English pair Bolton Wanderers and Southampton are set to go head-to-head this summer in a battle to capture Dundee full-back Paul Dixon.The Premiership and Coca-Cola Championship outfits are among a cluster of clubs from down south who have been in regular attendance at Dark Blues games this term. When scouts have turned up, it has been generally accepted the player under the microscope was teenage midfielder Kevin McDonald, but Dixon’s displays at left-back have drawn increasing attention.In particular, he has caught the eye of promotion-chasing Southampton, who are set to lose teenage wonderkid Gareth Bale to Manchester United, Arsenal or Spurs.That would leave a vacancy on the left of their defence and, right now, Dixon is top candidate to fill the void.Former Hearts boss George Burley will have to fight to get his man, however, and Bolton have been putting together their own dossier on Dixon’s strengths and weaknesses. Any bid from St Mary’s is likely to prompt a counter offer from Sam Allardyce at the Reebok Stadium.Today, Dens boss Alex Rae was stressing there have, so far, been no offers and, while he would not be surprised if that situation changes in the summer, he has reiterated he will be fighting to keep his talent.“As I keep saying, we are building here and I do not want to sell any of my best players. It would take an exceptional offer for us to allow any of them to go,” Of more concern to Alex today was an attempt to bring a player in for Saturday’s visit to Queen of the South using the emergency loan system.With top scorer Derek Lyle still a big doubt and Bryan Deasley out for the rest of the season, the manager would like another striker in and has been making moves to that end. Midfielder Scott Robertson will be fit for selection, despite breaking his nose against Gretna on Sunday.
