World News
Dick Advocates English Challenge
ZENIT St Petersburg boss Dick Advocaat has admitted that he still wants to manage a Barclays Premier League club.
Advocaat, who faces his former club Rangers in Wednesday's UEFA Cup final at the City of Manchester Stadium, was pipped for the Blackburn job by Mark Hughes four years ago.The Dutchman has managed Holland twice and has had spells as boss of PSV Eindhoven, South Korea, United Arab Emirates and Borussia Monchengladbach.
However, the coach dubbed 'The Little General' still has a hankering to manage in England.
"That will still come," he said. "Definitely. It will happen if the right club comes for me.
"It has been strange, because I feel I have done well.
"My first two years at Rangers were good. I've been, two times, the coach of Holland.
"I've been a champion in Holland, Scotland and Russia."
Advocaat, like Sir Alex Ferguson and Walter Smith, is now in his 60s and the Zenit boss believes he is the prime age for management.
He said: "When I became the manager of Holland again after Rangers, they wanted the younger men - like the (Jurgen) Klinsmanns, the (Marco) Van Bastens, the (Ruud) Gullits.
"But now they look at guys who are 58, 59, 60. You've got Trapattoni with Ireland at 68 - and he has a four-year deal."
The Dutchman admits he made the wrong choice in stepping down as Ibrox boss in December 2001 to become director of football at Rangers before quitting altogether the following summer to take over as Holland boss on a full-time basis.
"I now regret I quit in December," he said.
"David Murray (Rangers owner) wanted to step down at the time so I felt it might be right for me as well and I was also so tired.
"But we went through in Europe in Paris to the last 16 of the UEFA Cup and we still had the League Cup and Scottish Cup to come.
"Feyenoord knocked out Rangers, with Alex McLeish in charge, and went on to lift the trophy."
Copyright (c) 2008 Press Association
Have YOUR say - What do you think about "Dick Advocates English Challenge"? Tell us NOW in the comment section below.
Have you got a scoop? Tell us about it and you could be the first to break the news on FourFourTwo.
