Maccabi Tel Aviv are expected to announce within the next 24 hours that Kenny Miller will remain in charge after guiding the team to the State Cup title. The appointment, which was not necessarily the expected end-of-season decision, gives the club a chance to keep a coach whose biggest early impact was mental rather than tactical.
Miller, a former striker, was a major player for Celtic and Rangers, scoring more than 250 goals in 785 appearances and 18 more for Scotland. He is best remembered for his Rangers years, including a five-goal game against St Mirren. His coaching path began while he was still playing, first as a player-coach with Rangers Under-20s and later as a player-coach at Livingston, where he even scored a late winner in the League Cup after coming off the bench. That spell ended after seven weeks when the club wanted him to focus only on coaching, but he continued as a player until 2019.
After retiring, Miller quickly moved into staff roles in Australia, Scotland, Al-Wahda, Atlanta United and then Maccabi under Donis, whom he is said to be very close to. He also faced criticism from a pro-Palestinian Scottish group for coaching in Israel, similar to the backlash Robbie Keane once received. At Atlanta United he was Donis’s top assistant, and this is now expected to be his first serious run as a head coach.
Miller replaced Donis on May 4 and has overseen seven matches, winning three. The article says that, given the busy schedule and the desire to save energy for the cup final, he did not show much tactically, beyond maintaining continuity. The main change was psychological, especially in the motivational talk before the final that Maccabi posted on social media. He is credited with keeping players connected, a trait that could secure him a full-time role next season, when he will for the first time help build the squad and make selection decisions. He beat Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Petah Tikva convincingly, but dropped points in every other match.
