Dundee United yesterday offered fallen star Charlie Miller the chance to repair his rather tattered reputation in Scottish football. While his talent has never been in doubt, stories of his antics away from the playing field had tended to proceed him. Watford gave him the opportunity to become the player he always threatened to be last season, purchasing Miller from Rangers for £440,000. This new start ended on the transfer list, via a brief foray to Wigan reserves. It says much about his contribution at Watford that Graham Taylor allowed the player to go north for free, though United have assumed Miller’s Vicarage Road wage. Miller once seemed to have it all. In many people’s eyes, he should enjoy the type of respect Barry Ferguson currently commands at Ibrox.

Brian Laudrup, who played with Miller at Rangers, recently commented that he was once not alone in thinking the player would be the next big thing to come out of Scottish football. "Yet," he lamented, "I have not seen Charlie’s name mentioned anywhere for the past two years." Yesterday, the player’s new manager Alex Smith used words like "rejuvenation" when introducing Miller at Tannadice. The midfielder, who has been assigned a playmaker’s role by Smith, has signed a two-and-a-half year deal and will go straight into the squad for this afternoon’s meeting with Motherwell. Also signing up at United yesterday was yet another overseas player, Argentinian striker Beto Naveda, who will remain at the club until the end of this season at least. He is a former team-mate of Dundee’s Claudio Caniggia at Boca Juniors, and has impressed in several Under-21 outings. However, it was Miller who remained the most intriguing of the pair of signings made by Smith yesterday, as struggling United attempt to claw their way off the bottom of the SPL table. If ever a player needed a fatherly figure such as Smith to guide them it is Miller, having by his own admission succumbed to the perils of too much free time while at Ibrox and Watford.

The United manager has known Miller since he was a pupil at Castlemilk High School. "I have done some stupid things," admitted Miller. "I have let not only myself, but my family down. But United have given me another chance. I can’t do anything about the past now. I just want to play football again." Miller, still only 24, confessed he was too pampered while at Ibrox. He received a shock upon his arrival at Watford. "They handed me a big bag when I signed. They told me that was my kit, but that I had to wash it first." Such shock tactics did not help Miller at Watford, but Smith hopes they will stand him in good stead at United, a club who in their present predicament have no need for pampered stars.

Smith used the pertinent examples of both John O’Neil at Hibs, and Kilmarnock’s Andy McLaren as motivation for Miller. Both, he said, have come through "the immature years and have become men." ©The Scotsman