Dunfermline: James McPake on club's loanees ahead of transfer window

The transfer window is set to open in the New Year and, while attention will be on who the club may bring in to bolster their squad for the second half of the campaign, the Pars boss is in "ongoing dialogue" with the parent sides of four players he has already added.

Chris Mochrie, from Dundee United, and Sam Fisher, from Dundee, have been particularly key players for McPake since arriving at the beginning of the season, playing 18 and 16 matches in all competitions respectively.

Both Mochrie, who has a recall option in January, and Fisher agreed moves to East End until the end of the season, as did Motherwell's Robbie Mahon, who has played three times since arriving at the end of September.

Kane Ritchie-Hosler, who has made four appearances so far, joined at the same time as Mahon, on a deal until next month initially.

Speaking to Press Sport, McPake explained: "To be fair, there's ongoing dialogue most weeks, whether it be with Billy Kirkwood, who's the loans manager at Rangers; he's coming through to watch training and have lunch with Kane, and Billy's been fantastic.

"It's great going to Dundee United obviously because I know Liam (Fox, manager) so well, so it's quite an easy one to go straight to Liam regarding Chris, but David (Cook, Pars chairman and CEO) also speaks to Brian Grant (United's head of player pathway and loans) and Tony Asghar (United's sporting director) regularly. We want to keep these clubs updated at how the progression's going, and I've got Gary Ogilvie (head of recruitment) at Dundee as well, for Sam Fisher.

"We know that the clubs are coming and watching their players, and rightly so. We've done that with Miller (Fenton, who had a loan spell with Berwick Rangers), because you want to see how they're progressing.

"We've had conversations. They're happy with how things are going but, ultimately, they're other teams' players, so it's up to them what they decide to do. But I think they're all pretty happy with how the loans have gone so far. We'll continue to speak to them.

"Chris actually played for us against Dundee United (in a bounce game before Christmas) but, again, we spoke to Dundee United, and they were happy to do that. They got a look at Chris playing against them, where he did well in the game.

"There's no issue with that. Dundee are at every game, Rangers are at every game, as are Motherwell, watching Robbie. I think that's important.

"We're open to Billy Kirkwood coming and watching training because, ultimately, we've got a Rangers player. I think that's really good what Kirky's doing as well."

When asked if it was a matter of taking things as they come, in regard to the loan quartet, McPake continued: "That's the only way we can do it because injuries can happen, suspensions can happen, dips of form or, in certain instances, players can catch the eye of their parent club and they might think that they can do a job.

"I think, on the whole, all the lads are benefitting from the loans and I hope the clubs see it that way as well because all the players on loan have been important additions, and it is a good market.

"It's a market you might say comes with a bit of risk, but there's risk everywhere, in terms of injury. We've seen that with Lewis (McCann) and Paul Allan.

"I don't know any signing, or any of your own players or a loan player, that comes without risk. It's one that we've utilised, I had utilised it at my previous job (Dundee) as well to decent effect I would say.

"Certain ones we had up there, with Conor Hazard coming in, Christophe Berra, who were excellent for us.

"There's always a chance to do that. We'll continue to speak to the clubs and hope they're happy with how their players are developing because, ultimately, that's what the parent club wants to do, like we did with Miller."

McPake, speaking to the media ahead of Monday's clash with Falkirk, also said: "That's the danger, when players come and do well, that their parent club may look at them, but that's the loan window.

"It's the same if you've got a player that's doing well; other clubs might look at them. I don't treat it really differently, although we've got control of the contracts or the time.

"The loan clubs seem pretty happy. The players are getting games; Robbie (Mahon) will be the one that's a bit disappointed, but I still believe he'll get games between now and the end of the season, and this is the right club, at the minute, for those players.

"They're getting exposure, they're getting games, and they're adding a lot to our squad, so hopefully we can keep them all."