DICK ADVOCAAT has warned Sunderland’s players to expect an explosive reaction if they do not adhere to his instructions between now and the end of the season.

Advocaat, who is nicknamed the ‘Little General’ in his native Holland, takes charge of his first game as Sunderland head coach when his side travel to West Ham United this afternoon.

Renowned as a no-nonsense authoritarian in his homeland, the 67-year-old has inherited a squad that has developed a reputation for indiscipline. The Black Cats sit at the foot of the Fair Play league, and their former boss, Paolo Di Canio, spoke of a culture of “players getting drunk and partying” when discussing the departure of his successor, Gus Poyet, earlier this week.

Advocaat has overseen four full days of training since being appointed until the end of the season, and has already told his players what he expects of them, both on and off the pitch.

Provided they follow his guidelines, he insists there will be no need for any tension. But if they begin to stray out of line, he will not hesitate to lay down the law.

“I always say to my players, ‘Listen, if you do what I want, I am a really friendly man - if not, then I am not so nice’,” said Advocaat, who is expected to recall Adam Johnson to the squad this afternoon after Sunderland officials lifted the suspension that was imposed when the winger was arrested for alleged sexual activity with a minor. “It is that simple.

“I have not had to be unfriendly with anyone yet, but that is normal in the beginning. The early signs have been good. The good thing is that you can see the players want to prove themselves to the new manager, and that is always a good sign. Hopefully, we can start with that against West Ham.”

While Advocaat insists his first contact with Sunderland sporting director Lee Congerton did not come until Monday morning, he admits he had initially been sounded out for the role by former Chelsea and Tottenham director of football Frank Arnesen three weeks ago.

At that stage, he indicated a potential willingness to take over at the Stadium of Light, and the gap between his discussion with Arnesen, who is one of Congerton’s closest footballing associates, and his appointment has enabled him to gather a wealth of information about Sunderland’s current predicament.

He has watched the majority of the club’s matches from this season, so while he has been catapulted into his first Premier League role at a pivotal stage of the campaign, he claims to have been able to hit the ground running.

“The first time I spoke with Lee was on Monday,” he said. “Before that, I had a telephone call from Frank. He said to me three weeks ago, ‘If something happened at Sunderland, would you be interested?’

“I said, ‘Yes, I am available’. But for the rest, I spoke to nobody at the club until Monday morning. He (Congerton) said, ‘Are you willing to have a meeting with me’, at that point. That’s the way it happened.

“I did not have to be persuaded. It’s always been an ambition to manage in the Premier League. I had a very good period at Rangers, but suddenly the national team in Holland came in for me.

“After four years at Rangers, I was waiting (for a chance in the Premier League), but in the meantime, the national team came calling and I couldn’t refuse that. Then I went from the national team to other places.”

His preparatory work included a detailed examination of last weekend’s horror show against Aston Villa, and he freely admits he was far from impressed by much of what happened in what proved to be Poyet’s final game.

In particular, Advocaat was alarmed at the way in which Sunderland’s players allowed their heads to drop after they conceded the first goal, culminating in the concession of Villa’s fourth, which came as a handful of the home side trudged back disconsolately from the halfway line.

Had the Dutchman been on the sidelines, he admits he would have been tempted to go onto the pitch himself to shake his players out of their stupor, and while he accepts it would be wrong to make wholesale changes at such a late stage of the campaign, he has made altering his players’ mentality a key part of his work.

“When Aston Villa scored their fourth goal, five players were standing still,” said Advocaat. “When they lost the ball up front, the ball went, and five players were walking back instead of running back.

“That is not possible. I told them, ‘If I was beside the line, I would have been on the pitch’. That means that something is wrong.

“That cannot happen with me, and I have told them that already. The time is too short to make too many changes, but the only thing I will say is that you will see a hard-working team, I have no doubt about that.”