Our Rangers side stuck five past Big Ruud's PSV and Gio can put Van Nistelrooy to the sword again - Barry Ferguson

Confession time. I’ve got a soft spot for the Dutch. It was Dick Advocaat who gave me my big breakthrough as a first team player at Rangers alongside guys like Arthur Numan and Giovanni van Bronckhorst. A little later I’d be playing with the likes of Michael Mols, Ronald de Boer and Fernando Ricksen. And I always loved them because of their mentality.

People might mistake it for arrogance. But I never looked at it that way. I just saw a group of guys who were full of self belief in their own ability and confident of winning matches in any situation. And, as a young, inexperienced Scottish kid, that was a very healthy environment to be around. It stayed with me ever since.

So it almost felt written in the stars for me when PSV Eindhoven knocked Monaco out of the qualifiers on Tuesday night to set up a Champions League play-off with my old club. After 12 years away from the greatest tournament in club football, it just seems to make perfect sense that Rangers will have to go back to Holland in order to get there again. With another Dutch manager leading the way.

I’m sure there are some people over there who are still scratching their heads and wondering why Giovanni accepted this job in the first place, just over a year ago. I mean, his stock was still very high in the Netherlands after the success he had at Feyenoord. They might have been looking at Scottish football and thinking he had taken a big step down.

But within six months he was managing Rangers in the final of the Europa League. And now he has the chance to go one better by doing it in the greatest competition of the lot. Take it from me, when Rangers come calling you just can’t knock it back. And 23 years ago we decided this was a lesson that PSV had to