Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes has the perfect profile to take over the Rangers job, according to former Ibrox boss Dick Advocaat.
The Dutch coach knows McInnes well from his time in Glasgow, with the Aberdeen boss playing under him at Rangers for two seasons in the late nineties and winning a treble under his charge, playing in the Scottish Cup final victory over Celtic that sealed the historic feat.
Another player to ply his trade in Govan under Advocaat, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst, is now the shock second favourite for the vacant managerial post after his odds tumbled yesterday.
The former Barcelona full-back is currently in a stable position though in charge of Feyenoord, who he guided to their first Eredivisie title in 18 years last season and where he is considered a club legend, so he would still seem like a long shot despite his low odds for the post.
McInnes remains the most likely to take over at Ibrox, and as Advocaat arrived in Aberdeen to take charge of his country for the penultimate time this evening at Pittodrie as The Netherlands take on Scotland in the granite city, he offered his opinion on the frontrunner to assume his old mantle.
"He did a great job at Aberdeen [and] he's the right age," Advocaat said.
While pleased to be back in familiar territory, Advocaat said he expects a tough test against a Scotland side with a similar point to prove to his own squad, with both sides having failed to make next summer's World Cup.
"It's always pleasant to come back," he said.
"[But] there are no friendly games anymore. Let's wait until after the game to see who comes out on top."
Meanwhile, former Celtic defender Virgil van Dijk is looking forward to returning to a stadium which holds happy memories for him.
It is where he experienced his first taste of the Scottish game, and it is an atmosphere he is looking forward to savouring once again. He also hopes to find the time to catch up with some familiar old faces.
"I made my debut at Aberdeen, we won," said van Dijk, who also fondly recalled; "Then I scored the winning goal [the following season], just before time up."
"I'm looking forward to seeing my former Celtic team members. I am also looking forward to tasting the atmosphere, and seeing the Scots again."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel