Gordan Petric seeking Scotland return as a manager 20 years on from Nine-In-A-Row after surviving skin cancer scare

The centre half then moved on to Rangers, who United had edged out in that final, in 1995 and ensured the Ibrox outfit completed a record-equalling run of nine consecutive Scottish titles 20 years ago this week.

The Serbian is now convinced that his return to this country as a manager could produce similar results for the club which appoints him - and his success in his homeland to date would suggest that self-belief is justified.

Having been forced to retire from playing at a young age, something which he has in common with many prominent coaches, including Brain Clough, Sir Alex Ferguson and Brendan Rodgers, Petric has achieved some noteworthy results both as a sporting director and a manager.

He is keen to further himself abroad now and sees his old stomping ground as the logical place to do so. “If somebody gave me a choice between working in Spain and working in Scotland I would choose Scotland,” he said. “It was a great time for me there.”

Yet, it was only a serious health scare which prompted the former Yugoslavian internationalist, who also turned out for Hearts for two seasons, to make the move into the dugout. He was diagnosed with skin cancer aged just 32.

“In my last season at Tynecastle I started to experience some problems,” he said. “One week I was very tired, the next week I was okay again. I just put it down to the demands of the Scottish game. It is very physical and by that time I was in my thirties.

“It was only six months later, when I had moved on to play at Sichuan Dahe in China, that they found the problem. I had a melanoma. I was very lucky. I received treatment for five years. It was a difficult time. Fortunately, I am fine now. I had always wanted to play as long as I possibly could, but I had to retire.”

Petric returned to Partisan Belgrade, where he had first come to prominence as a player, and worked there for four years, as general secretary to begin with and then latterly as their vice-president. He oversaw the development and eventual sale of three of exceptional youngsters who have since gone on to enjoy outstanding careers during that time.

He brokered the transfers of Stevan Jovetic and Adem Ljajic to Fiorentina in Italy and Zoran Tosic to Manchester United in England for transfer fees in excess of €23 million. He found the eye-opening experience invaluable.

“I saw a totally different side to the game from when I had played with Rangers, Dundee United and Hearts when I was the general secretary at Partisan,” he said. “When you are a player you don’t have a clue what happens behind the scenes at a club. But I soon found out it was a big job.

“You have to make decisions about which players you buy and which players you sell. Our annual player budget was €12 million. If you don’t get your decisions on players right you could go bankrupt. But we were lucky. We managed to sell Stevan, Adem and Zoran. That gave us money to put in the bank. It was a really big plus for us.

“We also brought in an excellent young coach in Slavisa Jokanovic, who is now at Fulham. He is a good friend of mine, we played together at Partizan, and there is a chance that, at some point in future, I will go and work alongside him as his assistant. But I would like to continue as a manager in my own right.”

With very good reason. The experienced defender transformed the on-field fortunes of Serbian clubs Zemun, Sindelic Beograd and Bexanija - all of whom he led out of the relegation zone and into positions of safety in their respective leagues – while he has completing the UEFA Pro-Licence that will enable him to work at the highest level across Europe.

“I wanted to start off at a smaller club,” he said. “You can make mistakes and learn from them. Being at Zemun, Sindelic Beograd and Bexanija while I gained my pro-licence was good for my development as a manager. I have my players freedom and they responded to that. I hope to put my spells at these clubs to good use going forward now.”

Petric only played under Dick Advocaat at Rangers on two occasions due to a serious injury and the presence of rival centre backs Lorenzo Amoruso, Sergio Porrini, Tony Vidmar, Craig Moore and Scott Wilson at Ibrox at that time.

It was, though, the Dutchman who first identified that he may have the potential to be a manager and urged him to seriously consider a move into the dugout.

“We watched the Netherlands game against Yugoslavia in the last 16 of France ’98 together when Rangers were away on pre-season training that summer,” he said. “Yugoslavia missed a penalty and Edgar Davids scored in the second minute of injury-time to send the Netherlands through to the quarter-finals.

“During the match we talked about football. At the end of it, he said to me ‘Gordan, you have some good knowledge about the game, you should really think about becoming a coach’.”

Petric has since worked with Advocaat and unsurprisingly learned a huge amount. “When Dick took over at Serbia he called me up. He said: ‘You go and watch games for us’. Bert van Lingen, his assistant, is a really clever guy. He told me to watch the games zonally. He didn’t want me to watch where the ball was, he wanted me to watch what happened behind the man in possession and in front of him. He also wanted me to focus on what happened in dead ball situations.”

Advocaat is just one of the many famous figures in the European game who Petric, who has worked with John Viola, the established Scottish representative, for the past 20 years, has either played under or dealt with and who he hopes to emulate now by taking charge at a Scottish club.

“Ivan Golac was the manager took me to Dundee United,” he said. “He had been my coach at Partizan Belgrade. He understood me and I understood him. When I arrived at United Jim McLean had just become the chairman. But I talked to Jimmy about 10 times in my time there. He is a very clever guy about football. I also spoke with Sir Alex Ferguson when Partizan were going to sell Tosic to Manchester United. He keeps everything so simple.”

Petric still follows the fortunes of Rangers and has been saddened to see their troubles in the last five years. He played at Ibrox at a time when headline-grabbing multi-million pound signings were a regular occurrence and complete domestic dominance was attained as a result of that extravagance.

But the 47-year-old believes it is important that Pedro Caixinha, the Portuguese coach who is currently assessing his personnel and deciding which players to retain and which members of his squad to offload, retains a Scottish spine to his team if he is to flourish.

“When I walked into the dressing room at Rangers after joining there were players like Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup,” he said. “But a big plus for the club at that time was the Scottish guys they had around about them.

“We had Richard Gough, Ally McCoist, Andy Goram, Ian Ferguson, Robbie, Alec Cleland, Charlie Miller, Alan McLaren, Gordon Durie, Ian Durrant. Having them there was a big help.

“They helped to create a great atmosphere in the dressing room and understood what was required to play for a club like Rangers. They knew that every game must be won and every trophy must be won as well.

“If Rangers are going to be a stronger team in the future, if they are going to be as dominant as they were back then, they have to have those sort of big personalities in the dressing room.”

Having a centre half like Gordan Petric would be no bad thing either.