Two Rangers managers — one present, one past — spoke of their inexorable fate around the club yesterday. While Walter Smith admitted that this second tour of duty at Ibrox would probably be his last job in football, Dick Advocaat revealed that he nearly returned to Rangers as manager in November 2005, six months before Paul Le Guen’s ill-fated reign.

Smith and Advocaat will confront each other in the Uefa Cup final in Manchester next Wednesday. Yesterday, however, both men revealed how Rangers and Sir David Murray, the Ibrox chairman, have been such influences on their destinies.

Smith, now aged 60, said that, whatever else might unfold in the future at Rangers, he didn’t really see himself taking another job after his current 3½ contract ends. Like Sir Alex Ferguson, though, and his infamously delayed retirement, nothing Smith said sounded quite cast in stone.

“My intention is to finish off here, whenever that is,” he said. “But you never know after that. I’d need to sit down with a certain lady and discuss it. My intention is to finish here at Rangers, whenever and in whatever circumstances. When I left the SFA [as Scotland manager] that was my intention. I signed here for 3½ years and my aim was to see it out.

“If we were doing well and there was the chance to extend it then I’d look at that, but the intention is that when I finish here, that will be that.”

Smith spent half an hour with Advocaat, his foe in Manchester next week, at Ibrox on Wednesday night before the Motherwell game. The two men are amiable football companions, though Advocaat yesterday revealed how he very nearly beat Smith back to Ibrox in 2005, after he and Murray had discussed the Rangers situation.

At the time Alex McLeish was in his final season at the club, and Murray’s plan was for Le Guen to arrive the following summer. But with Rangers wilting in the league by November 2005, Advocaat claims that a telephone conversation took place between himself and Murray, during which the Dutchman’s return to the club was considered.

“That was a period when there was something wrong at Rangers, when things were not going the right way at the club,” Advocaat said. “There were some rumours about me then, and I was not against it [going back]. But they decided to take another road.

“So many things were happening at that time, and I was thinking, ‘Well, why not?’ It had been four or five years since I had been at Ibrox.

“David [Murray] phoned me — or maybe I phoned him. But they took another decision. They didn’t take me. Anyway, it was only going to be for an interim period. That was four years ago. But, happily for me, it didn’t work out, because then I went to Korea, which was a fantastic experience.”

Smith spoke of his admiration for Advocaat yesterday, and recalled the time when the Dutchman replaced him as Rangers manager in the summer of 1998. “My time was up at Rangers back then and I knew it myself — let’s just say it was a nice sacking by David Murray,” Smith said with a smile. “It was time for a new manager to come in, and Dick arrived at Ibrox.

“I don’t think there is any doubt that he is an outstanding coach. He has shown that by having success at all the clubs he has gone to, as well as at international level. So I don’t think there is any need for anyone to praise Dick — he is already well thought of throughout football. He is an outstanding coach.”

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