Bonnyloyal
Well-Known Member
Dick Advocaat and I didn’t exactly get on at Rangers.
Let’s be honest, everyone knows we didn’t see eye to eye. But it had nothing to do with football.
This was personal.
For my old team-mate, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Advocaat was a mentor.
And there’s no doubt in my mind that, as a coach, Gio will have taken things he learned from Advocaat into his management.
I’ve heard that it’s been a bit more strict around Rangers’ training ground since Gio took over from Steven Gerrard.
That doesn’t surprise me. That’s the Advocaat influence
But despite my differences with The Little General, it can definitely be a good thing for Rangers now.
When the Dutch contingent arrived at Ibrox back in my day, Giovanni was one of the players brought in to take my place.
We soon found out about the quality he brought as a player.
Being a left-sided midfielder, I knew he wanted my shirt. And in that Advocaat era, it wasn’t new to me. Dick brought a lot of players in to play in my position.
But if Rangers had brought in a German coach, we’d have had a German staff and players.
As a manager, you want people around you who you trust
That’s what Dick did at Rangers. We just didn’t get on. But that was because of things that went on behind the scenes.
It was definitely personal with me and Dick. But in a football sense, what he brought to the club was incredible.
And listen, it wasn’t as if I never played under Advocaat. I still played a lot of games.
It wasn’t just Gio I was competing with at training.
It was Tugay, Claudio Reyna, Neil McCann – you can’t start a game with four or five left-footed players.
Advocaat had so much quality to choose from – he could pick a team and didn’t have to explain why he left you out
He could choose between me and someone else – and most of the time he’d pick someone else!
But thankfully, I wasn’t sitting in the stand. I can’t say that he completely blanked me.
He maybe wanted to do that but if he did, there might have been a riot at Ibrox from the fans.
You can see the animosity for yourself. Look at the away game in the Champions League against PSV Eindhoven in 1999.
Seriously, watch it.
I don’t know if people will see it the same way but I came off the bench and scored the winning goal.
The TV camera goes to Advocaat after I scored and you can see in his mind, he’s saying: “Why did it have to be him that scored?”
Look at it. He’s saying to himself: ‘Why him’? Just because he left me out of the team.
It’s going through his head at that moment, how can I leave him out of our next game now?
That’s proof that it was personal between him and I. He should have been happy – so why wasn’t he?
If someone else had scored that goal, he’d have been jumping up and down.
I have to say, the Dutch players he brought in – Giovanni, Arthur Numan, Ronald de Boer, Fernando Ricksen, Bert Konterman and Mikey Mols – were all top quality.
And having those guys there was good for everyone, including myself. That’s because if you have quality around you, it makes you play better.
But was it necessary to bring in a Dutch doctor and a Dutch guy to run the youth academy? I’m not sure.
Remember, it’s still a Scottish and British club. Giovanni has brought his Dutch staff in with him, which isn’t a surprise.
But it’s important that he keeps that Scottish or British connection within the club and at the training ground.
He needs people there who have been there for years.
Obviously, he has to add his own influence. He’s got the experience of being at Arsenal and Barcelona, as well as everything he learned from Dick.
And he’ll know the Dutch market inside out so he’ll look there for players.
There’s no doubt that most of the players he’ll bring in will be from Holland.
That can be a good thing but what shouldn’t happen is that he ends up with 11 Dutch players on the pitch.
You need to have a balance. At Rangers, he still has to have a Ryan Jack or a Nathan Patterson in the side, 100 per cent. That’s so important.
We had that with Barry Ferguson. He gave us our Scottish identity and that’s why Dick was clever in giving him the captaincy.
When I think back to Advocaat as manager, it was impossible to compare him to Walter Smith before him.
Walter wasn’t just a gaffer to us, he was a father figure.
He knew he could call any player, at any time, day or night, and we’d be on a pitch doing everything for him. He was a superb man-manager.
And he also gave us freedom after training. We could go into the kitchen and get food by ourselves, for example.
Of course, it was different under Dick. He wanted everyone there at the same time.
We even had to start eating meals at the same time.
But the most important thing of all is that players feel comfortable.
And I’m sure Giovanni is doing that now, judging by the results he’s had so far.
It didn’t surprise me to see him go into management.
I have to say, I don’t understand why Steven Gerrard left Rangers. I know why he did it but the timing wasn’t right.
That’s not what you do to a club like Rangers. It was totally wrong.
But it looks like it’s been a good thing with Giovanni stepping in.
He’s won every game and conceded just one goal so far.
Between him and Roy Makaay, who I know from his time at Bayern Munich, they have so much experience.
It’s been the right decision for Rangers and a dream come true for Giovanni because he’s now at a major club.
He’s been outstanding so far. He has really hit the ground running at Rangers – just like Dick did back in 1998.
Advocaat won every domestic trophy available to him in his first season and did well in Europe.
I’m sure Giovanni would settle for the same.
Let’s be honest, everyone knows we didn’t see eye to eye. But it had nothing to do with football.
This was personal.
For my old team-mate, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Advocaat was a mentor.
And there’s no doubt in my mind that, as a coach, Gio will have taken things he learned from Advocaat into his management.
I’ve heard that it’s been a bit more strict around Rangers’ training ground since Gio took over from Steven Gerrard.
That doesn’t surprise me. That’s the Advocaat influence
But despite my differences with The Little General, it can definitely be a good thing for Rangers now.
When the Dutch contingent arrived at Ibrox back in my day, Giovanni was one of the players brought in to take my place.
We soon found out about the quality he brought as a player.
Being a left-sided midfielder, I knew he wanted my shirt. And in that Advocaat era, it wasn’t new to me. Dick brought a lot of players in to play in my position.
But if Rangers had brought in a German coach, we’d have had a German staff and players.
As a manager, you want people around you who you trust
That’s what Dick did at Rangers. We just didn’t get on. But that was because of things that went on behind the scenes.
It was definitely personal with me and Dick. But in a football sense, what he brought to the club was incredible.
And listen, it wasn’t as if I never played under Advocaat. I still played a lot of games.
It wasn’t just Gio I was competing with at training.
It was Tugay, Claudio Reyna, Neil McCann – you can’t start a game with four or five left-footed players.
Advocaat had so much quality to choose from – he could pick a team and didn’t have to explain why he left you out
He could choose between me and someone else – and most of the time he’d pick someone else!
But thankfully, I wasn’t sitting in the stand. I can’t say that he completely blanked me.
He maybe wanted to do that but if he did, there might have been a riot at Ibrox from the fans.
You can see the animosity for yourself. Look at the away game in the Champions League against PSV Eindhoven in 1999.
Seriously, watch it.
I don’t know if people will see it the same way but I came off the bench and scored the winning goal.
The TV camera goes to Advocaat after I scored and you can see in his mind, he’s saying: “Why did it have to be him that scored?”
Look at it. He’s saying to himself: ‘Why him’? Just because he left me out of the team.
It’s going through his head at that moment, how can I leave him out of our next game now?
That’s proof that it was personal between him and I. He should have been happy – so why wasn’t he?
If someone else had scored that goal, he’d have been jumping up and down.
I have to say, the Dutch players he brought in – Giovanni, Arthur Numan, Ronald de Boer, Fernando Ricksen, Bert Konterman and Mikey Mols – were all top quality.
And having those guys there was good for everyone, including myself. That’s because if you have quality around you, it makes you play better.
But was it necessary to bring in a Dutch doctor and a Dutch guy to run the youth academy? I’m not sure.
Remember, it’s still a Scottish and British club. Giovanni has brought his Dutch staff in with him, which isn’t a surprise.
But it’s important that he keeps that Scottish or British connection within the club and at the training ground.
He needs people there who have been there for years.
Obviously, he has to add his own influence. He’s got the experience of being at Arsenal and Barcelona, as well as everything he learned from Dick.
And he’ll know the Dutch market inside out so he’ll look there for players.
There’s no doubt that most of the players he’ll bring in will be from Holland.
That can be a good thing but what shouldn’t happen is that he ends up with 11 Dutch players on the pitch.
You need to have a balance. At Rangers, he still has to have a Ryan Jack or a Nathan Patterson in the side, 100 per cent. That’s so important.
We had that with Barry Ferguson. He gave us our Scottish identity and that’s why Dick was clever in giving him the captaincy.
When I think back to Advocaat as manager, it was impossible to compare him to Walter Smith before him.
Walter wasn’t just a gaffer to us, he was a father figure.
He knew he could call any player, at any time, day or night, and we’d be on a pitch doing everything for him. He was a superb man-manager.
And he also gave us freedom after training. We could go into the kitchen and get food by ourselves, for example.
Of course, it was different under Dick. He wanted everyone there at the same time.
We even had to start eating meals at the same time.
But the most important thing of all is that players feel comfortable.
And I’m sure Giovanni is doing that now, judging by the results he’s had so far.
It didn’t surprise me to see him go into management.
I have to say, I don’t understand why Steven Gerrard left Rangers. I know why he did it but the timing wasn’t right.
That’s not what you do to a club like Rangers. It was totally wrong.
But it looks like it’s been a good thing with Giovanni stepping in.
He’s won every game and conceded just one goal so far.
Between him and Roy Makaay, who I know from his time at Bayern Munich, they have so much experience.
It’s been the right decision for Rangers and a dream come true for Giovanni because he’s now at a major club.
He’s been outstanding so far. He has really hit the ground running at Rangers – just like Dick did back in 1998.
Advocaat won every domestic trophy available to him in his first season and did well in Europe.
I’m sure Giovanni would settle for the same.
