CELEB SIGNING

Rangers hero Paul Gascoigne almost became a DUNDEE player reveals Jim Duffy

JIM DUFFY has told how he was tasked with bringing Paul Gascoigne and Edgar Davids to DUNDEE.

Duffy was in charge at Dens Park when eccentric owner Giovanni Di Stefano instructed him to make a "celebrity signing".

Duffy - now manager of Dumbarton - tried and failed to tempt Rangers and England hero Gazza to Dundee.

He was then told to sell the club to Champions League winner and Juventus star Davids, which unsurprisingly didn't go to plan.

But Duffy eventually managed to land former Juve hitman Fabrizio Ravanelli as his marquee signing in 2003.

Looking back at the bizarre chain of events, Duffy told Football Daft podcast: "What happened was, we had a director at the time, Giovanni Di Stefano... he wanted a celebrity signing.

"He kept at me, so we tried to get Gazza, so I arranged to meet Gazza. He missed the opportunity, he came up on the train one day... and it didn’t work out. 

"Then there was a couple of other players. He then said to me that he’d agreed to get Edgar Davids, the Dutch international. 

“He said to me: ‘We’ve got it all agreed – all you have to do is go to Turin and convince him to come to Dundee.’

"I was laughing: ‘Edgar Davids to Dundee? He’s on £90,000-a-week. He’s got a penthouse apartment outside of Turin. You’re wanting him to come and play against Brechin in the Forfarshire cup? With a beautiful big hedge in the background? That’ll really entice him.’

"So anyway, that fell through. It just so happened he said something about [Fabrizio] Ravanelli, and I was quite friendly with Luca Vialli, who I’d been with at Chelsea. Ravanelli and Luca were pals.

"So I ended up contacting Luca and we managed to get a hold of Ravanelli and he agreed to come. When he came in it was a bit surreal. There was just something about him... he could have been a Mafia hitman, the way he looked."