Motherwell star shelves transfer speculation amid Rangers murmurs as he names what's really important to him
The Motherwell star has had transfer speculation around him for a while.
Lennon Miller says he’s happy to do his talking on the pitch for Motherwell amid transfer chat off it - as he eyes a return to Hampden one day.
The midfielder hadn’t trained much due to a knock in the build-up to facing Rangers at the national stadium on Saturday. He turned in an impressive performance in the heart of the engine room as Stuart Kettlewell’s injury-hit side narrowly lost 2-1 in the Premiership against Philippe Clement’s.
Rangers are one of the clubs who have been prominently linked this summer but a host of English teams have had mentions since his breakthrough into the senior Motherwell fold. After an injury disrupted last campaign, Miller says this is the year to make his mark, with rumours put to one side.
He said: “I've had rumours about me for quite a while now. It just gets put to one side and I try and focus on taking my time at Motherwell, and trying to do the best for this club. Sometimes there's the odd comment from the lads in the changing room, but I just focus on playing for Motherwell and enjoying it.
"The manager gave me a chance last year and I'm trying to repay him by playing first-team football. That's what I've wanted to do since I was a young boy, and luckily I did that last year.
"Hopefully I can kick on this year. Last year was my breakthrough season, I was 16 breaking into the first team. This year I feel like it's my big year to show what I'm made of and be consistent for the whole year. I had an injury last year, but this time I want to stay as fit as I can for the whole season and prove myself."
Motherwell faced off against Rangers at Hampden due to renovation works at Ibrox. Having won his first cap for the Scotland U21s side during the summer, Miller hopes to one day be back in Mount Florida representing his country at senior level.
He said: “Obviously I’d love to represent my country anywhere, never mind here at Hampden but that comes afterwards. Now my focus is on Motherwell. Is the national team a target for the long term?
“Yeah, it’s obviously a big goal. I played for the 21s during the summer, it’s something I want to do, I want to represent my country and hopefully I can do that.”
Miller missed a big chance to put Motherwell ahead against the Light Blues, with Cyriel Dessers and Vaclav Cerny goals eventually enough to see them suffer defeat for the first time in the league this season. Miller reckons Kettlewell’s team put up a good fight.
He added: “Obviously coming to Hampden to play Rangers, it’s never going to be easy. But I felt like we acquitted ourselves well enough and had the odd chance which meant we probably could have got the point.
“Did I have a wee bit too much time to think about my chance? A wee bit. I’d seen Apostolos Stamatelopoulos in the box and I was going to pass to him but then I just decided to shoot and dragged it wide. These things happen.”