By Douglas Alexander

The Dundee manager has taken few wrong steps in his drive to emerge at the front of the chasing pack

THERE can be few sights as incongruous in Scottish football. As Ivano Bonetti leads the way to an Italian restaurant, accompanied by his beautiful wife-to-be, Erika, a whole city seems to stop and gawp. The Dundee manager acknowledges the shout of a group of teenagers with a good-natured grin. When his first choice is closed, he cracks a joke about getting some "feeesh and cheeeps". Erika laughs and a few more men swoon to the pavement as she does so and then Bonetti reroutes us to an alternative.

It had been the same as his shiny blue BMW attempted to find a parking space in Dundee. The first two car parks were full but after a few scary moments at roundabouts, Bonetti finally found what he was looking for in a third.

He applies the same policy to managing Dundee. If Rangers take Claudio Caniggia, he'll bring back Fabian Caballero. If Caballero or Juan Sara leave next summer, Steven Milne could be ready for his chance. When Celtic took Rab Douglas last season, Bonetti brought in Marco Roccati and now Jamie Langfield has been pulled from the hat. There may be a few wrong turns, but Bonetti believes his team are still en route to fulfil the "third force in three years" pledge he made when he was appointed last summer.

He may emit a few of his trademark "fleeeepin' ehhcks" when a problem presents itself yet he almost always has an answer. Many of them are provided by the mobile phone-cum-contacts book that regularly interrupts his progress through a pizza. Sometimes the voice that spills out from it is Scottish, more often it is Latin.

Between them, the Bonettis - Ivano's older brother, Dario, is his assistant - have more than 40 years of friends to call upon and favours to call in. If they are interested in a Brazilian they can place a call to Cerezo or Falcao, two members of the outrageously talent-laden Brazil midfield at the 1982 World Cup. Which other Scottish manager could have persuaded Caniggia to dock on Tayside?

The idea of becoming a manager first struck Bonetti at Grimsby, shortly before he was struck by his own manager in a dressing-room row. That blow from Brian Laws in February 1996 was later softened by undisclosed damages and Bonetti can now shrug it off: "He lose his mind, this happens."

Initially, following the example set by Graeme Souness, after his arrival at Rangers from Sampdoria, it seemed Bonetti was losing his. Like Souness, he was sent off on his debut as player-manager, at Motherwell, and it looked as if Dundee might regret choosing to replace the steady Jocky Scott with this intemperate Italian. One observer that day knew differently.

Pat Nevin, Motherwell's chief executive, was a teammate of Bonetti's at Tranmere where he says the little Italian was "incredibly popular". He found in Bonetti a footballing soulmate, whose ideas on how the game should be played matched his own. They were almost put into practice when a consortium from Grimsby wanted Bonetti, a legend in the town, to become manager and he asked Nevin to join him, but the deal fell through. Both still cherish the idea of working together one day.

"What has happened at Dundee has not surprised me at all," said Nevin, "because that's what Ivano wanted to do at Grimsby. You quickly realise it's not all talk with him. He told me about the Caniggia idea, but I had to keep quiet about it, and then he pulled it off.

"There are a number of good plans in Scottish football but Dundee's is the most extrovert and extreme. Ivano is so well-liked and respected throughout Europe. I think he has just touched the tip of the iceberg of what he wants to do at Dundee. The Marrs had to be brave to go with Ivano and there was a lot of criticism at the time, but I knew he would do fine."

The Bonettis and Marrs struck up an instant rapport. "Peter Marr is the kind of chairman you need," said Bonetti. "If you need him, he's there for you. If you do something wrong, he's not there to tell you so."

It was Nevin who introduced Bonetti to Scottish football by taking him to an Old Firm game in January 1997. "He couldn't believe the passion. As we came out, he phoned a top Italian international on his mobile and said "you've got to come to Scotland and see this'."

Initially, though, the Dundee manager muttered darkly about xenophobia towards him and his team. The feeling persists that a few of the Largs mafia would like to see the Bonetti boys run out of town. "When you come from another country, I think it is normal that everybody is watching you, especially when you are young. When a foreigner comes in as coach in Italy, everybody expects them to bring something."

Bonetti keeps a home and a boat on Lake Garda and his family hail from Brescia. He returns regularly for holidays, but does not pine for Serie A. He recalls the days when he couldn't leave the ground at Genoa until after 10pm at night to avoid the wrath of fans. "In Scotland, it is the right kind of passion from supporters. The people are more polite - the traffic, the queues - the temperature is not much different from northern Italy in the winter. I miss Italy because it is my country, but I don't miss the football. My intention is to leave something lasting here."

The Bonetti footballing bloodline was established by his father, Aldo, who played for Brescia until the Second World War intervened. Ivano grew up worshipping Gianni Rivera, the AC Milan golden boy, on whom Jim Baxter famously once counted his nutmegs during a World Cup qualifier between Scotland and Italy in 1965. His other hero was less celebrated - Evaristo Beccalossi, a midfielder who moved from Brescia to Inter. "He was a good passer of the ball. He played the final passes for many of Alessandro Altobelli's goals."

Bonetti's oldest brother, Mario, played for Atalanta, where Bonetti himself also started before moving to Juventus, Sampdoria, Torino, Grimsby, Tranmere, Crystal Palace, Genoa and finally Dundee. That journey has taken in "22 or 23" coaches with Giovanni Trappatoni the one he rates highest. Laws, you suspect, would not make the top 20 but Bonetti insists "every coach can give you something good".

He also has a sister, but it is Dario, his other older brother, to whom he is closest and who accompanied him to Scotland after their roles were reversed at Sestrese in Italy's Serie C2. "We are very close and we see football in the same way. It's like having two managers and four eyes. "There are differences, too. In pure football terms, he was a defender and I was a left-winger. In personality, I am more extrovert. When Dario has done his job he doesn't like to talk to reporters."

Dundee are certainly more entertaining under Bonetti, but a cynic might argue that they are only minimally more effective despite the hullabaloo. Last season, they were only six points and one place better off than in Scott's final term. They celebrated clinching their place in the top six as if a championship had been secured.

This Barnum and Bailey aspect might, suggest some, mask slight underachievement with the resources available. Judging by their concession of a lead in the Dundee derby in stoppage time on the opening day of season, they have still not learned how to kill off prone opponents.

Bonetti winces at the mention of a weakness he discusses regularly with his players. "In the last game against Hibs it was unbelievable. In the last second, Walter Del Rio kicked the ball for a corner. I said 'Fleeeeeeeeeeping Ehhhhhhck' and told everybody to get in the box." Bonetti believes he could challenge for the championship with £10m, the price he cheekily put on Gavin Rae, the midfielder, whom Chelsea (Claudio Ranieri is in the contacts book), among others, have considered. As Bonetti extols Rae's virtues, saying he could become Scotland's "most important and best player", there is an element of sales pitch.

Yet, he is genuinely game as far as the Old Firm are concerned. Dundee beat them once each last season and came close to further successes. Only when Rangers won 3-0 at Dens in April after the split were they comprehensively beaten in eight encounters.

"The more competitive the League becomes, the more competitive Scottish clubs will be in Europe," says Bonetti, who played in the 1992 European Cup final for Sampdoria against Barcelona. "The quality is improving at the other clubs and I think the gap between the Old Firm and the rest will be narrower this season. I think this would help them in Europe. I believe this is better than leaving to play in another country. I don't think they are ready for Manchester United or Arsenal yet.

"They never beat us on football ability last season. It was big-team mentality that beat us, but it is coming here. There are international players in our team and they feel they have to show that. They are proud, they don't want to lose, they want to show they are better than the other team."

Will Bonetti ever meet his match? Erika provides the answer. In September or October they will marry in her home town on the Adriatic coast. We can only assume the kirk in Broughty Ferry was all booked up.