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Agreed. Last minute loans to fill an identified gap that we werent able to fill with a permanent player is fine, particularly if that player has quality beyond what you can normally afford. But this early in the window we should be tying up longer term targets.

Aye, if he stayed with us he'd likely have 50+ first team appearances and ready for a move to a team that want hom as a starter.

Agree with above. Randomly my season ticket seat was next to him. Got to know him well over the years. He would have loved the fitbaw this season. RIP my friend

Welsh was an established pro who wanted minutes to get away from Celtic, and we benefited from that. Rice is different. He chose Rangers over a pro deal at Motherwell, spent four years on the fringes, and stalled his own development. We shouldn’t be the club rebuilding a player’s career for a direct rival.

If we were going to bring a loan player in from our rivals, the Welsh deal worked almost perfectly for all parties. We won a watch, he won a move and, you have to say, the points he helped us win against Hearts and Rangers, didn't exactly hinder Celtic's league challenge. The one regret was O'Neill's pathetic recall, seemingly just to cup tie him, but at least they didn't make a killing on his move to Swansea.

Seeing a lot of talk regarding what fees we'd get for selling the likes of Watt, Maswanhise, and Just. For Watt, I'd be looking around £2.5m (£3m with add-ons). Had he forced his way into the Scotland reckoning, then you'd be looking at a bit more. Understand Anderlecht offered around £3m for Maswanhise in January. Reports were they were going to come back with a larger bid this summer, potentially £3.5m (around £4m when you factor in add-ons) I really think for Just you are looking around a minimum starting figure of £7.5m given what he not only achieved with us last season, but also at the World Cup. He's a player whose stock is only rising, therefore it would be a real shame, I think, if he went for £4-5m. With add-ons you could get this deal up to around £9m. Be really hard to take to watch all three go, but if they do we must maximise this opportunity to really strengthen the club's financial position for years to come. It also gives the new manager a promising budget to work with and to make the necessary replacements. Again, I know some are 'doom and gloom' regarding potential departures, but look at Bournemouth. It's all about the right recruitment and I'd be really surprised if they had not identified potential targets to replace all of the above, given how much interest they've been attracting for a while now.

Ive never been a fan of loaning players from clubs in the same league...however, Stephen Welsh was a breath of fresh air in terms of his abilities and his attitude.

Yes, 100% this move smacks of short termism. We now have a long term sustainable plan so lets stick to that. I'm not averse to the odd loan move to address specific circumstances, but not as a routine part of your overall strategy. Loan players are not your club's players and can be recalled and, add to that, Rice will have to sit out at least 3 games per season against his parent club. As you say Joe, its not our model.

I'm not one for public sentimentality and anniversaries are for those we forget, he is sadly missed.

I would have been fine getting Rice back as our player (albeit financially unlikely) but no interest in bringing him back on loan to develop him for Rangers to benefit from. Its not our model. Lets find the next Just, Fadinger, Watt, Maswanhise etc...

More likely to get a game there than displace Fadinger. I'm hoping, however, we're looking for permanent signings rather than loans.

Bailey Rice has, rather disappointingly, gone to Killie.

Jon Joe, Aidan and Mikey are fringe players I’d like to see more of next season depending on who we’re playing of course as I wouldn’t want to put too much pressure on them at the moment but if they’re good enough to allow us to rest others then great.

I thought the chairman said Nick Daws and team and been working and to expect a couple of signings in the next few days. He also said he wanted to give the new man "space to bring in his own signings". I'm pretty sure professional managers and coaches whose livelihoods depend on winning games are well aware of positions that need strengthening. As always, finding the right players for the right price who want to play in Motherwell is what takes time.

Read this, went straight to the bbc sports page to confirm it was what I was hoping for and now have a big smile on my face. I will try to keep this respectful but thank fuck he’s gone - John McGlynn please

I take it back what I said that just was the only positive for me to come from the tournament…. That news today was a positive

Good Law boy. Had the opportunity to stay but decided on the move. Best of luck to him.

The next week or so will be quite telling - depends on whether contracts get announced from 1 July onwards. A new manager will have impact - take last year for example. McGhee, Fadinger and Watt were probably agreed well before JBA was on the scene. Versus Just, Longelo, Said RCA had JBA's involvement. Similar calibre walking through the door next week will get me excited.

You'd think that JBA and Nick Daws would have identified areas to be strengthened some months ago and probably as early as January (central defence, Slattery replacement and a striker). Not only that, surely targets would have been identified and perhaps PCAs signed some time ago. Has JBA's departure disrupted that process despite what the club has said?

Are we expecting our first signings to be announced on first July ? last season Watt , Fadinger , McGhee all announced on 1st with Just, Longelo and Said a week or so later . If we’re able land anything like that quality I’ll be delighted . Not heard any rumours , but eagerly anticipating some additions .

Hark at you.

I see our resident arrogant know-it-all has made a reappearance.

I don’t expect anything, I’ll console myself that you’re not involved in negotiations for sure. From your player profiling I’d hope for fees in excess for those agreed for Lennon Miller. Theory being Miller was bought on the premise of potential and in effect a speculative purchase whereas, Just still ahead of his prime is a more complete talent with a CV that boasts holding his own on the world stage. Not far from the realms of possibility either with comparisons readily available amongst our peer clubs and current trading. Will though, depend on who is interested. Your old firm realising more in transfers has some merit, but, that landscape has changed somewhat which we proved less than 12 months ago as have Aberdeen & Hibs in recent times. Off on a tangent about club model, revisionism. You’ve gone from ‘the fact our entire model is based on giving youth a chance to ‘Pretty sure you’ll find our whole model is platforming players to get a better move’ is quite the stretch. Many strands to our club model and not all inextricably linked. Our board has been open in this outlook unless it’s myth they peddle on various platforms? 2 year deals weren’t exclusive to the players mentioned. How the club choose to market that doesn’t give us all an inkling that they are players most likely to feature. Think you do Ross a disservice. His development like many before him was favoured in a first team environment and not a loan so discounts ‘barely featured’ unless you are only counting appearances which numbered more than the rest you mentioned put together. Wilson can count himself lucky to have secured an extended contract under Kettlewell, certainly hasn’t developed. Currently making up the numbers in my view.

Ross as well I thought I had put him in already. The other few who would probably have played are John Joe Friel - CB, Aiden Thomson - CB, Mikey Booth - CM

Luca Ross? Currently, we are short of bodies though.