Madcap former Dundee director Giovanni Di Stefano once tried to tempt Paul Gascoigne to Dens Park.
The convicted fraudster joined the club's board in 2003, but resigned months later as the club ran into financial difficulties.
Under the ownership of the Marr brothers Dundee had spent big money on some superstar signings, with Claudio Caniggia famously plying his trade at Dens Park.
After Di Stefano's arrival he sought another big name, with manager Jim Duffy revealing that Rangers legend Gazza was considered.
Duffy said on the 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."
Di Stefano's ambition didn't stop there, with the controversial owner trying to tempt Edgar Davids to swap Juventus for Dens Park.
Duffy explained: "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."
