Strachan also watched him in action in the City of Discovery Cup during pre-season and saw him star in the Tangerines league visit to Glasgow’s east end in August.

With wide man Didier Agathe expected to move on sooner rather than later, Strachan could move to strengthen his defensive options as early as the transfer window in January, but that is likely to be two-and-a-half years too early to get Wilson.

The contract he signed just after the season got under way is not up until the summer of 2008 and United, who are not expecting a call from Celtic in any case, have no plans to offload him soon.

“Mark has just signed his contract and I suspect this is a case of nothing else to write about, so people are stirring up a bit of transfer speculation and Mark is an obvious choice,” said the Tannadice gaffer.

“That’s because he is a very good player, who people will watch all the time. I’ve no doubt that one day Mark will move on to a bigger club, but it is not going to be now because he is happy here and a very big part of the team.

“That will be the case for a while to come because we are not going to sell him.”

Wilson has headed west, but only to meet up with the national team and to begin preparations for Friday night’s European Championship qualifier against Belarus at Clyde’s Broadwood Stadium.

Also on his travels will be Garry Kenneth who leaves tonight to meet up with Scotland for the UEFA U/19 Championships in Switzerland. They face a hectic schedule against Andorra, Finland and Switzerland before returning next week. Before his international duty began, Kenneth was in the United team for this afternoon’s reserve trip to Livingston. Other first-team squad members on duty included Derek McInnes, Stuart Duff, Lee Miller and Collin Samuel.

Meanwhile, tickets for the first of the Tangerines’ two Setanta dates with the Old Firm this month are now on sale. Briefs for the televised clash with Rangers on Sunday week are available from Tannadice. Two weeks later, the cameras return when Gordon Strachan brings Celtic to the street where his senior career started.

United’s UEFA Cup conquerors, My-Pa, won the Finnish League last night, clinching the title with a 3-0 win over Tampere.

Stewart takes over the specialist job from another ex-international goalkeeper, Andy Goram.

And, when he returns from international duty after the games against Belarus and Slovenia, he can expect an increased workload with the return to full fitness of Derek Soutar.

For boss Alan Kernaghan, Soutar’s appearance in the friendly against Billingham Synthonia tomorrow will be a major feature of the two-day trip to the north-east of England.

“I’m looking forward to finally seeing ‘Soapy’ in action and, assuming Kelvin is OK when he returns from World Cup duty with Trinidad next week, it will be good to have two quality keepers competing for the first-team jersey,” said Alan just before the team bus headed for the border this afternoon.

The other big issue of the trip south will be the performance of Bournemouth winger Sean Hogan. He impressed at Dens last week and this trial game will give him the opportunity to earn a permanent move to the City of Discovery.

“If Sean does well, we could be offering him a contract. But, as everyone knows, money is tight here and there will be a few things to thrash out first,” added the manager.

Defender Tom Hutchinson’s departure from the wage bill may free up more cash, but the budget for signings remains tight.

One doubt for the trip to England was defender Callum Macdonald. He suffered a back spasm in training yesterday and any sign of the problem lingering would see him left at Dens for fear of his back stiffening up on the four-hour journey.

Peter MacDonald underwent knee surgery today and, though he isn’t expected to be out for long, he’ll miss the home match against Brechin a week on Saturday.

Saints beat Morton 4-0 at Cappielow in the Reserve League Cup last night. Player-boss Owen Coyle netted twice and Stevie McManus and Stephen Dobbie also scored.