Dick tried to sign Darche for Rangers

May 11 2008 By Gavin Berry In St Petersburg

DICK ADVOCAAT has revealed he tried to sign Rangers hitman Jean-Claude Darcheville during his time in charge at Ibrox.

The French ace will be one of the big dangers to Advocaat's Zenit St Petersburg side in Wednesday's UEFA Cup Final in Manchester.

And the Dutchman knows all about his talents after watching videos of him in action when he was boss of the Light Blues. But Advocaat was unable to tempt Darcheville to Scotland and his successor Alex McLeish also failed with a similar bid.

Walter Smith made it third time lucky after finally landing the player on a Bosman in the summer.

And it has proved a shrewd bit of business with Darcheville contributing some vital goals in a dream debut season as Gers chase glory on four fronts. And Advocaat fears his signing target could yet come back to haunt him.

Speaking to MailSport at Zenit's training ground the manager said: "I never saw Jean-Claude live as we had no time to watch potential signings in action because we played so many games.

"That's the reason it's important to have a good scouting system in Scotland and I see Ewan Chester is back scouting at Rangers.

"I remember watching videos of Darcheville. He is a demanding player who works all day.

"In the end the signing wasn't possible and I'm sure at that time he was on the fringes of the French national team.

"He is an out-and-out striker, a target man, and we will watch him closely on Wednesday night."

One player Advocaat is adamant he DIDN'T try to sign for Zenit despite reports at the time is his protege Barry Ferguson.

After Fergie's fall out with Paul Le Guen it was claimed Advocaat tried to lure him to Russia but when he missed out opted instead for Anatoliy Tymoschuk.

However, Dick admits the pair would make a dream partnership in midfield with Tymoschuk sitting and Ferguson getting forward.

The Dutchman said: "I like Barry as a player but didn't try to sign him. It was more important to get a player in who could speak the language.

"But there's no doubt they could play together, Ferguson can play all over and Tymoschuk can hold. They are both top players."

Advocaat once caused controversy at Ibrox by stripping Lorenzo Amoruso of the captaincy and handing it to Ferguson - but the hardline boss has taken changing his captain to new levels at Zenit St Petersburg with Tymoschuk his fourth in the last year.

Vladislav Radimov first had the armband but was involved a bustup with Fernando Ricksen in a pre-season trip to Malaga.

The Russian was replaced by fans' favourite Andrei Arshavin but the striker broke a curfew the night before an important league match with Spartak Moscow.

Arshavin paid the price by losing the captaincy and was sent to train with the reserves with the armband passing to Erik Hagen.

However, the fact the Norwegian - now with Wigan Athletic - couldn't speak Russian led to a string of problems and he lasted less than a month.

That paved the way for classy Tymoschuk to take over.

He has proved the most successful, lifting the Russian title last season and leading the team to the UEFA Cup Final.