ANod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse, by Rod Stewart and The Faces, was a classic recording from the early 1970s. Whether it sold well in Georgia remains to be seen, but the way that Zurab Khizanishvili, the Dundee defender, deflected suggestions that he has already agreed to sign for Rangers yesterday suggests he is at least familiar with its title.

Journalists at Dens Park did their best to get the poor lad to admit he was in the highly unusual position of playing in a Scottish Cup final against a team he had already agreed to join next season. Even one mistake during the 90 minutes at Hampden on Saturday will have conspiracy theorists down on him faster than you can say Chris Sutton.

Despite that, Khizanishvili adopted the role of blind horse as he sat in the stand at Dens Park, every nod and wink aimed at him implying a move to Rangers being ignored or laughed off.

He admitted he is worried about making a mistake in the final but pointed out that ''even great players like Diego Maradona and Roy Keane make mistakes''. Otherwise he played a straight bat throughout proceedings, giving nothing away over his future intentions.

The fact that his contract runs out after the cup final and he has rejected a new one means genius is not required to work out that he will be moving on to pastures new, and the smart money is on Ibrox.

Although the player, who has also been linked with a move to Everton, tried to give the impression his future has not been decided, his team-mates have not been blind to all the press coverage linking him with the Ibrox club.

''They are always joking with me in the dressing room, saying I will play one half for Rangers and the other for Dundee,'' said the Georgian internationalist. ''I will only be concentrating on Dundee, as it is a big game and we have a good chance to win in the game which is the biggest of my career. Whatever happens at the end, win or lose, I will go to the Dundee supporters, as my contract is up then and I want to thank them.''

Adding further spice to the occasion, if it were needed for the 21-year-old, is the fact that he will probably be in direct opposition to his international colleague, Shota Arveladze. It is a confrontation over which he admits he has mixed feelings.

''The game is a big one for me but I have played international football in Georgia against Italy, Greece and Norway in front of 85,000 people so I will be okay,'' said Zurab. ''It will be difficult to play against Rangers but I will try not to make a mistake early on.

''Playing against Shota will not be easy, as he is a great striker, but Rangers have many of them like Michael Mols and Ronald de Boer and players like [Mikel] Arteta and [Claudio] Caniggia.''

Khizanishvili may be missing Lee Wilkie beside him at the heart of the Dundee defence but he can feel secure that behind him he has arguably the best goalkeeper in Scotland outside Rangers' Stefan Klos. Like Khizanishvili, Julian Speroni has flourished at Dundee.

The Argentine clearly has a commendable sense of loyalty to his friends. While many at Dundee have criticised the previous manager, Ivano Bonetti, Speroni chose yesterday to credit him for helping his career and for the work he did when in charge at Dens Park. He talked with the Italian on the telephone during the week when his former manager told him he was considering flying into Glasgow for the cup final.

The sight of Bonetti in the stands will not exactly excite the Dundee directors but Speroni believes the man who brought a string of entertaining players to the club, including Caniggia, should be welcomed with open arms. ''Ivano had a huge impact on my career and was very patient with me when I first came to Dundee,'' said Speroni. ''Before he brought me here, I was playing in youth teams in Argentina.

''When Ivano left the club I did wait a while to sign a new contract as I wanted to see what was happening. Teams in Italy were interested in me but I decided to stay at Dundee, and now, even though I am still only 24 years old, I am playing the biggest game of my career.''

lDundee suffered a scare yesterday when Georgi Nemsadze, their Georgian midfielder, failed to complete a training session. He suffered a shin injury in Sunday's SPL game against Hearts at Tynecastle but resumed training yesterday, only to limp out of the action.

A thigh strain also prevented defender Jonay Hernandez from taking part. Jim Duffy, the manager, said: ''There is plenty of time for the pair to recover but, if they have not resumed training in a couple of days, we will start worrying.''