76 years ago on this day Dick Advocaat was born. He took charge of the Lads in March 2015 and resigned six months later, having secured Premier League safety in that time.
Dick used to play football professionally before stepping into management, playing for clubs in the Netherlands, America and Belgium. He played over 500 games in his career in midfield and defence.
We were the 20th club of Advocaat's managerial career, prior to joining us he had been in charge of some massive teams, both nationally and internationally. Some of the clubs he had worked with were Netherlands, PSV, Rangers, Netherlands (again), Belgium, PSV (again) and then Serbia before us.
The longest time he had ever spent with one side was four years, and almost all of his endeavours lasted two years maximum. Anyway, he came in to replace Gus Poyet who was sacked after an abysmal 4-0 loss at home to relegation rivals Aston Villa. He was given a temporary contract to see out the season and hopefully keep us in the top flight as we were 17th in the league and only one point above the relegation zone.
His first game in charge of the Lads saw us lose 1-0 to West Ham but in his second game he managed to beat the Mags 1-0 at the Stadium of Light which saw an absolute blinder from Jermain Defoe, up from Pantilimon, headed down by Fletcher and you know the score. Defoe, volley, bang. Right on the stroke of half time. Pure bliss.
The Dutchman helped us grab a few vital wins that helped gain safety that year, despite losses to teams like Crystal Palace we managed to gain points through back to back victories over Southampton and Everton. Then with one game remaining we secured safety by drawing 0-0 to Arsenal at the Emirates, which reduced him to tears.
Initially Advocaat retired after the season had ended but we managed to bring him back before the start of the next campaign. Two key signings were made in that summer - Jermain Lens and the return of Fabio Borini, this time permanently. As for loans we captured Yann M’vila, DeAndre Yedlin and Ola Toivonen. We started the season poor, losses to Leicester and newly promoted Norwich prompted a dour mood around the club. His final game in charge of the Lads was a two all draw to West Ham, which he resigned shortly after, making his only win of the 15/16 season a 6-3 win against Exeter in the League Cup. When he left we were in 19th until Big Sam came in and saved us.
A year after leaving his departure he went back into management, and continued his regular pattern of filtering through as many clubs as he can. He went to Fenerbahce then back to Netherlands for a third time, three more Dutch clubs and then he ended up at the Iraqi National Team, before retiring after a season-long stint at ADO Den Haag.
