The official Dundee stance that the two high ranking officials had gone to Paraguay to check up on Caballero's progress in close season training and not to meet with Ocampo has been thrown into turmoil. Now, the official stance, faced with such photographic proof, has changed to admit the pair had met with Ocampo to discuss his investing in the club, nothing more. They still deny any approach has been made to run the team.
Ocampo, allegedly, made the following comments in an interview on Paraguayan T.V. :-
"I am very well prepared to take over Dundee to make them the new 3rd force in Scottish football. They have offered the job. Now it is up to me. I need some time to think about it.
"I believe I can help the club in several ways. I have helped Paraguayan clubs raise £20 million in sales of players. I believe in my ability and now I can get the same results for Dundee.
"I want the team to play in the UEFA cup and to do that we need to get them playing attacking football. No side ever won anything playing defensive football.
"Dundee need to strengthen their squad. But it won't be just foreign players - I want to see what Scottish players are available too."
Ocampo is known more for his ability to move players on at a profit and I believe if he has been approached it will be to form a partnership with one other individual. Whether that be Ivano himself, Jim Duffy or Walter Smith, all strongly rumoured to have had meetings with Dens directors recently, remains to be seen.
Dundee have failed miserably in the roll-on, roll-off ferry type scenario that Peter Marr gambled on. By this stage of the Revolution two or three players were expected to have moved on at a profit. The dream of selling on players to offset any debt and keep the club in a healthy financial position has not come to pass.
Players like Rae, Caballero, Sara, Zurab, Nemsadze, were to be the high profile targets of bigger clubs, with the excess money used to bring in more of their kind from foreign pastures. Somewhere along the gravy train and marketing system has ground to a halt. Ivano may have been a genius at spotting talent, but his ability to sell them on has to be brought into doubt.
Ocampo is well proven in that field and that's why I believe Dundee are keen to persuade him to join them, if not as Manager, as a high profile contact to market the players big time. Apparantly he is respected among clubs such as Juventus, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Porto, Newcastle and River Plate.
Jimmy Marr is quoted as having said to local Paraguayan newspaper La Nacion:- "I'm a friend of Francisco Ocampo and believe it will not be a problem to reach an agreement with him to be our new coach."
Bearing in mind the word "coach" can be interpreted in many different ways, is Jimmy talking about his becoming our Manager, or the Coach who trains the team, or as someone to run the buying and selling department? Or perhaps Jim's Scottish accent was misinterpreted in some way.
The Sun claim Dundee are linked to Paraguayan players Maxi Aristidez and Julio Coliman (a player whose name has been mentioned before on this site, and came from sources outwith the Sun), Argentine pair Juan Azconzabal (another who was mentioned previously on here) and Edgar Baez, who was signed by Pele for Santos two years ago.
If the Sun have prepared a nasty little story just to fill their sports pages, I must admit, it certainly has a ring of authenticity to it with quotes and newspaper reports from Paraguay. Nor is it defamatory in any way and reading between the lines it seems to suggest a massive coup if Dundee were to pull this off. Whether it be true or not, only time will tell.
I am merely reporting on an interesting story that does not go against my own hunches that Ocampo is definitely being approached to carry out some role for the club. If he can help carry on the Dundee Revolution in any way possible, who can say it would be a bad idea.