Walter Smith has been conducting an illicit love affair for 25 years and it shows no sign of losing its passion. The Rangers manager’s ardour for Italian football is well known to those around him, and tonight at Ibrox he will get another chance to gaze in admiration at Italy’s charms in the form of Fiorentina.

It has been an intriguing and not always untroubled affection. Smith believes that Italy, of all the European nations, has captured the true essence of football most perfectly. It is a subjective view, over which many might take him to task, but he will not be shifted in his conviction. While the language can sound slightly grim, Smith spoke again yesterday of “the pragmatism and work-ethic” of Italian players which, combined with their skill, he believes, makes for the most appealing type of football.

Another example of Smith’s Italo-philia is his open and frequent admiration for former Italy manager, Marcello Lippi. The two men, both aged 60, were born just seven weeks apart in 1948, and Smith has repeatedly hailed Lippi as one of the greats of modern coaching.

In one of his first tasks as Scotland manager after replacing Berti Vogts in 2005, when Smith led his team to face Italy in a World Cup qualifier in Milan, part of the challenge for him included the sheer relish of being able to go head-to-head with a man he so much admired.

Exhibits of Smith’s respect for Italian football are numerous. In his first tour of duty at Rangers, when money was no issue and domestic dominance an absolute imperative at Ibrox, it was to Italy that Smith went in search of his prime parts. In the summer of 1997 alone he signed three Italian players, Lorenzo Amoruso, Marco Negri and Sergio Porrini, the last of whom, one year earlier, had won the Champions League with Juventus under Lippi. Other players Smith signed for Rangers at the time, such as Jonas Thern or Joachim Bjorklund, were those who, as he saw it, had come through the Serie A experience.

Yet the Smith-Italy relationship wasn’t always so fragrant. Back in 1984, when Smith, as Jim McLean’s assistant at Dundee United, led his club to Rome for a European Cup semi-final, second leg, he was subjected to some of the worst crowd abuse aimed at an opposition dugout that Smith and McLean had ever experienced. Infamously, having beaten Roma 2-0 in the first-leg at Tannadice, United went down 3-0 that afternoon amid a hostile atmosphere.

Yesterday, however, Smith spoke about how that early experience of the Italian game, far from poisoning his impression, instead planted a seed of admiration within him.

“When I was at Dundee United and we drew Roma in that semi-final of the European Cup it gave me an opportunity to watch quite a number of Italian games prior to us playing them, and my admiration was enhanced by the way they set about their game,” Smith said. “I’ve liked Italian football ever since. They have a more pragmatic approach than a lot of other countries and their teams are always well-organised. They always have a good work-ethic about them, regardless of ability, and it’s always appealed to me. I also like the way Italian coaches try to go about their work.

“After that Dundee United semi-final British teams such as Liverpool were dominant in Europe at the time, and the Italian FA sent a working party over to Britain, some of whom came to Dundee United. That working party consisted of 22 would-be coaches who came over and stayed for two weeks and looked at a number of teams in Britain. They subsequently changed some of the way they were playing, and I admired that aspect in them as well.”

Strangely, in the context, some of the most harrowing times Smith has had as a manager have been at the hands of Italians, and even Lippi himself. In the Champions League back in 1995-96, Smith’s Rangers, facing Lippi’s Juventus, suffered two defeats, 4-1 in Turin and 4-0 at Ibrox, which still cause some Rangers fans to wince. For that return-leg in Glasgow Smith allowed privileged behind-the-scenes access amid his preparations to one particular sportswriter, who noted the prematch admiration that Smith and his assistant, Archie Knox, had for the Juventus players. Apart from anything else, Smith back then noted that the Juve players appeared to be giant and honed athletes compared to his own players, including Richard Gough.

Catenaccio, the famed Italian system for ultra-defensive football, could never be said to be Smith’s thing, yet there is a respect for footballing caution within the Rangers manager which most certainly is an Italian trait. Ironically, at Ibrox tonight, while Fiorentina will probably play 4-3-3, Smith will deploy a 4-5-1 system which, while serving him well in Europe this season, is certainly a more cautious approach, and one with Italian ancestry Like a true Italian coach of old, Smith spoke yesterday of his main priority tonight – not to concede a goal at home. In truth, he would happily take a 0-0 first-leg result to Florence next week.

“When you look at our European home games this season, not losing a goal has been an important factor for us,” Smith said. “Whether people have liked it or not, in both the Champions League and the Uefa Cup, that aspect has been important for us. So I think when you are drawn at home in the first leg, that part [not conceding] has to be seen as just as important as putting Fiorentina under pressure.”

This is one Scottish manager who will admire much that he surveys in violet shirts tonight.