Smith knows the scorer

Jun 8 2008 Gordon Waddell

IT'S bordering on a full-scale insurrection. Has there ever been a bigger backlash to a signing than the one Rangers fans are mounting against Kenny Miller?

Chances are the move will go through this week - but what price will they pay? Over and above the two million quid, that is.

Because fans are not just shouting it from the rooftops that they don't rate the player.

They're making it clear they don't trust their manager. That's what they're saying, right? It's got nothing to do with the fact Miller played for Celtic?

Nothing to do with him thumping the badge when he scored against them?

But everything to do with the fact they don't think he's good enough? Fair enough. They're entitled to their opinion.

Yet Walter Smith obviously thinksMiller's good enough, or he wouldn't be blowing a healthy chunk of a not-sohealthy summer budget on him.

That hasn't stopped supporters filleting Miller as a dud - which makes this as close to a vote of no-confidence in Smith as you can get.

You'd like to think by now he'd earned their respect. That when he made a judgement call on a player, or on football full stop come to think of it, that he had more knowledge on the subject than the rest of us put together. It's not as if he hasn't proven it to them already.

They mocked the signing of Davie Weir as an over-the-hill plodder. Nice work. They slaughtered Christian Dailly's arrival. He did them a turn.

And hell, we're talking about a man who coaxed enough out of Kirk Broadfoot for the big man to be able to say to his grandkids that he played in a European final, something no sane person would ever have put dough on.

In August, they annihilated him for his tactics at home against Red Star Belgrade - the same tactics that got them all the way to Manchester and gave them a 3-0 away win over Lyon, arguably their best Euro result in a generation.

But re-signing Miller? They're STILL not buying it. STILL not giving Smith the benefit of the doubt.

I understand the arguments. I get their reservations. Everyone had them a few years ago until Miller lit that blue touch paper under himself.

He's a player who has always sparked a black or white reaction. From Scotland fans, Hibs fans, Rangers fans the first time around, Celtic fans when they had him.

Some love him for his workrate, others claim he couldn't trap a medicine ball.

In September 2005 he scored three in four days for Scotland against Italy and Norway at the absolute peak of his powers, and followed it with four in four games for Wolves.

He'd have needed the Strathclyde Fire Brigade to douse him back then.

Yet two years on he was a player Gordon Strachan threw back into the pond.

And the bottom line is, for Rangers fans, he's not the leap forward they were hoping for.

Yes, Miller will give them a shift every week and he'll run the channels chasing lost causes like a dog after a rabbit.

And by the way, fair play to him. He must have balls of steel to take this on and become the first player in a century to jump the Old Firm dyke twice.

Especially because he's a switched-on guy, he'll know exactly what the fans are saying about him.

But the Rangers fans clearly think they're entitled to better.

Why else would they expend their Cup Final vocal chords chanting "You can stick your Kenny Miller up your arse?"

Why would the subject spark a debate on their main website over dozens of threads, one that ran to nearly 2500 replies?

Will Smith play him alongside Kris Boyd? He only ever did it once for Scotland, against the Faroe Islands at Parkhead.

Or will he be the lone striker in Europe, despite the hints that the style will change next season? That seems to be a big talking point - whether he's good enough for that level.

To be fair, at Celtic Miller only started five Champions League games and scored three goals, which would suggest he has his moments.

But here's the thing. Europe doesn't matter a monkey's for Rangers or Walter Smith next season. Seriously. It doesn't matter a damn thing.

Sure, they need to get into the Champions League groups for the dough, maybe even for the kudos.

Once they're there though? Anything other than finishing third and opening the same parachute and the same can of worms they did this season.

Because when it boils down to it, ALL that matters for Rangers, ALL that keeps Walter Smith in his job, is stopping four in a row.

Nothing else.

And if he thinks signing Kenny Miller does that? He has earned the right to do it without having to run the gauntlet to get him.