Danny Stewart: Experience suggests the high-low negotiation is ongoing

If the January window is the football fans’ equivalent of the new telly series that drops as a mid-winter gift to viewers, then pre-contract deals are the tasty subplot.

Especially when the two clubs at the centre of the often-divisive dealings just happen to be rivals from the same division.

Consider, for example, the less-than-saintly behaviour between St Mirren and St Johnstone.

It was at the end of the last window that the Perth Saints announced they had managed to bring in Cammy MacPherson on a season-long loan from St Mirren.

Manager Callum Davidson was, the club said at the time, “thrilled to have secured the talented player”.

His excitement patently did not dim because he took advantage of the fact the 23-year-old was going to be out of contract at the end of the season to tie him up on a pledge to sign in the summer.

The news immediately prompted his parent club to exercise their right to recall him – a move that effectively held the player hostage against a fee.

“We can’t be doing one of our Premiership rivals any favours,” said manager Jim Goodwin at the time.

If the statement ran the danger of leaving the casual onlooker curious as to how then he had viewed the loan in the first place, the tactic paid off – quite literally.

St Johnstone ponied up a fee and the clubs agreed, in time-honoured fashion, to say no more about it.

Experience suggests that is how the John Souttar affair, which has been the dictionary definition of testy, will eventually conclude too.

From the clipped tone of their initial statement, which had Hearts “noting” Rangers announcement of the defender’s pre-contract agreement, it was clear just how displeased they were.

The rejection of a £300,000 formal bid from the champions to bring the deal forward reiterated their determination that only a “significant and satisfactory” offer they said, would prise him away ahead of time.

Sometimes in football, as in life, you have to take the right hints in order to keep up with the plot.

The fury of sections of the Hearts support who barracked Souttar in the win over St Johnstone added another element for the Tynecastle club to factor into their thinking. No one likes to see individuals subjected to abuse and employers have a duty of care to those in their charge.

And when Craig Levein, mentor to current boss Robbie Neilson, said he had heard it would take a bid of £600,000-plus to make it happen, the high-low terms for negotiation became clear.

Which can make things a whole lot more straightforward.

Especially as clubs are very aware doing a deal now, rather than letting the contract run out, allows them to insert a sell-on clause.

Take Tony Watt’s switch to Dundee United from Motherwell earlier this month, a deal successfully brought forward.

The Steelmen wanted £200,000 to let him go early, United figured £75,000 would be fairer. The clubs talked and Watt walked – for £100,000 now, more if he subsequently moves on.

The issue is not that all such situations go bad, rather that when the clubs involved play in the same league the potential for acrimony is always there.

No fan wants to be disabused of their conviction that a favourite player is loyal to the cause by his promise to another.

Especially when the suitor is a domestic rival who your player will soon be playing against your team every few months, Scotland’s top flight being notoriously big on repeats.

That is before the games against the “new” club in the final six months of the season with the potential for conflict of interest is taken into consideration.

When an English club have done the wooing, it is not so hard to take.

Then, everyone knows the wages on offer down the line will be a significant multiple of what they are getting north of the border. Plus, out of sight is out of mind.

Speaking of which, a better answer surely, would be for the Scottish games to adopt the regulations used in England.

There, pre-contracts can only be struck with a club in the same league in the final month of a player’s deal that typically runs until June.

It means both that they do not have to play against the club they are joining and are spared the long lead-in to their move.

Motherwell manager Graham Alexander, who has worked in both set-ups, is an advocate for change.

For all the winter entertainment value it offers those on the outside, anything that ends the spectacle of players being abused by their own fans has to be worth exploring.