When Davide Chiumiento and Sebastien Le Toux left Vancouver Whitecaps this week, speculation was rife and expectations high that the Caps would be making a significant player announcement pretty soon.
With the rumour mill in full flow, lots of names were getting thrown around, but the one which has seemed to stick, backed up by articles in the UK from <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/scotland-on-sunday/sport/football/football-news-in-brief-miller-poised-for-vancouver-move-1-2413187" target="_blank">The Scotsman</a> newspaper and <a href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/footballnation/football-news/2012/07/14/vancouver-whitecaps-move-to-sign-cardiff-city-striker-kenny-miller-91466-31396331/" target="_blank">Wales Online</a>, is that of Scottish international striker Kenny Miller.
Now we're usually loathe to write about rumours here at AFTN. As others have found out, too much speculation on what you think is a done deal can leave you looking rather foolish with much egg on your face.
Having personally spoken to a couple of sources in the UK though, we're going to make an exception to this, after being told that Miller's transfer to Vancouver is "90-95% a done deal" and is just waiting on some important final discussions on personal terms and fees.
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Get those eggs ready.
Kenny Miller is a striker with a good pedigree, having played and scored at the top level for club and country.
At 32, many will perhaps see his best days behind him, but he still has a lot to offer, especially in a league like MLS.
Miller started his career at his hometown club Hibernian (which also included a loan spell with Stenhousemuir in the Scottish Third Division) before securing a move to Rangers in the summer of 2000.
His first spell at Ibrox was mixed, but did see him score five goals in one game against St Mirren, before falling down the pecking order a little and being first loaned out to Wolves and then permanently transferred there.
He then made the almost unprecedented decision to make the move back to Scotland to play for Rangers' Old Firm rivals Celtic. He was only the third player to have done this. One of the others was Mo Johnston and we all saw how his MLS career fared!
Miller struggled at Parkhead though, and was never fully accepted by the Celtic fans, and he was soon back in England with Derby County for a season before Rangers came in to bring him back to Ibrox for a second time.
He spent two and a half seasons back in Glasgow, scoring 55 goals in 108 appearances in all competitions, and won the 'Golden Boot' as the SPL's top scorer for the 2010/2011 season. Despite leaving in January, he had notched 21 goals in just 18 League games.
Turkish side Bursaspor came in to sign Miller during the January 2011 transfer window, but he never settled in Turkey and made the move back to the UK that summer to Cardiff City, where he is currently under contract.
And therein lies one potential stumbling block to the move.
Unless Cardiff City free him (which is unlikely as they paid £900,000 for him just a year ago), the Caps will have to pay a transfer fee for him.
It may not be too much though, as Cardiff look to be quite keen to offload him to free up his wages and allow them to bring back local hero Craig Bellamy.
The Cardiff fans also seem to have differing opinions on Miller, with many not rating him and glad he is leaving and others disappointed that he may soon be away. Not unusual for football fans!
So why MLS? Why not another Championship side?
Like many footballers once they reach their thirties, Miller is a family man and the prospect of starting a new life for himself and his family will play a big part in his decision as to where to go next in his career. Barry Robson has already indicated to us that was one of the big things that swayed him to come to Vancouver.
Miller married his wife Laura in 2010 and they have a daughter together called Sloane. Miller also has a son from a previous relationship.
As mentioned, it wouldn't be the first time that he has looked to ply his career abroad, having joined Bursaspor of Turkey on what was meant to be a two and a half year contract.
Despite scoring 5 goals in his first 15 games for the Green Crocodiles, he failed to settle and found himself away from his family a lot, so he looked for a move back to the UK and ended up at Cardiff under Scottish manager Malky Mackay.
Now Canada is obviously a lot easier to settle in for a Scot than Turkey, but there do have to be some alarm bells ringing about whether he will be able to settle well over here.
He will be helped of course by having a Scottish management team and his good friend Robson to help him get used to Canadian life.
Miller has also had experience of MLS teams and stadia, having played here during Celtic's 2006 North American tour and most recently for Scotland against the US in a friendly in Florida.
The initial reaction to Miller's proposed move has been mixed and I do have some concerns myself.
Many have wrongly dismissed him as being no better than Sebastien Le Toux. With all respect to the Frenchman, Miller's resume is a lot more stellar and so is his proven track record. He has played and captained his country, and played in the Champions League and the Premier Leagues in England, Scotland and Turkey, scoring goals everywhere he has gone.
Others are just dismissing him because he is Scottish and think Martin Rennie is just bringing him in for that reason. I won't even dignify that train of thought with a comment.
One of my concerns is his age. He is 32 just now (33 in December) and will just add a further increase to the average age of the current Whitecaps side.
In saying that, this also means experience and this is something which Martin Rennie has already told AFTN that he puts a lot of stock in.
How many good years does he still have left in his tank and has he already lost a little of his goalscoring touch?
He struggled at times with Cardiff City last season, scoring 11 goals in 50 games during the Bluebirds disappointing Championship campaign, including one on his debut .
He has still been finding the net for Scotland and made his most recent appearance for the national side in the 5-1 drubbing by the US in Jacksonville in May, where he played the full ninety minutes.
Miller plans to still be a part of the Scotland set up as the next World Cup qualification campaign gets under way, so the Caps would lose his services for some games.
My other big concern would be is he worth the money that the Caps will have to shell out to bring him over? I'm not sure he is.
Apart from having to pay the Bluebirds a transfer fee, Miller is on a good salary at Cardiff and would likely need to be a Designated Player in MLS for the Caps to be able to entice him here.
That would mean the Whitecaps featuring three DP's and having to pay the League $250,000 for that privilege alone.
His salary would hit Vancouver's salary cap by $350,000 next year and $175,000 for the remainder of this year, if he were to come as a DP right away. $300,000 was freed up with the Chiumiento transfer.
There is certainly a way to bring him to Vancouver now and not make him a DP until next season. That would avoid the "luxury tax" if we were then to ship out or downgrade Eric Hassli once he comes to the end of his two year contract.
This addresses my concerns a little as to how it affects the Whitecaps budget, but it still doesn't get over the fact that I'm not sure that Miller is Designated Player material in the first place.
But how do we measure if he is? Hassli is loved and was on a guaranteed $900,000 last year and $790,000 this. Does his 12 goals in 44 MLS games justify that? If the answer is yes, then Miller will get those goals too, of that I have no doubt.
If we're going down the DP route again, I would prefer it to be for someone younger and also perhaps in a different area of the field (unless Hassli is to go).
The biggest question we have to ask is can he cut it Major League Soccer? And I have to think that the answer is yes.
A proven goalscorer will always get goals and he has so far managed 187 career goals in 547 club appearances. That's an average of a goal every three games. he is just under that mark for Scotland with 16 goals in 60 matches, including strikes against Germany, Italy, Croatia and the Czech Republic.
If he comes to Vancouver and grabs 10 or 11 goals a season, I'd be very happy. Anything less and I'll think it a failure.
The best comparison we can have and make for Kenny Miller is his fellow Scot Kris Boyd at Portland.
Both players are very similar in style and get goals wherever they go. One big difference between the pair is that Miller didn't turn his back on his country over a petty personality clash and a better than he thinks he is attitude. He'll always be held in high esteem in my book for that.
The biggest difference between the two though is workrate.
Boyd is younger and has always been that little bit more prolific, averaging a goal every two games in his career, thanks to his early scoring exploits with Kilmarnock and Rangers. He can also be a lazy and frustrating player at times, often wanting the ball played to his feet and doing little work tracking back.
Miller on the other hand works his ass of all over the pitch. He does have a tendency to drift in and out of matches, but more than makes up for it in the others.
He will bring Le Toux's busy engine to the team, whilst also giving our attack something it has been badly missing, a deadly aerial presence. He scores a lot of goals with his head.
I don't think that Kris Boyd has really set the heather alight down in Portland this season, but 7 goals from 18 appearances ain't too shabby really so far. It's more than any of our guys have got.
With Kenny Miller being a very similar style, if he were to have a similar return then I think even the current doubters in the Whitecaps support will be happy.
By the sounds of it, it's not going to be too long until we get a chance to find out.
Watch this space.
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