After their promotion to the top division in 1961, Dundee United took the next step up with a couple of benchmark signings a few years later.
In early December 1964, Tannadice boss Jerry Kerr surprised everyone by signing Swedish winger Orjan Persson and Danish striker Finn Dossing.
Although an internationalist, Persson was a relative unknown on these shores.
The deal was concluded after a “hush-hush flight to Sweden by United directors George Fox and Johnstone Grant”.
Because of Swedish FA rules at the time, the 22-year-old had to be signed as an amateur, with a full-time contract not being implemented until the “end of the 1954-65 Scottish FA season”.
A file revealed . . . A Swedish FA rule which bans a player under their control signing professional from playing before there is a two-month lapse between signing and playing for his new club.
Negotiations to sign Dossing were also lengthy and United were delighted to secure his signature from Danish Second Division outfit Viborg.
Even after signing, soon after he arrived in Dundee, United played him in two hastily-arranged friendlies within a couple of days of each other – and he scored four goals.
He impressed then- Tannadice trainer Andy Dickson, who said: “It’s a long time since I’ve seen a player move so well.
“He is always in the open space – and he certainly knows where the goal is.”
Groundsman Albert Lorimer and his assistant Gordon Jamieson were also tickled with the new signing.
Lorimer said: “He is a brilliant player, as good as Neillie Mochan was at his peak.
“In my book, that is saying something.”
Jamieson’s take was: “If Persson is anything as good as Dossing going by these trials, then we’ve landed ourselves a couple of good ones.”
History shows they went on to become two of United’s greatest-ever players.
Dossing, especially, for a certain 90 minutes at Dens Park in 1965.
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