In an exclusive interview with BoyleSports, Scottish football legend Kenny Miller, discusses speculation about the future of Celtic Manager Brendan Rodgers.
Miller is full of praise for Rodgers and what he has achieved in British football but also points to some unfinished business that might keep him at Celtic Park for a while longer.
The 44-year-old, who enjoyed a 5-year spell at Wolves during his playing days, also touched upon a potential shake-up at Molineux as some big clubs could come calling for the club’s top talents.
Plus the former Scotland international sheds light on his coaching career to date and his plans for the future.
Brendan Rodgers To Replace Pochettino At Chelsea?
It would take an incredible knock-back if Chelsea were to come calling for him - he’s been there before working in the academy, so he knows all about the club.
For me, Brendan Rodgers is an elite-level manager and there are not too many of them about. You can think of Guardiola and Klopp in the Premier League at the moment - Rodgers is up there with these guys.
He had a bit of a raw deal in the end during his time at Leicester, after his team achieved great stuff off the back of his time at Celtic. You look at his time at Liverpool, where he nearly won the league as well.
In terms of British managers, Brendan Rodgers is right up there and is an elite-level coach, so it wouldn’t surprise me if those types of jobs were on the horizon at some point - that’s the level he’s at.
If that were to happen in the summer, you’d say the Chelsea job is right at the top of that list. I’m a big Pochettino fan as well, to be honest, and I think what he has done with the group he’s got there is building towards something, although they’re far from the finished article.
What Brendan has proved is that he can bring that kind of group together as well. If he were to be given that option, then it would be a really hard one to turn down for Brendan.
Chelsea have a really young, talented squad and in a few years could be in a far better place, and maybe compete for the Premier League.
Rodgers Motivation To Stay At Celtic Park
It would be a tough one to turn down for him. However, I do feel as though he has unfinished business up in Scotland, having left under a cloud last time, during the middle of the 2018/19 season.
There were a lot of unhappy fans, and it was then announced that he was coming back last year because of how he left things. Now, he’s got a month to prove that it was the right decision to come back - to do this, he needs to deliver the league and cup double for Celtic.
In Glasgow, there’s always a positive and a negative. When Phillippe Clement came in, he outshone Brendan, who then came under some unfair criticism because they lost that seven-point lead.
He doesn’t need to prove anything, I’m not saying that, but he’ll feel in himself that he needs to win to stay involved in these types of conversations about the top jobs. He needs to show that he’s a level above and deliver now.
*Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic are 1/7 favourites to win the Scottish Premier League per the latest football odds at BoyleSports.
Wolves
Man City & Other Big Clubs Could Come In for Max Kilman
Man City signed Matheus Nunes from Wolves last summer, so it’s not unheard of for such a move to take place. You also saw the same with Ruben Neves.
So, it’s not out of the question that he could move, and I think a number of the current Wolves players could be on the radar of big clubs, not just Max Kilman.
Matheus Cunha Could Be Summer Target For Big Clubs
Another one, Matheus Cunha has had a decent season and could be on the radar of one of the bigger clubs. There are probably three or four players in the squad who, if they were to move on, would be really tough to replace.
It would be disappointing for Gary O’Neill to lose those players, I think, because of the job he has done. He’s been great, getting some massive results as Wolves manager, and, to be honest, some horrendous decisions against him.
There’s no doubt in my mind that there could be three or four points more considering the decisions which have gone against them. This would put them up with Chelsea pushing for Europe.
They play a good brand of football as well, so I think he’ll want to keep those players to keep pushing on. However, when those clubs come calling it’s hard to keep those players satisfied.
Gary O’Neill’s Impact At Bournemouth
It wasn’t Gary O’Neill’s choice to leave Bournemouth, but what was recognised is the job which he had done. The two teams are so close now, just two points apart, and I don’t think one team has had a particularly better season than the other.
When you look at it, there are maybe four or five referee decisions which have impacted Wolves in particular. This goes all the way back to the opening day of the season with that Man United penalty.
It has been a good season for him, with the job he has done so far, but in football management you can never stand still. You need to be moving forwards, you need to be keeping an eye on the summer and contingencies.
He’ll be looking to improve this season, but for a club the size of Wolves they are in a good place compared to the relative spending power of the top clubs in the league.
Management
We Would’ve Kept Huddersfield Up Last Season
I know that we would have been able to keep Huddersfield in the Championship last season.
When you’re in football, you get a fair idea and I can see how fit and organised we were when I was coaching there. I have no doubt we would have kept that team up, but there were a lot of other things which went into the decision to replace Mark Fotheringham and myself.
I was confident in what we were doing, we were working tirelessly to improve the group. I think that if anybody had actually watched how that team was playing, they would have seen that there was some good work being done compared to what has happened since.
That said, I think that more than just results went into the decision to move Mark and me on. You look back, and you never like to see teams you’ve worked with be relegated, but it has been heading that way for a while, bad league positions catch up with you.
We had full belief when we were there, but when I look back at it the results were not bad at all before we left. There was a little bit more than results which went into the decision.
We were bottom of the league when we came in, then the chairman announced he wanted to sell the club. It was things going on in the background which Mark had to be dealing with and how he handled it was really impressive.
For a young first-team manager to deal with that situation - it was hard to also be on the training ground having the players as fit and organised as they were.
*Leeds are 6/4 favourites to be promoted ahead of the Championship playoffs per the latest Championship odds at BoyleSports.
My Future Is Still In Management
Absolutely yes, that has never changed. I was fortunate to have a long career and played until the age of 40. Others are not that fortunate, but I was still thinking about coaching and management from the age of 30!
It’s not changed, I want to now get back into the coaching game, whatever level that may be. I miss being on the grass, I miss being on the grass around the group.
Being a pundit, you’re always around football watching loads of games on TV, but it doesn’t match being on the grass Monday-Friday, getting a team prepped for a Saturday.
I'm as hungry as ever to get back into it, I went from playing in January 2020 to coaching a month later - there was no time off.
This has been the first season since I was 16, the first time in 29 years that I’ve not been involved in a group as a player or coach. There’s a massive hunger and desire to get in and climb that ladder again.
You have to get in, prove you can do it with a first team, and then climb the ladder. The problem is, it’s far harder than when you’re a player, there are only so many coaching roles and thousands of people who want them.
It’s the best job in the world, and you’ve just got to be patient waiting for those opportunities. My desire to get back in will never change.
It Would Be A No-Brainer For Me If Call Came In From Rangers
There are so many roles in football now - there’s been a lot of press covering the set-piece coach at Arsenal this week. There are defensive coaches, striker coaches, assistant managers and a range of other roles out there.
It would be a no-brainer to go back to Rangers, going in to try and help add value to the project. You’ve got an existing coaching and playing staff there, and you might come across somebody who you click with, then they think ‘he could be of real value to me as a head coach’.
It’s about finding a way to help, where you could really make a difference in a specific area. It’s a big team in terms of the staff, you’ve got the players as a unit but then you need to have a strong working staff to succeed now.
They’re under so much pressure to deliver that you can’t afford to leave any stone unturned. If there was a role like that in the future, then great, but if it was at Rangers it would be an absolute no-brainer.
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