Three Years on from Our Last Treble....
Last updated : 09 July 2002 By Ayrshire Billy Boy
On this day three years ago we won the Treble by beating Celtic in the final. With that in mind, and the fact that the glorious Ayrshire Summer has seen my work rained aff for a bit means I had a bit of time to kill and have came up with a brief analysis of Advocaat's time in charge.
 | Advocaat came with a glowing CV |
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Dick Advocaat's arrival at Ibrox represented a bold new step that our Club was taking; for the first time in our history we had appointed a manager from foreign lands. It was a step that was welcomed by the Rangers support at large and the future was looked to with the same optimism that greeted Graeme Souness' arrival on Edmiston Drive.
When it was announced that Advocaat was to be taking over the Ibrox hotseat at the end of 1997/98 season, Rangers were seeking to achieve 10 league titles in a row, but a combination of staleness, injuries, and confusing transfers and tactics put paid to this dream. However, we had a new dawn to look forward to under a man who had taken the Netherlands national team to the World Cup quarter finals in 1994 where they unluckily lost to Brazil, despite clawing back a 2-0 deficit. An impressive CV from his time at PSV suggested Advocaat was the man to take Rangers to a totally new level with regard to standing in Europe.
 | The enigmatic Gabby |
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New players duly arrived at Ibrox during the Summer of 1998. Artur Numan, the Dutch international full back; Gabriel Amato, a mercurial Argentinian who rapidly endeared himself to the Rangers crowd with his skill, strength, dribbling, and effort; Giovanni van Bronckhorst, one of the rising stars of Holland and one who was to prove a very wise purchase on the new manager's behalf; Lionel Charbonnier, a flamboyant French goalkeeper; Rod Wallace, a striker from Leeds, who would again prove to be a very shrewd signing; Andrei Kanchelskis, a lightning fast winger - The stage was set for a new beginning.
Unfortunately, things were not going completely to plan in Advocaat's first competitive game in charge of Rangers as we found ourselves 3-0 down to the part-timers from the Republic of Ireland, Shelbourne Town in the opening round of the UEFA Cup at Tranmere's Prenton Park! The team rallied, however, and overturned this scoreline to eventually win 5-3 on the night and give the Dutchman an uncomfortable but welcome debut victory. We were off and running.
Now to save going through the whole season of 1998 / 98 on a game-by game basis, it will suffice to say that progress WAS being made and it looked as if Murray had made the deal of a lifetime in bringing Advocaat to Ibrox. Wins over a vastly under-rated PAOK Salonika in the UEFA Cup, and a highly creditable aggregate victory over Beitar Jerusalem saw us progressing nicely in the UEFA Cup after the original scare in the opening round. The League campaign was progressing well with Rod Wallace scoring goals for fun and we were motoring along nicely, and the manager had further endeared himself to the Ibrox fans by firmly putting the pompous and egotistic Hugh Keevins in his place live on radio by stating in no uncertain terms who the manager at Ibrox was.From then it was onto a game that saw Rangers record a win in Germany against German opposition for the first time in decades with a quite brilliant 2-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen which further increased Advocaat's standing among the Bears. Things were slightly tempered though, with a black day at Parkhead in November 1998, which the least said about the better, although a happier day at Parkhead later that month saw Rangers lift the League Cup, beating St Johnstone 2-1.
Rangers also showed how much they had progresses under the new manager with two highly creditable performances against the Italian giants, Parma, although the UEFA Cup run was to end here.
 | Albertz scores as the Dims shamed themselves |
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The turn of the year though, saw Rangers 10 points clear of Celtic and looking good for the League Crown, and with the football the team was playing, the supporters were confident of what lay ahead. Apart from one or two slip ups along the way, the League Flag was duly hoisted above Ibrox Park thanks to a quite incredible 3-0 win at Parkhead.
 | TGFITW? Mr Royle puts it well - MY ARSE Part 1 |
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 | TGFITW? Mr Royle puts it well - MY ARSE Part 2 |
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This of course meant Rangers won the Title at the home of Celtic for the first time ever, and saw Advocaat's status elevated to God like among the Rangers support.
 | Treble Winners! |
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Couple this with another first in the Scottish Cup Final of 1999 - Rangers completing the Treble against Celtic for the first time ever - and it seemed The Little General could do no wrong, and he was to carry that adulation into the following season.
The brilliantly talented Michael Mols arrived at Ibrox for a ridiculously low £4m and immediately became a favourite with the Rangers support. Advocaat further increased his standing with Rangers achieving one of the best results in their history by knocking Parma out of the Champion's League.
 | Mols - a matter of "what could have been..." |
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The Valencia games apart, Rangers acquitted themselves admirably in the group stages: home and away victories over PSV Eindhoven, and two exceptional, but ultimately fruitless performances over the giants of Bayern Munich once again saw Rangers respected in Europe. Unfortunately, Europe also saw Rangers losing Michael Mols with what was to be a career-wasting knee ligament injury.
The league campaign was becoming a procession and after a 4-2 win over Celtic at Ibrox in November there was little doubt the league flag was staying home. Sadly though, we were out of Europe before Christmas again as we lost on penalties in Dortmund despite winning 2-0 at Ibrox in the first leg.
 | Gio scores in the 4-0 win |
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However, it was just a case now of completing the formality of the League race. The manager further enhanced his standing with the Bears with a win at Parkhead and a 4-0 demolition of Celtic at Ibrox; a win that wouldn't have been flattering to Rangers even if the result had been doubled, such was our superiority. A 4-0 win over Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup Final gave us the double and, simultaneously, our 100th domestic trophy. This was the stuff dreams were made of. We were MILES ahead of our biggest rivals, we were playing some wonderful football, and we were rapidly becoming the team nobody wanted to draw in Europe.
As for Advocaat, he seemed to be able to do no wrong. Almost ALL of his signings were working out perfectly, and not all of them expensive, such as the highly talented midfield duo of Tugay and Claudio Reyna, who arrived for a combined fee of £2.5m. In Giovanni van Bronckhurst, we had the complete midfielder who complemented Barry Ferguson perfectly. Things hadn't looked as good as this in years. However for reasons best known only to himself, Advocaat decided to disrupt the best team most of us had seen in years, and brought in players who simply weren't up to the task at hand, and for some reason a lot of the cohesion and fluidity had vanished from the team.
A number of utterly uninspiring displays against the likes of Zalgiris Vilnius, Kilmarnock, and Dunfernmline was harly ideal preparation for a visit to Parkhead against a resurgent Celtic and so it was to prove with a shambolic Rangers display being utterly exploited by their opponents. Much of the blame was heaped on Advocaat's new signings and it was his attitude here that saw his crown begin to slip among sections of the Ibrox Loyal.
It was obvious he was determined his team selection was based on how he could fit other players around his newly arrived countrymen, and this was to ultimately prove his undoing. The master tactician we idolised in the previous two years was proving to be a man who would not succumb to pressure and was going to pick his countrymen no matter what, even to the detriment of the team.
 | Yet another glorious failure |
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He gained some of his lost credibility back with two wins out of two in the Champion's League group stages (although one has to say the victory in Monaco was highly fortuitous, with Rangers defending desperately for the 82 minutes after they scored) which encompassed a 5-0 destruction of Sturm Graz at Ibrox. Ultimately, this was to be of no avail as Rangers lost to Galatasaray and produced a woeful performance in Graz, which, after a home draw with Monaco, saw us back in the UEFA Cup although that sojourn didn't last long with Rangers being swept aside by Kaiserslautern.
The League campaign was progressing dreadfully, with a 3-0 home defeat to Kilmarnock being a particularly low point, and with the manager resolutely sticking to his guns and refusing point blank to accept any suggestion that his refusal to drop substandard players had anything to do with the woeful quality of Rangers' play. A 5-1 win over Celtic was a welcome relief, but, although it gave us something to celebrate, was ultimately worthless come the end of the season. (Which couldn't come quick enough for most of us!)
Even the arrival of £12m man Tore Andre Flo couldn't lift Rangers' season as they stumbled from one bad result to another. Back-to-back defeats to Celtic in the League Cup and League ended any interest we may have had in those competitions and a quite abysmal performance at Tannadice in which Rangers didn't manage a single goal on target saw us exit the Scottish Cup. All we had to play for now was pride, and to fall from the dizzy heights of May 2000 to the depths of March 2001 was a pretty painful fall.
| His stubborness was ultimately the downfall |
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The low point of one of the worst seasons in living memory, and probably the point when a lot, if not the majority, of Rangers supporters decided Advocaat had taken the club as far as he was able to came in an embarrassingly bad defeat to Celtic at Ibrox. What made this an even bitter pill to swallow was the manager himself admitting when Celtic went a goal up he knew Rangers wouldn't get back in the game. An appalling statement for a Rangers manager to make and one that should have seen him out the door. He picked the team and was ultimately responsible for what went on on the field of play.
While all this was going on, Advocaat and the Chairman were playing games with the support regarding the manager's future. Cryptic statements about whether he was going or staying was a disrespectful way to treat people who put their heart and soul into Rangers and flannel like "A decision might or might not be taken soon" was NOT the way to influence people to put more hard earned money into a club already heavily in debt.
It was apparent from the start of last season that Advocaat's heart wasn't in it, and the decision for him to leave should have been taken long before it was.
Thankfully, and dare I say it, against a lot of Rangers supporters' expectations - manfromdelmonte and BlueRibbon excluded who are Bears I know who were both shouting for McLeish's installation as manager - we have a guy in charge who has worked wonders with the shambles he was left and we can once again look forward with optimism.
 | McLeish delivers with a team when Advocaat failed |
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The mess we were in is one of Advocaat's own making - of that there can be no doubt and it's to the credit of Alex McLeish that he has battled against overwhelming odds to produce results and reinstall a fighting spirit.
Why Advocaat dispensed with a perfectly workable system to accommodate players even HE didn't know would play is mystifying. Why he sold an entire class midfield and replaced them with has-beens, never-was' and failed centre-halfs smacks of a man determined to see things through right to the bitter end purely to prove a point, and an ego like that has no place in the Rangers' managerial chair.
He sold valuable players and either didn't replace them at all or included in the team mercenaries who couldn't care less about the result, but only when their next pay cheque will arrive. The lack of team spirit that was apparent for all to see was thanks to DA's policies. In short, we were a shell of a team.
So, Dick, thanks for the five trophies in your first two years and the good results in Europe, but eventually, I would suggest you'll be remembered as the man who built an excellent team then tore it apart with your own pigheadedness.
But in looking to the future - more of this will do just fine.....
 | Some more of this would be nice |
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AYRSHIRE BILLY BOY