Dick Advocaat swept into power at Ibrox in summer 1998 as Rangers' first-ever foreign manager. The club had spent the previous decade years accumulating trophies and titles by the shedload under the guidance of lauded managers Graeme Souness and Walter Smith, but by the time they lost the Scottish Cup final to Hearts in May 1997, it was agreed that this era and team had run out of puff. All great things must come to an end and all that...

In a rarely-seen move in football then or since, Advocaat had been confirmed as manager months prior whilst still employed by Dutch champions PSV, even appearing at Ibrox on occasion and famously watching all first-team and reserve games prior to his arrival. The 50-year-old was heavily backed in that first Ibrox summer with around £30m spent on a host of international stars - and more to come throughout the season - as he was tasked with bringing the title back to its rightful home after the failed 10 In A Row campaign.

For a 12-year-old boy from Glasgow, watching the Brazil vs Netherlands 1998 World Cup semi-final and not only dreaming of seeing some of those players play at Ibrox, but for it actually to be in light blue was way beyond my expectations. We truly had it all; the captain of PSV and buccaneering left-back Arthur Numan; one of the brightest young Dutch talents in Giovanni Van Bronckhorst; a lightning-fast winger who has lit up Old Trafford in Andrei Kanchelskis; there was even some South American flair in fleet-footed Argentinian forward Gabriel Amato.

Later that year, Rangers would also sign Stephane Guivarc’h, France’s starting striker as they won that 98 World Cup by defeating Brazil 3-0 in the final. Guivarc’h was a lesson that playing at the elite levels in football doesn’t automatically mean you will do the business in little old Govan, but it was the statement of the signing rather than the execution of the player that left an indelible memory.

It was a time of financial excess but it would be simplistic to suggest that Advocaat simply bought his way to trophies. For all the talk of revolution, just three new signings started Rangers' first match of the 1998/99 season, a wild and breathless 5-3 victory against Shelbourne in the UEFA Cup First Round Qualifying.

We often think of the changing of eras as happening in a click of the fingers but rarely are these landmark eras ever as rapidly unfolding in real-time. An element of handover will always occur and players who perhaps would expect not to be part of the next phase of Rangers end up not only remaining but playing vital roles in future success.

Who could have predicted that a new tactically astute and worldly Rangers manager with wads of cash to spend would see fit to give Tony Vidmar 39 appearances in that first season? Or that Ian Ferguson - by this time a 31-year-old veteran (with a 19-year-old namesake breathing down his neck) - would still have the energy and desire to keep going into the new world when almost all of the players he had fought and won beside over the previous 11 years had departed the club? Would anyone have thought that Craig Moore, a young utility man under Walter Smith and one of the first players out the door that summer would return to play such a starring role in central defence when a Premier League club couldn’t afford to pay the money to complete his transfer?

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The fusing together of old and new almost instantly into the most stylish Rangers team most fans have ever seen wasn’t a tale of luck, or of simply spending the most money. It was a manager who recognised how to build a team and how to mould it in his image, but also make it as cutting edge and modern as possible.

It was a team who would sweep all before them domestically to claim the club's 6th domestic treble amd simultaneously go toe to toe with teams that boasted many multiples of the manager's spending power on the European scene.

It’s a fascinating subject and Advocaat is equally fascinating as a coach and manager. He is, incredibly, still managing at the age of 75 in Holland with his first professional club, ADO Den Haag. A 36-year managerial career has seen him appointed to a top job 25 times including the Dutch National team on three occasions and given far-flung appointments with international teams such as South Korea, UAE and Iraq. On the club front he has managed in Holland no fewer than 11 different times with spells in Germany, England, Russia and Turkey peppered in between. It’s an incredible career with so many different experiences.

It’s for all the reasons above and more that I have chosen to write my second book on the subject of Dick Advocaat’s tactical philosophy. But not just at Rangers. The book will focus on Advocaat’s coaching career prior to his move to Scotland to understand his ideas in more detail and brought him to Rangers with such a disciplined and forthright attitude to the game.

From his early days as a student of the legendary Rinus Michels through his explosive time in charge of Holland during World Cup 94, to managing a young Ronaldo in his first spell at PSV in the mid 90’s, I’m hoping to speak to the players, coaches and journalists who knew him best to paint as clear a picture as I can of exactly how he liked his teams to play football.

As with my first book, Gerrard’s Blueprint, I’ll attempt to illustrate the theory of Advocaat’s tactical approach at Rangers in and out of possession to try to outline at a detailed level why Rangers played the way they did during this time.

Advocaat’s coaching staff and approach changed during his reign, so I’ll chart the evolution of the team and their tactics from season to season and investigate what impact players leaving and signing had on the team and how they played football.

Football tactics are mostly about the players, and there are so many interesting threads to unravel from this era. The book will dig deep into each position on the field to understand how each player fulfilled their tactical roles within the Dutchman’s team. Throughout, we will pull out key games throughout Advocaat’s three-and-a-half-year tenure and analyse the important milestones that helped define a hugely successful spell for Rangers. Tugay and Derek McInnes filling the sweeper role so well on the European scene, a young Barry Ferguson dominating top German opposition as a mere teenager or the transformative impact a relatively unknown 28-year-old striker from Utrecht had - and potentially could have further had - on what appeared to be an already perfect tactical setup.

When I think of Advocaat, I think of the glorious team goals scored against Parma, Dortmund and more on those heady European nights. His arrival ushered in the club's first, and most successful, continental era and will be a fascinating one to reassess. 

For more information on Adam's book, follow his Little Generalist Twitter account here.