Could Frank de Boer be Rangers' version of Brendan Rodgers?

He was even closer to the Tottenham gig a year later. Reportedly the number one target of both the club and the fans, he angered the board by letting word of their interest slip and Daniel Levy instead went all-in on Mauricio Pochettino from Southampton. It was another inspired choice which so nearly led to that club holding the Premiership title aloft.

Read more: Price could be right if Frank de Boer is offered Rangers job - agent

So how exactly did it come to pass that this 46-year-old, in the prime of his managerial life, is currently unemployed, with even Premiership basement dwellers like Crystal Palace thumbing his nose at him? And if Rodgers can electrify both his own career prospects and those of a grateful club by slumming it in Scotland with Celtic, is it really too far fetched to suggest that the De Boer twins could do likewise across the city at Rangers?

Certainly not for De Boer's representative Guido Albers, who is one man at least sees some merit in the Rodgers comparison. The Dutchman, still smarting from a stint at Internazionale in Milan which lasted just 85 days, presumably still sees himself operating at a higher level in the future than Scottish football. But the same could equally be said of Rodgers. The only question is whether it could be mutually beneficial for both manager and club to bring him here.

"Brendan Rodgers is a good example," Albers told Herald Sport. "But in my opinion what will happen in the coming weeks is that more and more clubs will get in contact for Frank about the end of the season. In this window there was a lot of interest and he made a decision not to do anything else right now and just focus on next season. There was interest from clubs at the bottom of the Premier League, clubs who were already in trouble. They changed their manager but decided to go with somebody else. But in terms of next season, you never know."

Read more: Price could be right if Frank de Boer is offered Rangers job - agent

One part of the equation which De Boer would be more than comfortable with is working with a director of football, another part of the recruitment process which chief executive Stewart Robertson let slip last night. For much of his time at Ajax that man was his former team-mate Marc Overmars but there are no shortage of candidates for this crucial role at Rangers, including former Celtic recruitment supremo John Park, Ross Wilson should he be persuaded to leave a rewarding current role at Southampton or perhaps even Alex McLeish, also a prime candidate for the unenviable task of taking the load short term.

There is, of course, an elephant in the room here: Rangers in their current state do not measure up to Celtic, on or off the field. Last year's Scottish Cup semi-final win only proved illusory and while their greatest rivals finally seem well placed to benefit from what should have been an annual bounty in the Champions League, the Ibrox side instead find themselves locked out, and financially stymied by their previous owners, for the foreseeable future. The scale of the rebuilding to be done at Ibrox should not be underestimated and Dave King and the board will have to find ways to fund an ambitious, expensive programme if they are to come close to attracting an operator like De Boer to the club.

It is the kind of long-term rebuild which may take more than four years to achieve - as much as the club's supporters gaze anxiously across the city at Celtic and the imminent arrival of six in a row. A less dreamy, more pragmatic, approach would be to hand the keys to Derek McInnes, a boyhood Rangers fan and former player who may be attracted by some additional bang for his buck when it comes to taking on the Parkhead side. But is unlikely if there is unanimity even amongst the board as yet about the precise team which can take the club forward.

Read more: Price could be right if Frank de Boer is offered Rangers job - agent

The whole Dutch connection may turn out to be a red herring. But De Boer is wise not to dismiss it out of hand. It isn't every day that a long-term project like an Arsenal, a Southampton or an Everton becomes available in the Barclays Premier League and a new raft of young pretenders like Thomas Tuchel at Dortmund, Ralph Hasenhuettl at Red Bull Leipzig or Massimiliano Allegri with Juventus will throw their hats in the ring for that one. Going back home to Holland would feel like going back to square one and certain Premier League clubs would be dicing with disaster.

As disastrous as time at Inter was, there was at least some mitigation - they are now onto their ninth manager in seven years and De Boer was also a victim of some boardroom upheaval. Of more relevance, perhaps, is his grounding at Ajax, where when it comes to imprinting a philosophy on a club and turning a tidy profit, seems a pretty fair bank of experience for where Rangers would love to find themselves. Okay, so the Amsterdam side's budget still beat pretty much everyone else's throughout the Dutchman's time in charge, but his four titles also saw them turn a profit in excess of 100m Euros on the likes of Luis Suarez, Daley Blind, Christian Eriksen, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen. Bring in that kind of money at Rangers and no-one will be branding him a luxury the club cannot afford.