Where to park and what shoes to wear. Shota knew Dick’s time was up
Shota Arveladze is sure Giovanni van Bronckhorst won’t need to fix much for the mid-season manager change to be magic for Rangers.
The Georgian striker was at Ibrox when Alex McLeish replaced Dick Advocaat 20 years ago.
Big Eck quickly created a happy camp again, and led the Light Blues on a 23-match unbeaten domestic run.
That four-month streak started in mid-December and ended at Livingston inApril.
Now van Bronckhorst’s Scottish football bow as a boss is set for West Lothian today
And Arveladze reckons the Dutchman won’t need to fiddle endlessly with formations, or tinker too much on tactics, to be an instant hit.
With the core of the Invincibles intact, the Georgian is convinced all the quality is in place for the reigning Premiership champions to kick on, and return to that form.
The talent was there in 2001/02, too, but Arveladze insists they’d tuned out Advocaat.
Arveladze explained: “Dick was a typical, old-school Dutch guy, who looks at every single point, every single action, and every single piece of body language of his players.
“That’s the way he worked, and part of why he had so much success in his career.
“Sometimes it can be exactly what’s needed.
“But it got to the stage where we needed someone to trust us to be ourselves, and to let us express ourselves.
“Someone who didn’t go so deep into everything – from how we work to what shoes we wear, and where we must park our car.
“Maybe Dick was too long in the job, almost four years of the same. Sometimes it gets too much.
“And sometimes the answer is quite simple. Don’t change so much if the quality of player is there.
“In that moment, Alex didn’t change the system. He just tried to put everyone important in the team.
“He could talk and be calm, he could joke. But, at the same time, he kept highlevel training sessions going, and asked for the maximum from the boys.”
McLeish took the reins with Rangers 12 points behind Celtic, while Advocaat moved upstairs.
He stood no chance of catching the rampant Hoops, who only lost once in the league and earned 103 points.
But Eck ousted Martin O’Neill’s men
from both cup competitions on the way to silverware, then landed the Treble the following season.
Van Bronckhorst is in the unusual position of taking over while top of the league by four points, but on a domestic downer.
Performances have, by and large, been sub-standard.
And, despite Thursday’s Europa League win over Sparta Prague, he might need to address the mood in a camp that’s the focus of controversy from Connor Goldson’s “hunger” rant after last Sunday’s League Cup semifinal defeat to Hibs.
Arveladze said: “It’s good this has come out, from the first day for van Bronckhorst.
“Everyone will respond now. Everyone is awake to this issue. Football players losing hunger? They can find it again quickly with a new manager!
“I believe if you have the best team in the country, which Rangers are, then they have the quality still to succeed.
“Gio will discuss with everyone why this or that has not gone right. It’s his job to remind them where they are.
“To remind them everything that’s happened in the past is in the past. To remind them they shouldn’t tolerate anything other than being the best, and to win.
“We went on this long unbeaten run under Alex McLeish. It shows things can happen quickly that no one expects.
“With Alex, after the first few games, we really liked it. Players thought: ‘This is why they brought this guy here. It’s a good sign’.
“But it will now be important for Gio to start with victory at Livingston, then hopefully keep that going.”