Friday 25 March 2016 11:19, UK
Scottish football's standing might be lower now than in times gone by, but it has undoubtedly been the scene of some of the European game's more audacious transfer moves.
St Mirren's failed attempt to loan a young Ronaldinho in 2001 is well remembered by their fans, while Rangers had come perilously close to recruiting Gianluca Vialli in his prime five years earlier.
Vialli opted for Chelsea instead but Dundee were successful in luring Claudio Caniggia and Fabrizio Ravanelli to Dens Park, only to go into administration later and have to sell their stadium to survive.
One of the more intriguing of 'what if' cases saw a 33-year-old Johan Cruyff pass up the opportunity to spend the latter days of his playing career on Scotland's west coast.
Yet it was neither Rangers nor Celtic who tried to tempt him into playing for them but the modest Dumbarton, who had a crowd of just 250 at their last home game before they offered him a deal.
With attendances falling at their dilapidated former Boghead home in December 1980 and the team struggling to make its mark in Scottish Division One, they needed a way to raise their appeal.
Manager Sean Fallon came up with an idea which was simply explained but seemingly preposterous: fly to Holland, offer Cruyff a healthy four-figure sum per game and get him signed.
And yet, as ridiculous as the proposal sounds nowadays, it almost happened.
Fallon, who won the European Cup with Celtic in 1967 and died three years ago, explained his bold approach two decades after he made it.
"I knew it was always unlikely we would get Cruyff but the way I saw it, we couldn't lose," Fallon said.
"At worst, it got Dumbarton on the back pages for a few days and boosted the club's image and profile, which was very low at that time.
"At best, if we were really lucky, we might get a magnificent player. I think I was closer to making it happen than some people think.
"Cruyff was struggling a bit financially because he had lost all his money in a bad investment so we felt offering him a few thousand pounds per game might tempt him.
"If you don't try, you'll never know - and he did agree to meet us. I went over with the chairman to Amsterdam and found him to be very polite and knowledgeable about the whole Scottish scene.
"Although I was normally quite good at talking players into signing, that one I couldn't manage. I set things buzzing though, didn't I?"
Cruyff decided against following up his time starring for Ajax, Barcelona and the Dutch national side with a stint in Dumbarton and moved to American team Washington Diplomats instead.
He later played for Levante in Spain, made a return to Ajax and then appeared for their Dutch rivals Feyenoord but admitted four years ago he could have taken Fallon's offer up.
During a golf trip to Scotland, he said: "Was I tempted? Yes, of course. Playing in England, or Britain, was something I had always wanted to do.
"But I thought I was too old to go to Scotland, where you know the weather will be difficult. When you're old your muscles get stiff and moving to a cold country is asking for problems."
