Dons Legend Willie Miller Reveals Pittodrie Pressure

Oct 21 2007 Euan Mclean

WILLIE MILLER has revealed the intolerable pressure of managing Aberdeen affected his mental health.

The Dons legend admits he became a different person under the strain as the fans who used to worship him as a player turned against him.

And he launched a withering attack on former chairman Ian Donald for stabbing him in the back when he was sacked in 1995.

Miller said: "I cared so much about Aberdeen that the pressure of being manager at times became intolerable.

"I can understand what Paul Sturrock went through as boss of Dundee United, likewise Tommy Burns and Billy McNeill at Celtic, Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool, John Robertson atHearts and John Greig at Rangers.

"You crave success more if you have enjoyed a successful playing career at the club you then manage.

"I put myself under more pressure than anyone should have to bear and my mental health suffered accordingly.

"I was so hard on myself when we did not win and fell into black moods. I simply cared too much and managing Aberdeen engulfed me.

"It took over my life and being sacked may well have been a blessing in disguise. I was cocooned in my own world and nothing else mattered, which was unhealthy.

"The most dedicated footballers put everything else on the back-burner and sadly that includes family life. As a player I was pretty relaxed at home but as a manager football took over entirely.

"It changed my personality and I am not proud of the person I became. For three years I felt I was carrying all the cares of the world on my shoulders.

"That was not smart. You must draw the line somewhere or you turn into an argumentative, stress-ridden person.

"Many years later I read about Paul Jewellwhen he stepped down as manager of Wigan saying the stress had changed him as a person. He was arguing with his family and on a permanent short fuse. I could relate to that."

Miller was promoted from first-team coach to the hotseat in 1992 when Alex Smith was harshly sacked despite delivering a League Cup and narrowly losing the league to Rangers in '91.

Smith was victim of the unrealistically high expectations at a club still living on past glories under Alex Ferguson.

Chairman Donald left Miller in no doubt he would face the same pressure to topple a big-spending Ibrox side.

Yet Miller feels he was never given the necessary financial support. And so it proved as Dons finished second to Gers in all three domestic competitions in 1993 with a side amassed on a shoestring compared to the Glasgow giants.

Splitting the Old Firm cut no ice with the board and by Christmas 1994 a downturn in results opened a rift between Miller and Donald.

It widened over New Year then a woeful Scottish Cup performance against lowly Stranraer at Pittodrie, scraping a 1-0 win, brought the pressure to a head.

Miller said: "I was becoming more wound up and after that match I was utterly furious.

"I flung open the dressing-room door and began shouting straight away but it was an old door that swung back against the wall and off its hinges.

"I heard a crash and turned round to see men fleeing from the path of the falling door.

"Nobody was laughing but I would have understood had anyone enjoyed the funny side. I had no alternative but to continue as Mr Angry and laid into the players but it was difficult to concentrate given my slapstick entrance."

With storm clouds gathering and Dons second bottom of the Premier League the next game away to Kilmarnock was make or break. It ended in a 3-1 defeat and his chairman didn't speak a word to Miller on the bus journey home.

Their relationship was about to reach an all-time low.

Miller said: "Ian may not have been speaking to me but clearly someone had been briefing the Sunday papers.

"It is galling to read you are about to be sacked before you are told yourself. It was the first time it had happened to me.

"I read the Aberdeen board would meet on Monday morning and my future was the only item on their agenda. I turned up for work as usual on Monday and took the morning coaching session but felt like a condemned man.

"I had lunch with the players and was just about to shower when a club official told me Ian wanted to see me.

"The atmosphere was decidedly frosty when I entered the room but the knife was stuck in quickly. I felt so disappointed with Ian and his role in my dismissal.

"Although his family had done a lot for Aberdeen and his dad Dick had been a great servant I felt Iwas being removed without much thought to my priorities.

"Given more time I was confident the team I had put together could take the club to success but I was not given that chance. I vowed that as I had walked in the front door of Pittodrie more than 20 years previously with my head held high I would leave the same way.

"I was devastated but managed to stay calm and collected as I made my way through the hordes of journalists outside.

"The standards I set for myself were so high that when we finished second in all domestic competitions to Rangers in 1993 I was furious we hadn't won anything.

"Nowadays any manager would be delighted to split the Old Firmbut back then it was looked on as failure by me, the fans and Aberdeen's board.

"I realise now that I was chasing an impossible dream.

"The days of dominating the Old Firm vanished the minute Alex Ferguson left or Man United and Rangers started to spend big under Graeme Souness."

ABERDEEN legend Willie Miller's superb book The Don - written with Rob Robertson - is out a week tomorrow. But you can read our exclusive extracts, adapted here by Euan McLean, in MailSport first.

Published by Birlinn, The Don - The Willie Miller Story, is released in hardback priced £14.99.

Sunday Mail readers can receive £2.50 off the RRP by ordering directly from BookSource on 0845 370 0067 quoting reference SMail07. Post and packaging is free in the UK. For overseas orders please add £5.