Icons of Football: Willie Miller

BBC Radio Scotland listeners are used to hearing the authoritative voice of Willie Miller and the former Aberdeen and Scotland defender is featured in the latest series of BBC Scotland’s Icons of Football.

Here, those who know him best look back at his career.

‘Winning was always his mantra’

Sir Alex Ferguson, manager at Aberdeen

He was a leader in the sense that winning was always his mantra.

It was a great achievement, you can’t put it all on one person but in the moments when it really mattered, in the last 10 minutes, he was fantastic – him and [Alex] McLeish, because they were having a go.

That’s when good players become winners, when it’s really needed, when games are decided on how they defend.

In the eight-and-a-half-year period I was at Aberdeen, he gave a without doubt, 100% guaranteed performance every week.

I think the best accolade Willie can have is that he captained the best Aberdeen team for years – and he never let them down.

‘Never, ever panicked’

Gordon Strachan, former Aberdeen and Scotland team-mate

As a player, indestructible.

Willie could always work it out, it was like chess for Willie, he would always work out where the ball was going to land. He had an intelligence to narrow down where the ball was going to go.

He had the ability to never panic. Never, ever panicked.

He’s got an aura about him, Willie. I think that was built up with his performances on the pitch and the way he handled winning.

I can never remember him getting a runabout from anybody. Even when we played Germany, the likes of [Karl-Heinze] Rummenigge found him hard to play against because they found him hard to play against and if it got to a physical battle, he could do that as well.

Scotland’s greatest defender

Graham Hunter, journalist

If you’re an Aberdonian of anything like my vintage, what he taught you was that you could do anything, anything in life, literally. He changed my life.

We were waiting for the moment when a club might come in and tempt him sufficiently, but he said no. Willie was like, ‘this is my turf, I’ve built a fiefdom here, I’m going to conquer everything’.

To lead and dominate those around you but not subdue them, is a really big skill.

He’s part of the Aberdonian culture forever now.

He is the greatest central defender Britain has ever produced; Bobby Moore would have cleaned his boots in honour of him.

Graeme Park, DJ

He was our greatest defender ever and perhaps Scotland’s greatest defender.

Apart from being the best defender Scotland’s ever produced, and the captain of Aberdeen, he is such a lovely man. I don’t think he realises how special or important he is to people like me.

That’s the best compliment I can give him, there’s not arrogance or self-importance about him. He’s just this bloke called Willie who happened to have lifted the Cup Winner’s Cup, Super Cup, Scottish league titles, Scottish Cups and League Cups. An absolutely wonderful man.

‘A complete hero’

Jane Franchi, former BBC broadcaster

We had the oil industry, the city was in a huge place and on top of it all we had the best football team in Europe. The city was buzzing at that time.

A complete hero, Willie Miller. When the St Clair left to go to Gothenburg the decks were covered in red and white and the fans were singing, “there’s only one Willie Miller” and of course, they were absolutely right.

I found it a huge honour [to deal with him as a reporter]. You have to remember we’re going back 40 years; female reporters were kind of thin on the ground at that time. I think there were two or three of us in the whole of Scotland, television reporters.

In a way, I possibly prepared myself for being regarded as a “girlie”. And I was a general reporter, not a football reporter, I couldn’t have discussed tactics with you or anything.

So I, in the early days, would approach these interviews with considerable trepidation that my ignorance, if you like of tactics and such, would be shown up. Never. I was treated with such huge respect by Willie. He treated me with absolute respect.

‘Scared of nothing’

Alex McLeish, former Aberdeen and Scotland team-mate

Why’s he an icon? Consistency of excellence.

I can remember my debut for Aberdeen, Billy McNeil told me I was going to be playing beside Willie Miller and this was a guy I’d been watching on the telly the previous years. It was kind of surreal.

Willie was quiet but when he said something you knew you had to listen.

He had gravitas when he was walking about the dressing room or Pittodrie and when we’d go to other clubs you could see he was scared of nothing.