Advocaat seeks the right balance

As he balances his commitments between the Dutch national team and Rangers FC, Dick Advocaat will be hoping he can finally end the Netherlands’ reputation for heroic underachievement.

Second time lucky
When the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) offered the experienced coach the chance to become national coach for the second time in his career, Advocaat took his time before giving them an answer. With the Dutch having missed out on a place at the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals after a disastrous qualifying campaign, the job looked a lot less attractive than the coach’s position as director of football with Scottish giants Rangers.

A split decision
However, after lengthy discussions with his bosses at Ibrox, Advocaat eventually agreed to accept the Dutch job provided that he could continue his work of assisting Rangers coach Alex McLeish, who had replaced him as the man in charge of first-team affairs at the Scottish Premier League club.

’It’s high time for achievements’
”I think there's still enormous quality in the Dutch team and that was the most important reason for taking the job," he said. "It's high time for achievements." Having achieved relatively little as a player, Advocaat has proved to be an exceptional coach. Born in The Hague in 1947, it was not until 1971 that Advocaat finally made his way into the top level of Dutch football playing for ADO Den Haag and Roda JC among others before spending some time in the North American Soccer League at the turn of the 80s.

Dramatic appointment
Advocaat was managing in the Dutch lower leagues in 1984 when he was surprisingly selected by national-team coach Rinus Michels as his assistant, and the experience he gathered in that spell helped him to take on his first major coaching assignment with Haarlem FC in 1987. He subsequently moved on to manage SVV Dordrecht in 1989 where he won a second division championship in association with his technical director and future Celtic FC coach Wim Jansen.

Battle with Gullit
Success at SVV brought him to the attention of the Dutch national side again and he was duly appointed as national coach in 1992. His first games in charge were not without controversy as he dismissed Ruud Gullit from the national squad after a half-time row, but he eventually bound the side together and took them to the quarter-finals of the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States where the Netherlands were knocked out in semi-finals by Brazil.

Success at Rangers
In 1995, Advocaat returned to club management with PSV Eindhoven, guiding them to success in the Eredivisie and the Dutch Cup before accepting the challenge of replacing Walter Smith as Rangers coach in 1998. His first two years at the club saw Rangers continuing to dominate Scottish football. In 1998/99, Advocaat guided the club to a domestic treble of the league, Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup and only narrowly missed out on a place in the second stage of the UEFA Champions League to FC Bayern München.

Celtic fight back
More success followed in 1999/00 with a league and Scottish Cup double in a season which saw them end the campaign 21 points clear of Glasgow rivals Celtic FC. However, this was to prove the high-water mark of his spell at the club as a resurgent Celtic under coach Martin O’Neill recorded a domestic treble in 2000/01 and supporters at Ibrox increasingly criticised Advocaat’s small army of Dutch players at the club.

New role at Ibrox
With Celtic starting the 2001/02 season in similarly impressive form, Advocaat continued to be pulled up on his team selections and he eventually accepted the post as director of football at the club while former Hibernian FC boss McLeish took over first-team affairs. However, there was no doubt that he took his new role seriously: "My task is to modernise the whole infrastructure at Rangers," he told reporters.

A fine balance
Whether he can balance his commitment to the club with his duties with the Dutch side remains to be seen – after all, the Netherlands coaching job has been stressful enough for any full-time coach on many occasions. However, with his considerable experience, cool-headed style and respect in the Dutch footballing community, perhaps Advocaat is the man who can finally unlock the huge potential of football in the Netherlands.