There is a list of players on Alex Smith's desk which he studies enviously. He would love to be able to sign a few of them. Take Lee Wilkie. It would take the Dundee defender a couple of minutes to walk from Dens Park to Tannadice, but it is a switch he'll never make. "If you tried to go out and buyWilkie, you would be looking at over £lm. And I cannot go into that sort of market," said the Dundee United manager. So instead he searches for the Hans Gilhaus of Honduras, while his rivals across the road ponder a move to try to sign Claudio Caniggia. This may take some explaining.

But then Smith wants to do that. He is keen to expound on his game plan on the eve of today's visit to Ibrox. He is, one senses, a bit fed up hearing criticism about his signing policy. The headlines and supporters have screamed the same thing - foreign duds. Such discord is hardly the soundtrack for a successful season, because that is what the manager wants to create, despite a depressing start which has left them winless and bottom of the table nine matches into the league campaign. First to that list. It is the squad for Scotland's forthcoming Under-21 match in Croatia. Smith may have taken on a mammoth task at Tannadice, indeed he says it's the biggest challenge of his career, but he has not relinquished his managerial role with the Under-21 side. It was a condition he demanded when he accepted the job. His passion for working with the country's top young prospects is well-known, as is his expertise in the field.

Those who saw him as a safe pair of hands when he succeeded a dispirited Paul Sturrock in August presumably thought the former Aberdeen and St Mirren manager would use such experience to bolster a struggling squad. Smith was expected to buy safe and buy Scottish. "I think people are a little surprised about the road I have chosen," he admitted. "And, believe me, it would be great if I could take half a dozen names off this list and bring them here. I'd love a Mark Burchill, a Kenny Miller, a Lee Wilkie. But we recently had one of our Under-21 strikers [Miller] move for £2.5m." There is another reason why, regard- less of financial means, Smith is not keen to add to an already youthful squad at United. "You could spend a lot of money on a young prospect, but you are buying potential and potential is not going to come in to this club and turn it around. We need players with know- how." It is where he has drawn his new recruits from which has been unexpected. All bar one of the eight players he has added are foreign. Mvondo Atangana and Alphonse Tchami arrived early on When he took over from Pa from Cameroon, while the newest recruits are three teammates from Motagua, the best team in Honduras.

One of them, Argentinian striker Gustavo Fuentes, may even figure in the squad to face Rangers this evening. He may not be a big name like Caniggia, the veteran Argentinian, but he is six years younger than his compatriot, with his best years ahead of him, not behind him. Smith says he tries to ignore events at Dens, but then he has enough to concern him at his own club. United have not managed a league win at Tannadice since December 1999. The pressure to turn things around affected Sturrock's health and in turn resulted in his resignation two matches into the new season. Smith, 31 years after he began his managerial career at Stenhousemuir, has to succeed where Ivan Golac, Billy Kirkwood and Tommy McLean all failed.

He has to bring success and long-term stability back to United on a tight budget. He is blunt about the reason standards have slipped at Tannadice. "You have a club which played in a European final, which won domestic honours, where fans were brought up with players of the quality of David Narey. Paul Hegarty, Eamonn Bannon and Paul Sturrock." "The pr@'blem has always been replacing these players with ones who are as good. That hasn't happened. The club haven't been able to afford to bring in players of the same quality. And it has happened again and again under succes- sive managers. You end up going from up here to way down there." Smith stretches his hands apart for effect. Not a fisherman showing the size of the one that got away, but a football manager highlighting the gulf between what was and what has become of one half of the New Firm. "A similar thing has happened at Aberdeen. How do you replace some- body like Jim Bett from the British market unless you have got millions of pounds." The 60-year-old is speaking from experience. He thought he had the answer back then. While Graeme Souness was buying up some of England's top internationalists for Rangers, Smith plunged into a new market for new recruits for Pittodrie. "I knew we couldn't challenge the buying power of Rangers unless we could find a market where we could bring in equally good players at prices I could afford. We struck gold in Holland."

Hence Gilhaus and a clutch of other Dutchmen. Aberdeen claimed two cups, and ran Rangers to within a whisker of the league title in 1991 during the tenure of Smith and co-manager Jocky Scott. None of that prevented the pair being sacked the following season. But Holland is no longer an option and neither is Scandinavia: "You couldn't walk into Holland and pick up a Gilhaus for half a million now. "These are expensive areas and we'd only be left with Scandinavians or Dutch who are not the highest quality. We have to find new markets, ones which haven't been exploited. Like Honduras. Like Africa." He concedes it is a high-risk policy given language and cultural differences. But United have safeguards written into contracts; "clauses and windows" according to Smith which will allow them escape routes if some of their foreigners prove to be Scheldt, as in Rafael.

"The bottom line is I can bring in four of these players for the price of an Alex Mathie. And if one or two work out they will prove exceptional value. But they have to want it. They have to show a willingness to fit in." It presents a massive challenge, marrying so many new recruits into a struggling team. He says the thing his players need more than anything is con- fidence. And the first win of the season could be the spark. He woke up this morning expecting that very thing. That has never changed. It is four years since his last full-time management job, at Clyde, and while he has kept himself involved with the Under-21s and in various coaching roles, he has missed the day-to-day involvement. "I missed working with players, and I badly missed the build-up to each game. It is the one thing about football. It doesn't matter whether you have lost the previous game or not, you always think you can win your next one." United need wishful thinking and much more besides. But their manager believes he can provide it. ©Sunday Herald.