Dick Advocaat’s reign at Glasgow Rangers was anything but eventful. Sir David Murray was looking for a manager who could return the Ibrox side to the summit of Scottish football following a lacklustre 1997/98 season in which the club finished trophyless for the first time since 1986.
The Dutchman guided the Gers to five domestic trophies from six during his first two seasons, yet the 2000/01 campaign would go on to be a major disappointment, with Advocaat splashing money to try and salvage some success in a faltering period.
The £12m spent on Norwegian striker Tore Andre Flo in November 2000 would surely go on to be regarded as his biggest blunder, despite some early promise.
Was Tore Andre Flo a success at Rangers?
Spending £12m on a player was seen as an extravagant purchase for teams in the Premier League and Serie A during that time period, but a Scottish club? It was unheard of.
Flo had vast experience in England, scoring 50 goals in 162 appearances for Chelsea while winning both the FA Cup and League Cup during his spell in London. Having also represented Norway at the 1998 World Cup – scoring against Brazil – and Euro 2000, he had a wealth of international experience and although the fee was a major talking point, his credentials perhaps backed it up.
Scoring on your debut against Celtic is one way to introduce yourself and Flo did exactly that in a 5-1 win, before scoring another 12 goals that season, and it looked like money well spent by Advocaat.
New heights were reached in 2001/02, with the lanky striker netting 25 goals across all competitions as Rangers won the Scottish Cup and League Cup yet finished behind their cross-city rivals in the chase for the title.
That was as good as it got for Flo, with Alex McLeish moving him on to Sunderland in the summer of 2002 for a fee of £6.75m, which represented a major loss.
Peter Reid claimed the striker had “excellent finishing skills” and although he did show a glimpse of his talent at Ibrox, his massively inflated fee was a poor indicator of his actual performances with the player himself admitting it was "difficult" in Scotland.
He scored 36 times during his stay in Glasgow, which worked out at around £333k-per-goal with the club well and truly enduring a nightmare on the player who was earmarked to dominate Scottish football upon his arrival at the turn of the century.
Advocaat didn’t make many mistakes as manager, but when he did, they were catastrophic.