Mixu Paatelainen’s long association with Scottish football began in 1987 when his father, who owned a paper-cutting company in Finland, crossed the North Sea to talk business with one of the Dundee United directors.
When the upshot of that was a trial for the 20-year-old Mixu, the striker played so well that United signed him for £100,000, a fee he paid back handsomely in four-and-a-half years with the club. Paatelainen scored 47 goals in 172 matches before moving to Aberdeen in 1992 for four times as much money.
“He was a big raw boy, but he got into the first team quite quickly,” recalls Maurice Malpas, one of his team-mates. “He was a lovely lad who everybody liked because he worked his tail off. A