Alex Miller (born 4 July 1949) is a Scottish football manager and former player. As a player, he had a 15-year career with Rangers, winning several trophies. As a manager, he won the 1991–92 Scottish League Cup with Hibernian. He subsequently worked for Premier League club Liverpool for nine years, However, under coach William Waddell, he was mostly a second choice player and was not in the squad in one of the biggest successes of the club's history, the triumph in the 1972 European Cup Winners' Cup Final.
It was only after Jock Wallace took over as coach that he became increasingly used, often as a substitute.
Coaching career
Early coaching career
Miller was appointed as player-manager when he played briefly for South China in Hong Kong in 1983, but was unable to save the club from relegation. He then had the same role at Morton in the first part of the 1983–84 season before contentiously joining the Greenock club's rivals, St Mirren, who were at that time in a higher division.
St Mirren
Miller managed St Mirren from 1983 until 1986. He guided the Paisley club to qualification for European competition. One of their all-time great nights came in a European campaign when in 1985, Slavia Prague were knocked out after a 3–0 Saints win at Love Street. Miller moulded a side that would win the 1987 Scottish Cup Final, but departed during that season.
Hibernian
Miller was then manager of Hibernian from 1986 to 1996, through a "difficult" period in the club's history, as the club came through financial problems. He led the team to victory in the 1991–92 Scottish League Cup,
Coventry and Aberdeen
Miller then moved to Coventry City, accepting an offer from his Scottish compatriot Gordon Strachan to become assistant manager. A year later, unable to resist the challenge of being his own man again, he moved to Aberdeen taking over the manager's post from Roy Aitken. However this stint was not a successful one and he was replaced in 1998 by Paul Hegarty.
Liverpool
Miller joined English Premier League side Liverpool as Director of Scouting under Gérard Houllier in 1999. However, when Rafael Benítez was appointed manager of Liverpool in 2004, he overhauled the scouting system. Miller then subsequently worked as first team coach, helping the club win the Champions League in 2005 and the FA Cup in 2006. Miller left Liverpool in May 2008 to manage Japanese side JEF United Chiba.
JEF United Chiba
Despite taking over the club when they had taken just two points from eleven games, Miller managed to guide the team to safety from relegation. However, following a string of poor results in the next season which the club was in the relegation zone, Miller's contract was terminated by the club in July 2009.
AIK
Miller was appointed manager of Swedish team AIK in June 2010 as the successor of Mikael Stahre and the interim solution Björn Wesström.
Sibir Novosibirsk
Miller was appointed head coach of Russian First Division club Sibir Novosibirsk in January 2012. Miller became the first British head coach in Russian football.
Return to St Mirren
Miller returned to St Mirren on 3 November 2015, as assistant manager to Ian Murray. He became caretaker manager after Murray resigned in December.
Managerial statistics
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
!rowspan="2"|Team
!rowspan="2"|From
!rowspan="2"|To
!colspan="5"|Record
|-
!G!!W!!D!!L!!Win %
|-
|align="left"|South China
|align="left"|1983
|align="left"|1983
|-
|align="left"|Morton
|align="left"|1 August 1983
|align="left"|5 October 1983
|-
|align="left"|St Mirren
|align="left"|8 October 1983
|align="left"|16 December 1986
|-
|align="left"|Hibernian
|align="left"|15 November 1986
|align="left"|30 September 1996
|-
|align="left"|Aberdeen
|align="left"|21 November 1997
|align="left"|8 December 1998
|-
|align="left"|JEF United Chiba
|align="left"|2008
|align="left"|2009
|-
|align="left"|AIK
|align="left"|22 June 2010
|align="left"|10 November 2010
|-
|align="left"|Sibir Novosibirsk
|align="left"|10 January 2012
|align="left"|20 April 2012
|-
!colspan="3"|Total
|}
Personal life
Two of Miller's sons, Graeme and Greg, both played for Hibs while Miller was manager there. Miller also employed Greg as a coach while he was manager of JEF United Chiba.
Hibernian
- Scottish League Cup: 1991–92
- Tennents' Sixes: 1990
- East of Scotland Shield: 1989–90
Aberdeen
- Aberdeenshire Cup: 1997–98