to fly to a lot of games but other times we will take the Bullet Train, which travels at 270kph and even then it can take three or four hours to get to some of our games. There's also three English Premier League games shown every Saturday night so I'm up to the early hours watching them while the internet has made the world a much smaller place. I'm able to take a look at the BBC and Sky News to keep me in touch with what's happening back in Britain."
So much so that Miller, assistant coach at France 98, was as bitterly disappointed as any other foot soldier of the Tartan Army at the weekend draw with Norway – with kick-off 11pm Japanese time – having followed the scoreline minute-by-minute on his computer.
He said: "I couldn't believe that as the minutes passed the screen was still showing 0-0. I was so much looking forward to going to South Africa to see Scotland in the finals but now I think it's going to be very tough for us to make it."
Seeking the perfect ending to Alex Miller's tale
Published Date: 14 October 2008
By DAVID HARDIE
FOR years Alex Miller had been a familiar figure, sitting at the right hand of Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez as the Anfield club enjoyed those big Champions League nights, culminating in that dramatic win against AC Milan.
But he stunned the football world five months ago when he announced he was turning his back on all of that to become manager of Japanese outfit JEF United Chiba. Eyebrows were raised even further when it was realised the former Hibs boss was taking over a club which was deeply mired in a relegation battle, having taken just two points from their opening 11 matches.
But for 59-year-old Miller is was an opportunity too good to resist. Yes, the money on offer over the three years would set him up for life, but it was the chance to fulfil a long-held ambition to work abroad.
Agreeing he couldn't have gone much further abroad than managing in the J League, Miller today spoke for the first time about why he chose to swap the glamour of one of Europe's leading sides for a struggling team on the other side of the world.
He said: "I'd always wanted, before I chuck it, to manage abroad, to see what it was like trying to coach foreign players, the pitfalls and the like.
"If I hadn't taken this chance I might have had regrets and I don't want to have any."
Having begun his own managerial career with South China in Hong Kong after a long playing career with Rangers, Miller built up years of experience on that side of the game, taking charge of Morton, St Mirren, Hibs, assisting Gordon Strachan at Coventry City, and Aberdeen before he became Gerard Houllier's director of scouting on Merseyside nine years ago.
The arrival of Benitez in 2004 saw him promoted to first team coach under the Spaniard and, while he enjoyed working with Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Fernando Torres and the like, he retained a hankering to be his own man once again.
He said: "I've learned a lot over the years, I started in football at the age of 17 and now, at 59, I am still in the game. But at Liverpool I wasn't the manager and I just wanted that chance to be a manager again.
"It was the putting my name on the line type of thing, I wanted to really challenge myself. I thought when I finished at Liverpool I'd go back to take a smaller team in Scotland and try to take them up through the divisions, working with young players and trying to improve them."
A call from an agent just before the end of last season, however, totally changed Miller's train of thought. He said: "I was asked if I'd be interested, I told him to find out what was involved and to come back to me. He did, and I quickly said yes.
"I loved being at Liverpool, I had a great rapport with Rafa but they understood what I was doing."
Before agreeing to such a dramatic move, Miller did contact one of his old Easter Road players, Steven Tweed having spent a number of years in Yokohama. Miller said: "I spoke to Steven very briefly, to ask him about the pitfalls, what were the Japanese players like."
The enormity of the task ahead, however, didn't come until Miller arrived in Chiba, a town some 25 minutes by Bullet Train from Tokyo, and found his new club struggling badly.
He said: "It was a big, big challenge. We only had two points and the nearest team to us had ten. There's only 34 games in the league and, with 11 already gone, I only had 23 matches left to catch up."
However, since arriving back in May, Miller has become the second-top manager in terms of taking points, Chiba winning their last five matches, including a 3-2 win over Asian club champions Urawa Reds last time out and victory over league leaders Kahima Antlers.
He said: "We are not out of the woods yet, we need to keep things going over the last six matches. This is a young club, it's only been going 15 years and hasn't really had a lot of success other than second in the league once and winning the league cup. Winning that particular type of trophy is familiar to Miller of course, for he managed Hibs to Skol Cup glory over Dunfermline in 1991.
"I've told the players that if we escape relegation this season it will be a bit of success but I've also told them that they'll never hear me say that again because, to me, success is winning the league."
Miller accepts that's not going to happen this year but he admitted he'd love to take Chiba into the Asian Champions League, having been highly impressed both by the standard of the J League and his own club's set-up.
He said: "This isn't a footballing backwater, Urawa Reds have a 52,000 sell-out for every home game and when we beat them at our own Fukuda Denshi Arena we had 19,000. And, for instance, the likes of Pierre Littbarski and Lubomir Moravcik played for Chiba in the past." While his side is predominantly made up of Japanese players – clubs are allowed only three foreigners with many making up that number with Brazilian stars – Miller does have an interpreter at his elbow while Australian centre-half Eddy Bosnar and a couple of the local players speak English.
He said: "What I found was that while the players have a good technical level they could, tactically, be a bit naive at times.
"We've worked really hard together, practised a lot, done loads of training. The facilities we have here are good, the club is very professional and the president and general manager couldn't do any more for me.
"Whether we go down or not we have come a long way from where we were. We've beaten all the top teams. Everyone sees an improvement in the team, so much so we have had one of our players called up to the international squad. One of the Brazilian guys we have also came up to me and said that if I'd been with them from the start of the season we would never have been bottom."
Having become a grandfather for the first time over the summer, Miller admitted the biggest drawback to the latest chapter in his career has been missing his family, saying: "I enjoy it but not seeing the family is the hard thing. But we realised it was only for three years."
As such, much of Miller's spare time spent studying the Japanese game. "Many a night I just spend watching videos of the opposition, working on tactics, planning training," he said.
"If there's a game on then the interpreter and I will go and watch it.
"I have to admit I didn't realise how big a country Japan was. You can fly for two-and-a-half hours and not be out of the country.
"We have to fly to a lot of games but other times we will take the Bullet Train, which travels at 270kph and even then it can take three or four hours to get to some of our games. There's also three English Premier League games shown every Saturday night so I'm up to the early hours watching them while the internet has made the world a much smaller place. I'm able to take a look at the BBC and Sky News to keep me in touch with what's happening back in Britain."
So much so that Miller, assistant coach at France 98, was as bitterly disappointed as any other foot soldier of the Tartan Army at the weekend draw with Norway – with kick-off 11pm Japanese time – having followed the scoreline minute-by-minute on his computer.
He said: "I couldn't believe that as the minutes passed the screen was still showing 0-0. I was so much looking forward to going to South Africa to see Scotland in the finals but now I think it's going to be very tough for us to make it."
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