Dick Advocaat said yesterday that he discussed the possibility of returning to Rangers three years ago to help out an ailing Alex McLeish.

Sir David Murray, the Rangers chairman, famously summoned McLeish to his Edinburgh home to assess his ability to survive his final season in charge as the club slipped to fifth place in the SPL after a 10 games without a win.

McLeish was spared and subsequently took the club into the last 16 of the Champions League for the first time. He did so only after Murray recalled "looking into his eyes and seeing his determination".

Yesterday, as Advocaat returned to Russia to prepare Zenit St Petersburg Petersburg for next week's UEFA Cup final, the Dutchman confirmed that tentative negotiations had taken place with Murray in November 2005 to discuss the possibility of a return to Ibrox after a three-year stint in charge beginning in the summer of 1998.

When asked if he ever contemplated rejoining Rangers, Advocaat said: "Now? No, but in the past there was a period when there was something wrong at Rangers.

"There was rumours about me then, I was not against it, but they decided to take another road. So many things were happening and I was thinking, well, why not?' It was four years, five years since I had been at Ibrox."

The opportunity arose after Advocaat had led the Netherlands to the semi-final of the European Championships in 2004 and had ended his short-lived spell in the German Bundesliga with Borussia Monchengladbach. He subsequently achieved hero status in Korea and took them to the World Cup finals in Germany in 2006 but admitted he was tempted by Murray's initial offer.

"Yes," he said. "He phoned me, or maybe I phoned him, but they took another decision. They didn't take me. It was only for an interim period. That was four years ago and happily for me it didn't work out because then I got the Korea job. You must see how that works out?"