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Should Hearts Re-Sign Lee Miller?

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One of our posters in the forum has suggested that Hearts take a look at signing former on-loan striker Lee Miller from Aberdeen.

Now before everyone comes back with the predictable knee-jerk reaction along the lines of ‘oh God no!’, just consider it for a second. It’s perhaps not the worst idea in the world, especially given the position that Hearts are in at the moment.

Miller spent half a season on loan at Tynecastle just before the Romanov ‘revolution’ got into full swing, and I think it would be harsh to say anything other than the guy did very well for Hearts. He was able to lead the line very well for the young age that he was back then (22 I think?), was good in the air, was no slouch and in his spell with us he certainly knew where the net was, scoring goals from literally all over the place.

The big problem that the Hearts fans had with Miller of course, was the apparent mercenary-like attitude which eventually saw him leaving the club for Dundee United. He appeared to be effectively playing clubs off against each other as he held out for more money, and in the end he got his fingers burnt as Hearts didn’t call his bluff….and he ended up at a club that actually offered him less money in the end.

Football fans don’t generally have much time for this sort of attitude, so if Miller was to return he’d need to produce the goods quickly in order to get the crowd back on his side.

But is he actually good enough I hear you ask? Well, that’s the $64,000 question here. Is he? He’s certainly not set the proverbial heather on fire at either Dundee United or Aberdeen since his promising spell at Tynecastle, although I do know a few Aberdeen fans who still seem to rate him. Perhaps he simply hasn’t found the right club yet on a permanent basis – a bit like Paul Hartley, who did nothing remarkable until the age of 28-29 when he was at Hearts. Who knows.

One thing we do know though, is that Hearts are seriously thin on the ground for strikers who can do the business in the SPL. We’d obviously like the club to go out and sign someone genuinely top drawer, but realistically we know that this is perhaps unlikely, so it could be that we are reduced to trawling the best that the Scottish leagues have to offer to find the ‘answer’.

Could Lee Miller help to solve our striking problems? Possibly, but it won’t happen without the managerial situation sorting itself out first……





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MrH

Come on the famous!

5 comments

  • Specs Haver says:

    An interesting proprosition, Mr H. I’d go as far as to say that for the 5 months at Hearts under Robbo, Miller was the best centre forward I’d seen at Tynecastle since… erm.. Robbo actually. But I agree with you that he has looked average (at best) for Aberdeen these last 2 years (based on what I’ve seen on TV). Its ironic that you mention him now, since we had no manager in May 2005 to make a football decision about offering him a contract. Now, we also have no manager – yet SOMEBODY decides to sign Pinilla !!!

  • MrH says:

    I know – I still can’t believe the Pinilla decision actually. It just makes no sense whatosever on so many counts. As for Miller though, I remember being pretty gutted that he left, but he was someone we quickly forgot about when we saw the likes of Skacel and Bednar, Jankauskas, etc. He was a good player though and definitely had the ability back then.

  • Specs Haver says:

    Yes… although I felt Jankauskas rode his luck on the back of the “Burley factor”, in terms of being mentioned alongside Skacel, Hartley, Bednar etc. His scoring rate was poor, and for such a big guy, his aerial ability was even worse. Apparently he was Lithuania’s “greatest ever player” – hmmm … well … errm … who knows, but Lee Miller was better !!

  • MrH says:

    Agreed

  • Stood Free says:

    Nae chance min! http://www.aberdeen.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=506244 Wouldn’t like it at Hearts either.

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