IF you think Scotland enters a period of extended national mourning whenever they miss out on a major football finals you should try going Dutch for a change. Okay, so the Tartan Army haven’t made it to one of soccer’s biennial shindigs since 1998 but two failed qualification campaigns in a row feels like an eternity for a proud football nation who weren’t just going into tournaments round about then, they were looking like winning them. For former Rangers full back Arthur Numan, for example, only penalty kicks in back-to-back semi-final defeats to Brazil and Italy prevented him from reaching World Cup final in France 1998 and the Euro 2000 final on home soil two years later.

“It says a lot about Dutch football to miss two tournaments in a row,” Numan told the Sunday Herald this week, ahead of the international friendly between the two sides at Pittodrie on Thursday. “It is so disappointing because I have experienced it myself, to play tournament football like this is fantastic, playing against the best players on the planet for four or five weeks, trying to go as far as possible. Twice we thought we could take home the trophy, twice we lost on penalties in the semi-finals.

“The quality is just not there now in the same way it used to be, when we had two, three or even four players competing for every position,” added Numan, now a scout for AZ Alkmaar. “Now we have only one decent player for every position. A different right back have played the last three or four games.

“In my time, all the players were playing at the top level, maybe in Scotland with Rangers, England, Italy or Spain,” he added. “But if you look at it now, maybe three or four players are playing at the highest level and the rest of the players are very average. Sometimes they don’t’ even play, they are on the bench. That says a lot about our squad.

“You can see it in our club football, not just the international game. Feyenoord have played four games in the Europa League, and have no points, Vitesse have one point, and Ajax knocked out.”

Thursday night’s match will be particularly emotional for Netherlands head coach, and Numan’s former Rangers club gaffer, Dick Advocaat, who has indicated that he will step down after this week’s away friendlies to Scotland and Romania. While the dwindling of the Netherlands talent pool has co-incided with some managerial appointments which haven’t worked out, little of the blame attaches itself to Advocaat, who actually won five of his six matches in charge following the disastrous reigns of Guus Hiddink and his assistant Danny Blind. The only problem was finding a tough group alongside France and Sweden and being left with too much to do against a Sweden side who upset the qualification equation with victory against France and an 8-0 goal-difference busting victory against Luxembourg. Numan is sure that feelings will be running high for the 70-year-old, if not quite as high as his last visit to this country, when he lost 1-0 in a breathless 2003 play-off at Hampden, only to win the return match 6-0 at the Amsterdam Arena.

“I know Dick very well, and to play against Scotland I am sure he will get some of the same feelings back that he had when he managed at Rangers,” said Numan. “It is a shame that the match is not at Hampden Park, but I think there is also a reason, because it is a friendly and Holland is not the team it once was with all the big stars. I think they might have struggled to fill the stadium.

“There is nothing at stake, it’s a friendly between two teams not qualified for the World Cup, so the match might not be at such a high level,” he added. “I retired the year before that match in 2003 but I was in the stands at Hampden Park that day and I had goosebumps at the anthems. Everyone was euphoric after the game, Berti Vogts saying the Dutch were afraid to play against his team then in the second game it was totally different. We won 6-0, and it seemed like a new start with [Rafael] Van der Vaart, [Wesley] Snejder and Arjen [Robben].”

While Sneijder is back, that era has largely come and gone, leaving the Dutch to reinvent themselves anew. Former Everton coach Ronald Koeman, in Numan’s opinion at least, is the only man willing and capable to do the job, with Georginho Wijnaldum, Kevin Strootman, Virgil van Dijk and his Southampton pal Wesley Houedt men to build around. Scotland too are in a transitional phase under interim coach Malky Mackay, but which of these two once-proud football powerhouse will rediscover their mojo first? “Holland, without a doubt,” says Numan.