Miller keen on extending Parkhead stay
26/11/2003 - 16:30:12Liam Miller will play a starring role for Celtic in Lyon – and has indicated his desire to continue doing that at Parkhead for many years to come.
The 22-year-old was demoted to the bench for last night’s Champions League showdown with Bayern Munich as Martin O’Neill elected to recall John Hartson and drop Chris Sutton back.
But with Alan Thompson suspended for the final Group A match in France and winger Didier Agathe looking increasingly unlikely to recover from a suspected hamstring injury, the young Irishman is set to be asked to come back into the midfield.
Miller has no desire to move anywhere and wants to sign a new contract with the club.
“It’s all still ongoing at the moment, but I’m hoping that it will be sorted out soon,” he said. “That’s what I want.
“Everything’s great here, the fans, the players, everything. This is the club I want to be at.
“I’m very happy here.”
O’Neill admits the youngster’s emergence has given him a welcome selection headache.
And while being cautious with him, the Celtic manager maintains Miller’s time is just around the corner.
“Managers generally say that it is a nice selection headache,” reflected O’Neill. “Liam Miller has played exceptionally well.
“We knew that Liam would play some part of proceedings and come on after half-time, but he’s got it all in front of him which is great news.
“I would imagine that by the end of the season and players keep their form I will have one or two selection headaches.”
Celtic need only avoid defeat in Lyon to clinch a Champions League knock-out place – but it will bring back painful memories for Henrik Larsson.
That was the setting for his horrific broken leg in 1999 and O’Neill admits it would be fitting if the Swede could return there to send the Bhoys through to the latter stages before he comes to the end of his contract and leaves in the summer.
“I haven’t thought about that, but it would be very nice for him to go to Lyon and and put us through,” said O’Neill.
Magnus Hedman has, meanwhile, challenged his team-mates to rewrite the history books and end their poor Champions League away form.
Celtic have failed to gain a single point from games at Anderlecht, Bayern Munich, Rosenborg, Porto and Juventus.
And the Swedish goalkeeper has urged his team-mates to help put that right in Lyon.
“Looking at the history of our situation it might not look good, but it is time to change that now,” said Hedman.
“I think we are definitely capable of getting a point and we know we have to go there and give it our best shot.
“It’s easy to say that, but it’s harder to do. We just have to get there and do absolutely everything to get a result.
“We are playing well at the moment and there is nothing that we should fear.
“We will need to play better than we did when we went to Anderlecht, but we are always capable of scoring goals.
“Even against Bayern, we had chances and we always have the quality and ability to do something in front of goal so we have to be positive.
“This group has been as tight as this all the way through.
“The biggest surprise might be that Bayern haven’t won it already because they were expected to run away with it, but it has developed into one of the most exciting groups in the competition.
“It’s come down to the last game for all four teams in the group and we’ll give it everything to get a result against Lyon.”
Celtic, Lyon and Anderlecht all have seven points and Munich six, but they host the Belgium outfit at the Olympic Stadium.
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