|
Advocaat was close to Rangers return
By PETER JARDINE
| |
|
|
Dick Advocaat: 'They decided to take another
road and didn't take me for the manager's job' (dailymail.co.uk)
|
Dick Advocaat last night revealed how he agreed with Sir
David Murray to become Rangers manager for a second time.
But the chairman's fascination with Frenchman Paul le Guen ultimately
cost the Dutchman his chance to return to Ibrox.
The Zenit St Petersburg boss was back in Glasgow in midweek to watch next
week's UEFA Cup Final opponents and renew his close friendship with Murray
and Rangers legend John Greig. However, he could have returned much sooner.
Alex McLeish was embroiled in a club record 10-match winless run in November
2005 when Murray apparently tapped-up Advocaat, four years after he relinquished
the hot-seat to Big Eck.
"I could not come back to Rangers now, but in the past there was
one period when there was something wrong at Rangers and it could have
happened," said Advocaat. "I spoke to David at that time. He
phoned me, or maybe I phoned him.
"I was not against the idea. So many things had been happening and
I was thinking: 'Well, why not?'
"But they decided to take another road and didn't take me for the
manager's job."
It seems the 'deal' struck as McLeish struggled and Le Guen initially
swithered, during his year's sabbatical after success at Lyon, was for
Advocaat to return to the helm until the summer of 2006 - when the Frenchman
duly arrived.
Advocaat didn't mind missing out, though, as he landed Guus Hiddink's
former job with South Korea for a king's ransom and was treated like royalty
in the Far East.
"The Rangers job again would have been for an interim period,"
added Advocaat. "Happily, it didn't work out because then I got the
South Korea post and took them to the World Cup. You would have to have
seen what it was like out there to understand."
Daily
Mail, 9th May 2008
|
|
