RANGERS CAN GIVE PSV ANOTHER RUUD AWAKENING

AFTER the Scottish Cup final in 1999, I was told that Rangers were looking to sell me. I wasn’t in Dick Advocaat’s plans but, as the new season dawned, nothing had materialised and I was prepared to let my contract run down.

Eventually, I was brought back into the fold. Advocaat said he was impressed with my work ethic and so he selected me to start in a Champions League match against PSV Eindhoven.

It might have been a surprise to people on the night but two or three days before the game he indicated that he was going to play me. And he told me exactly why.

He knew Ruud van Nistelrooy well and suggested that, while the striker was an assassin capable of finishing the tie, he could not do it on his own. He told me that 70 per cent of Van Nistelrooy’s goals were assisted by Luc Nilis. And he said we’d cut the legs off Van Nistelrooy if we stopped Nilis.

Nilis was a brilliant centreforward or No10 in his own right, a Belgian international with bags of experience.

He showed me some clips on Nilis and told me my job was solely to mark him — don’t let him enjoy the game, annoy the life out of him, be a pest, kick him, do what you need to stop him having an effect on the game.

I had never done man-marking before and I only did it once more at West Brom when I man-marked Giorgi Kinkladze against Derby.

The two reacted very differently to my attention. Nilis was a bit forlorn and was eventually substituted. He didn’t show his annoyance at me, whereas Kinkladze was a bit more obvious in his displeasure!

Nilis was physically bigger than me but he wasn’t as quick as Kinkladze and Advocaat told me he’d get frustrated and I’d get the chance to go and play off the back of him. I managed to work off him and got loads of touches.

We beat PSV 4-1 that night and while I was given man of the match, for me Mikey Mols was the main man in a magnificent team performance.

It could have been six or seven. We blew them away and the fans played a huge part in that.

I had a specific job to do but I was surrounded by so much quality.

We scored some good goals, Barry Ferguson and Giovanni van Bronckhorst were outstanding in midfield, big Lorenzo Amoruso at the back.

But Mols was unplayable. Playing against a Dutch team, he had plenty of motivation and while he’d had some big moments for Rangers, that was some performance.

And when I think of all the big atmospheres I played in front of at Ibrox that was right up there.

I wasn’t happy with how Advoccaat had treated me in the first place. He wouldn’t have apologised for it but maybe bringing me back in was his way of admitting he’d got it wrong.

I think he liked me, he just didn’t love me enough. There were other players better than me but he was wrong to treat me the way he did and I told him that when I left. After being told I wasn’t required, he needed me for that night.

I had no problem with the fact the club didn’t want me to run down my contract. My problem was that he didn’t tell me face to face.

My performance in that game and a couple of others probably persuaded Toulouse to pay £600,000 — a great move for me and my family.

When you’re a supporter, you hang around clubs like Rangers for those moments. While I was there I always felt I performed to the best of my ability, never more so than that night.

You don’t see that man-marking role so often now. At Aberdeen, I used to say to Scott McKenna that he had to get into Alfredo Morelos’s head when we played Rangers.

But that wasn’t a man-marking job because Morelos takes you into areas you don’t want a centre-back going.

Graeme Shinnie was also good at nullifying the threat of the opposition’s best player.

But man-marking is a different discipline.

As they return to Glasgow for the first leg of their Champions League play-off this week, PSV have Van Nistelrooy in the dugout rather than on the pitch. They’re not likely to face a man-marker either.

But, in terms of the crowd, they can expect more of the same.

The Ibrox atmosphere has become such a big thing for this Rangers team, but what we had back then was equal to what we witnessed last season.

Giovanni’s team did brilliantly to get to the Europa League final last season but they need to avoid having an over-reliance on their home form.

I expect they will go to the Netherlands with an advantage and get through the tie but it won’t be over after Tuesday.

PSV will have their own expectation and demand but Rangers’ experience from last season will be a help and the fact Giovanni knows the Dutch game so intimately will help, too.

That win over Union Saint-Gilloise last midweek felt like a huge hurdle. The difference between the home and away performances was clear. Sometimes a team needs that first test to get that strength and edge into their game.

Rangers have lost two starters from the team that got to Seville and there’s no doubt the sales of Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo has weakened them in those areas.

Bassey came on so much last year — that’s why there was so much interest in him and that’s why Ajax paid the big fee.

Aribo was always in the Rangers team for the big games.

It’s too early to judge the new arrivals but the signs from Tom Lawrence and Malik Tillman are good.

Morelos being back and another week on can help. Maybe even more so in the away game.

Antonio Colak has similarities but Morelos just has more to his game. If he can improve his fitness and be ready to start, then having him to lead the line over in Eindhoven will be important.

A lot of Rangers’ bigger Ibrox performances last season came in the second leg, so this is a reversal.

I think they will need two big performances. They won’t get away with one as they did against Union, when they put the tie at risk by being so off their own levels in Belgium.