Natasha Woods spends a week with Scotland's most cosmopolitan club, and tries to find out if they are more than a team of entertaining underachievers.

AS you approach Dundee, and the city starts to unfold itself on the horizon, you pass one of those big brown tourist signs. It details local attractions. Discovery Point, the Verdant Works and Sensation, the city's new science centre. There is no mention of Caird Park. But that is where Jiang Jin began his holiday. He turned up last Wednesday in possession of a tourist visa and a pair of football boots. By the end of the first day, he was caked in mud. He seemed happy, although the language barrier precluded anything but the simplest of pleasantries. If there is a mandarin equivalent of the expression 'a busman's holiday' then China's top goalkeeper is on it.

Officially, he is here visiting his friend Fan Zhiyi, his national captain and Dundee's new centre-half. Officially, the football club are merely offering him training facilities during his stay. 'But you never know in football,' said Ivano Bonetti.

Jiang Jin wants to play in Europe. Dundee, under their Italian manager, already know what it is like to pull off a footballing coup. Funny how that is an expression you never thought you would say. Footballing coup and Dundee Football Club.

There was a time, and it is only a couple of years ago, when all this would seem surreal. But not any more. Since the Marr brothers, who own the club, recruited the Bonetti brothers to manage it, Scottish football has come to expect the unexpected at Dens Park.

So here is Jiang Jin, throwing himself about on a public pitch in a public park as the sound of traffic from the nearby ring road echoes across the sodden turf. He is enormous. They say he is 6ft 6in but, if it is possible, he looks even taller. When he stands on his goal line, it is as if his forehead could graze the crossbar.

Claudio Bozzini, the club's goalkeeping coach, works his three charges hard. There is Jiang Jin, a shaven-headed Jamie Langfield, the club's first-choice goalkeeper, and Julian Speroni.

Welcome to Dundee, the only place in Scotland where you'll find an Italian coaching a Scot, an Argentinian and, now, a giant from China.

'Welcome to Dens' it says back at the stadium as you step through the main door. 'Home of the city's oldest football club'. That is one way they distinguish themselves from the club that occupies the ground across the road. Nowadays, the sign could as easily read 'Home of the country's most cosmopolitan club'.

Last weekend, when Hearts were the visitors, Bonetti's starting 11 featured four Scots, four Argentinians, two Georgians and one Spaniard. When they faced Rangers yesterday, another nationality was added into the mix.

Fan's involvement was reflected in a crowded television gantry. An Australian film crew were making a documentary on Asian footballers who play in Europe. ESPN were feeding it live to South America, drawn by the possibility of Claudio Caniggia making his return as a Rangers player. Meanwhile, Shanghai Great Sports Channel took a live beam back to Fan's homeland.

The deal with the Chinese cable company meant a potential audience of 16 million. It is the tip of a lucrative iceberg. China has a population of 1.2 billion and Fan is their David Beckham and Paul Gascoigne rolled into one.

There is talk of 100 million-plus audiences for future Dundee games. Zhang Qin says it's a reality, not a dream. He travelled with Fan and Jiang Jin from Shanghai to Scotland. A journalist with Nan Fan sports news, his job is to inform his readers about the club they will now support.

'Before, when Fan played for Crystal Palace, that was the club we supported, but now I must tell them about Dundee. In China, this will be our team because Fan plays for them,' he said.

He has a problem, though. The appetite for football in China is enormous following the national team's qualification for next summer's World Cup. But their knowledge of Scottish football is limited to what little they have seen of Rangers and Celtic in the Champions League.

'They do not understand there are two teams in this city. They think Dundee and United are the same thing. Dundee United, not Dundee and United.'

THE morning after the arrival of the Chinese and it is raining hard, making the pavement on Arthurstone Terrace shiny and slick under the feet of sombre-suited men. Those who assembled and talked in hushed tones outside St Patrick's Church knew all about this city's footballing traditions. It was why they were here, awaiting the arrival of the principal mourners.

Jocky Scott was present, the manager who was replaced by the Bonetti brothers 18 months ago. As is the fickle way with football, he went down to Notts County, earned manager of the month awards, then it turned sour and he was sacked.

He was followed into church by Jim McLean, the former chairman of Dundee United and the man responsible for forging one half of the New Firm during the 1980s when it was the tangerine side of Tannadice Street that was in the ascendency. Tommy Gallacher merited a decent send-off. Last Thursday, he got one.

Fifty years ago he was in the Dundee team who beat Rangers to win the league cup. A silky passer of the ball, he was the son of Patsy Gallacher, the Celtic legend. A career in journalism followed when he hung up his boots and he had friends on both sides of city's footballing divide.

His death, aged 79, brought them together. The obituaries spoke of skills from a different age. Someone once said that when Gallacher was in possession 'you could almost here the ball talking -- and it had a Dundee accent'.

Nowadays, the accents at Dens betray childhoods spent in Italy, Spain and South America. It is indicative of the Bonetti revolution.

There are still Scottish voices to be heard, but they are not the loudest. Barry Smith, the club captain, represented today's generation of players at the funeral service. He is a pleasant, quiet man, but he is distinctly uncomfortable facing microphones or cameras. He may arrive at training in an Italian car, but it is a Fiat not a Ferrari.

Jimmy and Peter Marr wanted to dramatically change direction when they replaced Scott with two unheralded Italians before the start of last season. Ivano and Dario Bonetti's playing pedigree was unquestioned. Sampdoria, Juventus, AS Roma, Milan. Their management skills, though, were untested beyond the semi-professional levels in Italy.

'We wanted to be different. And we knew with Ivano and Dario's contacts around the world we would be able to bring a different type of player to Dens,' said Jimmy Marr, the club's chairman. 'When they come to you and say they can bring a Caniggia, or a Georgi Nemsadze, or a Fan Zhiyi to the club, you do wonder whether this is really all happening. But they have put us on the world stage.'

The younger of the Marr brothers is sitting in the splendour of the boardroom at Dens. It is an evocative location, all dark wood, worn leather and old silver. Everything carries a patina of age. Heroes of the past stare down from walls. Bobby 'The Sliding Tackle' Cox, Alan 'Ghillie' Gilzean, Andy 'The Penalty King' Penman. They speak of days when AC Milan were European Cup opponents and 40,000 folk could squeeze into Dens.

Gallacher's name is up there too, embroidered on to a dark blue scarf. Jimmy Marr is too young to remember Gallacher's playing days in the late 1940s and 1950s. One of his first vivid memories of the club he has supported since boyhood was being taken down to Elland Road to watch Dundee play Leeds United in the semi-final of the Fairs Cup in the late 1960s. It left an indelible impression.

The question now is whether the Bonetti brothers can leave a similar mark, that this isn't just some gloriously entertaining, but ultimately passing fad. For there are some who still sense this transformation has been conjured by smoke and mirrors.

How else can you explain why Caniggia would choose to attempt to salvage an Indian summer from his career by playing on Tayside last season. Or why Beta Carranza, a one-time Argentine international, would end up playing in the SPL. Or Temuri Ketsbaia. Or Fan.

Marr says the answer is simple. Ivano and Dario Bonetti, the elder brother and assistant manager at Dens, have an enviable list of contacts. They can source outstanding young players, or those who they believe have the qualities to resurrect their careers in Scotland.

The books can remain in balance only because they know they will have to sell on some of those players for a profit. Hence Caniggia was sold on for £1 million in the summer, and Robert Douglas could ultimately recoup £1.5m for Dundee following his move to Celtic.

'We know we have to sell players every so often, but I think our supporters understand that. The exciting thing about working with Ivano and Dario is that they seem to be able to bring these people out of thin air. We have faith that once they move a player out, they have got a replacement ready,' the chairman enthused.

Marr points out a new addition to the memorabilia in the boardroom. It is a set of ceramic tiles from one of the club's main sponsors. Fan's name is picked out, black on white, in Chinese lettering. 'A new signing from Ceramic Tile Warehouse. And it won't cost £300,000' reads the inscription. It doesn't seem Dundee's investment in China's most famous footballer will take long to recoup anyway.

THIS arrived last week, posted on the club's internet site rather than through the letter-box on Tannadice Street: 'I am a fan of Fan Zhiyi from China. Now I found your website lukily[sic]. My classmates and I all want to know the history of Dundee Football Club. I am a student of Qingdao University, Shandong Province, China. I like soccer. My English is not very good. I am very sorry. We support Dundee Football Club in China.'

Wang Gang, its author, was not alone. Wei Chen is a student at the University of Delaware. He has started translating information on the web site into Chinese so Dundee's new fans can keep up to date with goings-on in Scotland. On the day Fan made his debut for Dundee, there were 34,000 hits on the club website. That was double the interest shown when Caniggia made his first start last season.

There was another delivery last week too, as the club shop stocked up on T-shirts. Besides the 'Jesus Loves You' variety favoured by fans of Juan Sara, the club's devout striker, hung a row of 'Super Fan Zhiyi' tops, making play on the superman logo. It is a marketing man's dream. It is not hard to imagine Wang Gang and Wei Chen proudly wearing their Dundee shirts halfway around the world.

Dario Magri has seen it first hand. He was in China with Peter Marr, the club's chief executive, only recently. They went out for a meal with Fan last weekend and had to book a private room to ensure they were not mobbed.

'Still we had people trying to open the partition because they wanted to get in and take pictures of him,' recalled the affable little Italian. 'When I went over when we originally signed him, I had to arrange a little press conference before the main one in Shanghai. Still, the little one attracted 94 television crews and was viewed by 200 million people during the day.'

Magri is Dundee's club co-ordinator, although a couple of words cannot do justice to the nature of his role. He is club interpreter, their fixer, and the man who is the conduit between the diverse nationalities and personalities who are now based at Dens.

Like the Bonetti brothers, he grew up in Brecia in northern Italy and he has known them for years.

The first player he looked after was Des Walker when the Englishman arrived at Sampdoria. He later worked at Crystal Palace when Attilio Lombardo and Michele Padovano played at Selhurst Park.

He speaks excellent English, Spanish and a little Arabic among other languages. By next summer he promises to be fluent in mandarin. He says he invented his role because he has seen foreign players move abroad and struggle to settle.

'There is nothing worse than getting a good player over, paying him a lot of money and then leaving him on his own. To me it is the equivalent of leaving a briefcase full of money somewhere and not looking after it. You are likely to lose it. It happens many times to players, they are not looked after and they do not adjust.'

He helps out at training, moving cones, trapping stray footballs. But invariably his mobile phone is not far from his grasp. He likes to stay close to the squad. 'I have to have my eyes and ears open to make sure there is no discontent. And if there is I must find the root of it.'

There is no room for prima donnas. He says the Dundee players are all good lads. Especially Javier Artero. The Spaniard is only recently back in the side after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in August. 'We describe him as the gentleman of Dundee Football Club. If you have a problem he is the first one who will come up and ask how you are doing.'

It was different at Palace. He once got a phone-call at midnight from Padovano. He lived in Croydon, the £1.7m recruit from Juventus in Mayfair. The bulb had blown in Padovano's bedside light and he wanted Magri to drive across London to change it. Immediately.

IVANO and Dario Bonetti always had this dream. Magri can remember them talking about it. 'They wanted to get together 11 wild dogs that everybody else has rejected or discarded and turn them into a serious team who will catch the attention.'

He thinks they have come close to it in Dundee, although maybe they need a few more pedigree performers: 'For among our boys are many who have been forgotten.' He points out Carranza as the Argentinian jogs past. He was capped young, but then his career detoured through Mexico and Peru. Now he is one of the key players at Dens.

Ketsbaia arrives at training in a BMW with personalised plates. It is one of few cars at Caird Park that looks like it should be driven by a footballer. The majority are family saloons. The Georgian is another looking to find somewhere to re-ignite a career which went cold at Wolves.

Sometimes it is hard to keep up with the new arrivals. Quique Torres was signed last week. There is another Spaniard and a Frenchman on trial. Brian Duncan struggles to pull together enough kit.

He has been doing that job for seven months, but he has been a fan for much longer.

When he retired from the police force he got a call asking if he wanted to come for an interview to be the new kit man at Dens. He thought it another copper winding him up.

He loves the job, although the hours are long and sometimes uncertain. They are a bunch of characters this lot. Walter Del Rio often arrives early to thump divots out of the grass with a golf club. The Argentinian defender is learning to play the game. 'But failing,' jokes Duncan.

As the wind and rain fought for sup remacy at the training ground last week, Del Rio took to wearing black tights under his shorts. All the good-natured barracking produced was a delicate tippy-toes pirouette from a South American who has learned to mimic the local accent.

'I have been a fan over 40 years and Alan Gilzean was my hero. He still is. They were great days, but we lived on them for too long,' said Duncan. 'This team are entertainers. Maybe it is not always turned into results, but it is better than what we were watching a few years ago.'

The entertaining underachievers. Ivano Bonetti has heard it often enough. He even finds himself agreeing with the assessment sometimes. They finished sixth last season and aim to beat that this season. Halfway through an initial three-year plan, Ivano believes his team will challenge for third spot next season as he promised when he first arrived.

He and his brother have already shaken hands on an extension to their contracts. Magri, their long-time confidant, cannot imagine them ever coaching apart. Dario, older and taller, tends to work with the defenders, a cigarette in hand. Ivano, his mane of hair tucked under a grey woolly hat, prefers to work with the attackers.

'He used to play for a big team as a defender. I used to play for a big team as a left winger. The characteristics are different, but it is good to see them working together. Our personalities are almost the same. We think the same way about football,' Ivano said.

It seems they play good cop, bad cop out on the training pitch. If Dario is hard, he will be friendly. And vice versa.

Ivano, who arrived as player-manager, insists he no longer misses playing. Yet on Thursday afternoon as dusk faded into darkness, Ivano is last man left out on the training pitch, peppering Speroni's goal with shots from every angle.

THERE is a game on today he has been invited to take part in. Jimmy Marr is getting his first chance to play at Dens. One of his pubs versus his taxi firm. He has already signed up Dario Bonetti to play on his side. Now he wants Ivano to referee it. It is a bizarre thought.