Byline: by PHIL GORDON
IF DICK Advocaat was uncertain of the shoes he was filling at AZ Alkmaar, he had a pretty good idea when he woke up and read the papers yesterday morning. Not so much a dead man's as those of a living legend.
It was not Advocaat's predecessor who was being lauded. Ronald Koeman barely had time to warm the managerial seat at the Dutch champions before he was fired. It was Louis van Gaal, who was voted Holland's coach of the year for guiding the small provincial club to the championship last May.
It was AZ's first title success in 28 years but van Gaal was lured away by Bayern Munich. Koeman took over and lasted just four months before the troubled Dutch champions put out an SOS for Advocaat.
The former Rangers boss had just taken over as national coach with Belgium, after his own departure from Zenit St Petersburg. But he craves football on a daily basis so much that he begged the Belgian FA to let him job-share when AZ chiefs approached him 11 days ago after Koeman was jettisoned.
So are AZ getting half a man, someone trying to bolster his bank balance as he heads towards pension age at 62?
Or have they got someone worth his weight in gold, whose experience is as good as two men in the job?
Arthur Numan -- who was with Advocaat when he said farewell to the Dutch league 11 years ago at PSV, then followed him to Ibrox -- has no doubts it is the latter.
Replica Concord WatchesNuman has watched AZ's troubles this season on and off the park -- they lost their sponsor when DSB bank went bust -- with alarm.
But he is convinced that his old boss can restore stability and live up to the standards set by the iconic van Gaal.
'Dick was my boss for three years at PSV and three more at Rangers. He has never changed,' said Numan.
'He simply asks one thing of his players -- that they give 110 per cent. Not just in games but in every training session. The discipline is intense.
'The AZ players came out in the press after Koeman was fired. They said that, after van Gaal left, they had been looking forward to working with Koeman -- but found the change in methods difficult.
'Van Gaal is legendary for his strictness. Koeman, though, gave the team more freedom.
LED Flexible Strip Silicone Series Silicone 5050'He felt they were old enough to know what to do -- but that did not work. So, once AZ decided they had to change coach, they were looking for the same type as van Gaal -- and that is Dick.
'If you give some players an inch, they will take a mile. If Koeman had less rules than van Gaal, they would be used to that after a couple of months. But I think older players took advantage of the situation and that's why AZ asked Dick to take over.
'They know how hard he works -- ask anyone who played under him.'
Advocaat has not worked in the Dutch league since quitting PSV for Rangers in 1998. He was manager of Holland for two years, taking up that post in 2002 after he had moved upstairs at Ibrox to become director of football when Alex McLeish was
embroidered patches named manager.
The 62-year-old vowed never to work in his homeland again, after the flak he took when Holland lost in the Euro 2004 semi-finals to Portugal.