Pitch Invasion

When Russia and the Netherlands square off today, there will be more than a semi-final birth at Euro 2008 at stake: the rhetorical prize of being today’s instantiation of Total Football is also on the line.

Alex McLeish and Dick Advocaat go back a bit. As the latter moved upstairs from the manager’s chair to the general manager’s office at Ibrox in 2001, he recommended to Rangers Chairman David Murray that he should pluck Alex McLeish from Hibernian to take up his old job. The two have been friends ever since, [...]