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Clarkson has worked out well for us. I don't think it's fair to say that there should be no loans this summer, but we should be working towards a position where loans are phased out for the most part. We are in no position to be signing the 6-10 new signings we're going to need, regardless of how good our recruitment team is. Loans are really useful when you have used up all your recruitment resource on various players that have either gone elsewhere, or are signed but quickly turn out to be shite. With the best will in the world, you're not going to be able to commit the time and effort into checking out any new guys halfway through a window, and you probably don't want to commit to anything long term. Coulson was a guy who was struggling to find a way in his career, like Hoban, Lowe, Logan etc and we utilised them in the hope that we might get them to stay (Coulson might have had the manager not changed here, and there!). They're experienced enough to go into the team and perform a role, and they're not playing for another SPFL team. Young players are fine if they are exceptional talents like Clarkson, but I'd rather we forced our own youngsters on our manager where possible. We've had too many shite ones to balance against the good. Scales was a signing made really early in the window for a key position and should never, ever have happened. He's like the poster boy for terrible loans, despite not being too bad a player - just a lose:lose for the Dons. I'd be comfortable with 2-3 loans per season. Those in January probably need to be supplemented with pre-contract agreements to ensure that we're not lagging with the squad. Overall though, we just need to be much, much better at recruitment.

The club has to make it's position clear about who is in charge of what part of the business. If we can convince the player that the club has the majority say in signings regardless of the manager then the player might stay. In other words, he'd be no less likely to be signed by a new manager or no manager as the manager is just the guy doing the coaching and management, with all else being the club's focus. Never was there a greater need to enforce that segregation in my opinion, stagnation does nobody any good. McRorie is a utility player. All things equal, he's not good enough at football to be playing every week. He's second best to everyone in the positions he can play. He's a better right back in a four than Kennedy, but dubious as to whether he's a better wing back - I think that'd depend on the opponent. The confusion surrounding McRorie has existed since he joined, and even at that point he was playing right back for the u21s. He's played every week he's been fit, so his development isn't really something the club has been shirking in any way. At some point we have to decide that he's not going to be the guy that bosses our midfield or marshalls our defence, or bombs up the right and puts in a fizzing cross. He's technically deficient, with a fantastic work ethic and drive. He's basically Ricky Foster. Right back should be his role, but we should also be looking for a right back in the summer. I think he could do an excellent job of man marking someone good in midfield too, if we ever need to try that against a good team.

Said that to a mate the other day. Last game it was three loaners at the back, add coulson and Richardson, that’s 5 who may not be here next year, although wishful thinking on Richardson. Mackenzie is our best under contract defender and he can’t get a game for us. Then again, what do we do with mccrorie, someone I prefer in midfield? especially if we keep shinnie past the summer, mccrorie is a defender by default. He’s not making the necessary progress being constantly moved to a variety of positions, I’d make him right back and commit to it. the more I think it’s hard to expect anyone so sign past the summer until we have a manager in place, if I were Macdonald I’d want to know who the manager is first and the managers take on him. Short term makes sense for now.

Think I will reserve judgement on defence until after next couple of games. Being down to 10 in first and Motherwell being incredibly bad in the second mean I don’t think we can judge either way yet.