Dick Advocaat's back-handed Rangers compliment to Billy Dodds as former Ibrox star reveals training ground bust-up

The striker-turned-pundit was forced out of Rangers under Advocaat but played a big part in the early stages of the Dutchman's tenure.

The cracked ribs were painful enough but trying to crack a smile under Dick Advocaat’s watch hurt so much more.

Twenty years ago today, Billy Dodds enjoyed one of the greatest moments of his career when he fired Rangers to the Scottish Cup.

He maintained his record of never losing a cup final as a player as he completed a unique domestic haul of medals.

Rangers turned Hampden orange that day in honour of their Dutch manager and players as they swatted aside Aberdeen 4-0 when the Dons lost keeper Jim Leighton to injury after only two minutes.

A domestic Double had been completed, just 12 months after Advocaat had led Rangers to their sixth Treble in history in his first season in charge.

However, it was to prove the high water mark in Advocaat’s two-and-a-half year tenure as Martin O’Neill arrived at Parkhead that summer and reclaimed Celtic’s position of prominence domestically.

Rangers failed to win another trophy under Advocaat, now back in charge of Feyenoord after a managerial odyssey around the world that could have been scripted by Jules Verne.

Dodds said: “It’s incredible to think we won the title from Celtic by 21 points that season then lost it by 15 points the following campaign. That’s some point swing.

“The Scottish Cup victory against Aberdeen was a great final for me even if, as a spectacle, it was pretty boring.

“It gave me my first winner’s medal in the competition and completed my collection that included an SPL title with Rangers, League Cup with Aberdeen and First Division and Challenge Cup with Dundee.

“But it came at a cost. I scored our third goal with a back post header but then ended up embarrassed with cracked ribs after Rod Wallace splattered me against the post at the fourth.

“Jorg Albertz took a shot from distance, it smacked off the underside of the bar and Rod and I were neck and neck trying to nudge it over the line.

“He got there first and pushed me into the woodwork side on. It took me six weeks to recover.

“In the end, we shouldn’t have bothered because the shot from big Jorg landed two yards over the line anyway and he was credited with the goal.”

At the age of 30, Dodds had moved to Ibrox only six months earlier in a £1.3million deal from Dundee United and in the second half of the season scored 15 goals for his boyhood favourites.

He netted 10 times in his first 11 games of the following season, including crunch doubles in the league opener against St Johnstone and Champions League qualifier against Kaunas.

Astonishingly, though, Advocaat refused to make him a first pick and wasn’t slow in letting him know, even to the point of bluntness.

Dodds said: “I was flavour of the month when I first arrived at the club and you could see players such as Colin Hendry, Sergio Porrini, Gordon Durie and Ian Ferguson felt they were on their way out.

“It’s not that Dick didn’t speak to them, it’s just they felt like outcasts. It happened to me two years later. If he didn’t make you feel part of it, you knew you were on the way out.

“I liked Dick but he was ruthless, even if I didn’t always like the way he went about it – and he did have a funny streak as well.

“Craig Moore signed for Dick at Borussia Monchengladbach and they had dinner that night. Dick kindly asked after me, because he knew Craig and I were pals.

“He told Craig, ‘I like Billy – not as a player but as a person.’ I started the 2000-01 season on fire.

“I scored 10 goals in our first 11 games. I was flying and still he left me out of his starting team and it came to a head when he put me on the bench for our Champions League match against Strum Graz.

“He pulled me aside afterwards on the training ground and said, ‘Billy boy, you are unbelievable, excellent. You are the only one of my second XI who shows me they want to be in the first team.’

“Later on, when he became the director of football, he was on the balcony at Murray Park wearing a smile on a lovely, sunny day and again showed his sense of humour.

“He leaned over when he saw me coming off the pitch and said, ‘Hey Billy boy, I see you have a new car. That’s a lovely X5. You see, I always looked after you!’

“I grabbed a ball, booted it at him and shouted up, ‘It took me 20 years to get that, you get one every time you join a new club. Dick by name, d*** by nature!’”

There were no dressing-room bust-ups in Advocaat’s third season, no stories that can be told two decades down the line of bitter arguments, fisticuffs or fallouts.

Dodds said: “We didn’t win anything and I don’t know what changed. Perhaps the balance wasn’t right.

“With Dick, what you saw was what you got and perhaps that was his downfall. If his first XI were fit, they played. You knew where you stood. His handling of squad players could have been better. But no one turned on Dick, it just wasn’t as happy a place.”