Football: Devil of a job for Advocaat

Phil Gordon sees the Rangers coach setting his sights on Europe

IT IS doubtful if Dick Advocaat will lift his eyes from the Hampden Park pitch for long enough on Saturday to take in the transformation around him. The famous old stadium has needed three years and pounds 65m to put on a new face, but the Rangers coach is setting a shorter deadline on his own construction work. By the time Advocaat has finished, the Dutchman expects to have spent roughly the same rebuilding his team. If he gets his transfers right, then Rangers' future could be as solid as Hampden's.

If Celtic are defeated in the Scottish Cup final, and a domestic treble completed, then Advocaat will, like Alex Ferguson with Manchester United, look to Europe for more concrete signs of progress.

As the anniversary of his first year in charge beckons, few Ibrox fans will begrudge the pounds 40m spent on players to reclaim the Scottish Premier League throne from Celtic. But the man known as the Little General has not finished spending other people's money: well, millionaire chairman David Murray's. "People say that we spent pounds 40m," Advocaat said, "but for that, we got a whole new squad - Manchester United spent around pounds 25m just on three new players last season. Now that is what we must do. The chairman has told me what is available and if I spend pounds 20m, it will only be on three players of top quality. I have the frame of the team that I want, and I only need a few key players."

Advocaat is not spending that kind of money to win Scottish Cups. The former PSV Eindhoven manager realises that his team have the potential to go further, on the evidence of a Uefa Cup campaign which saw them undone in Parma only by 20 minutes of madness from their two experienced Italians: Sergio Porrini was sent off and Lorenzo Amoruso gave away the penalty which made it 3-1.

Yet Advocaat is such a football-holic that he will be spending every waking hour between now and 28 July, when the Champions' League qualifying round begins, bringing in and moving on players until he has the right blend.

Being shown the exits are Stephane Guivarc'h, who was hapless in Newcastle, hopeless in Glasgow and is ready to return to France. "Guivarc'h was world class in his country, but that has not happened here," Advocaat said bluntly.

Also likely to leave is the Argentinian striker Gabriel Amato whose goals recently have altered Advocaat's impression of him, but who wishes to return to the Spanish league after just 12 months. "Amato knows that we have signed Michael Mols [a Dutchman from FC Utrecht for pounds 4m] and he has to make up his mind what is best for himself," Advocaat said.

Not all of the expensive disappointments were restricted to performances. Three men signed during the World Cup finals, the Romanian Daniel Prodan, Artur Numan of Holland and the French goalkeeper Lionel Charbonnier, all saw their seasons finished by Christmas because of injury, but that is more than balanced by the success of Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Neil McCann and Rod Wallace. "McCann is already worth double the pounds 1.9m we paid Hearts, while Rodney came as a free agent and had a brilliant season. When you bring in so many players, it surprised me that we reached such a level of consistency so quickly. We won the league, we did well in Europe and now we can win the cup. But we will have to improve. The Champions' League will be very difficult, but that is where everyone wants to be. It is where I want this club."

And in case you think Advocaat has forgotten all about Celtic, he has not. They are merely another date on his 365-day football calendar. "When we start training on 28 June, everything is history," the Dutchman said, "and we have to start to get the prizes again."