It’s Miller time for the Whitecaps By Steven Sandor Posted on July 16, 2012 Comments Off on It’s Miller time for the Whitecaps 0 699 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter The Vancouver Whitecaps hired a Scottish coach last year. Since then, Martin Rennie has brought in two Scottish designated players. On Monday, the Whitecaps announced the expected signing of Scottish striker Kenny Miller to a Designated Player contract. He will join countryman Barry Robson, who made his Caps’ debut earlier this month. “We’re delighted to bring an experienced striker like Kenny to our club,” said Whitecaps coach Rennie in a release issued by the club on Monday. “He has been a proven goalscorer with big clubs in Scotland and played in the England Premier League. His speed, energy, and work rate will be a valuable asset to our club, as we look to have a strong second half of the season in MLS.” Miller’s salary-cap hit will be US$167,500 for 2012, as he’s a DP for just half the season. Miller, who was a scoring star for Celtic and, later, Rangers, most recently played for Cardiff City of the English Championship; he scored 11 goals in 50 matches for the team. He also scored six times in 15 matches for Turkish side Bursaspor in 2010-11, and also scored 67 times in 145 games for Rangers. Kenny Miller But, to be fair, it’s hard to take goals scored for Rangers or Celtic (that is, in the Rangers’ pre-bankruptcy years) all that seriously. The Scottish League is so non-competitive and tilted that it’s easy to see any stats of Rangers and Celtic players as being somewhat padded. Of course, Miller is not the first high-profile Scot who played for both Celtic and Rangers to make the move to MLS. Mo Johnston scored 31 times over six seasons for the Kansas City Wizards and won an MLS Cup. Of course, he would later to become the director of soccer for Toronto FC, before being relieved of his duties in 2010. He also ran the New York Red Bulls’ front office in 2005-06. Miller is still part of the Scottish national team set-up; Scotland has a friendly at home to Australia Aug. 15, and World Cup qualifiers Sept. 8 and 11 against Serbia and Macedonia, respectively.