Perhaps the most curious transfer during the summer at Tynecastle Park didn't involve the Heart of Midlothian first team with nine players added. Nor did it involve Hearts Women as Eva Olid brought in a number of new additions.
It involved the B team and a Scottish Cup winner.
Ahead of the start of the new Lowland League campaign Liam Fox, then B team boss, brought in Jamie MacDonald. The 38-year-old, who had helped Hearts win the Scottish Cup in 2012, was a free agent following his release from Greenock Morton.
Naturally it was a signing that caught the attention and led to questions from some corners of Scottish football, understandably so to an extent.
East Kilbride boss Mick Kennedy posted "All about developing young talent" on Twitter, including the emoji of a monkey covering its eyes in response to the announcement. Externally, the optics showed a B team signing a 38-year-old. It, on the surface, appeared counterintuitive.
Context was required and provided by Liam Fox when he spoke to Hearts Standard back in July.
Hearts two goalkeepers were, at the time, 15-year-old Jack Lyon, and 16-year-old Lyndon Tas. Fox explained he didn't want to throw either straight into Lowland League football while providing them with a role model, someone who can help them develop.
For the man in question, a return to Hearts was a "no-brainer" despite interest elsewhere.
"I did have a few good roles that I got offered in the Scottish Championship," MacDonald told Hearts Standard. "There were a couple of roles that interested me, but when Foxy came to me and asked me if I'd be interested in coming here, it was kind of a no-brainer, to be honest.
"I'm obviously in the twilight of my career but it just interested me, coming in and helping young players rather than focusing on myself. I suppose it's a cop-out in a way because you take the pressure off because you're not thinking about yourself. But it really interested me because I want to get into the coaching side. This, for me, was a little step in that direction.
To get back to Hearts as well. What a club. It just made it even better to come back to where it all started for me. There were a lot of positives with that, and being local as well compared to travelling the length and breadth of the country.
"There were a lot of pros, and when Foxy approached me on it, it was something I felt that I'd be silly to turn down at this stage."
MacDonald spent over 10 years at Hearts, coming through the academy, going out on loan, battling for the No.1 position. That experience can only be beneficial to those teenagers looking to learn as much as they can from someone who has been there and done it.
A nice additional quirk for MacDonald, who has appreciated the "big wholesale changes" within the academy and the club from his first spell, is that his son is currently in the club's academy. And, yes, he's also a goalkeeper.
"It's brilliant because obviously you're getting to train with the young goalies every day, you get to see what they're like, and the best thing about the young keepers is they all ask questions," he explained.
"Ross does the coaching things and it's been excellent. It's a good group to work with, but what I've loved is the boys will also ask me my opinion on things. What do you think of this? What do you think of that? Even just simple things like, what's it like to play at Tynecastle when it's full, in a derby?
"I know it's small things but just the fact that they're willing to learn, be inquisitive, and want to know what it's like. They all have aspirations to get to that, it's great. It's all part of the learning.
"There are plenty of players that are brilliant on the training park and brilliant in this sort of environment but cannae do it when you go in front of 20,000 fans that are booing you and maybe giving you a hard time. It's difficult, it's a different side of the game, it's the mentality side so just from that point of view it's great.
"Even when you go into the game situations you'll probably hear me during games, I like to shout a lot and talk a lot. That's one thing probably this generation don't do as much, is the talking side. It's not as inbred in them as probably what our generation was, but it's an important fact. Hopefully they can pick something up off of that."
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Despite the reservations of MacDonald blocking the path for the younger goalkeepers, one of the success stories of this season has been Jack Lyon.
The teenager replaced MacDonald in the most recent B team fixture for his fifth appearance and he earned praise from East Kilbride coach Simon Ferry last month.
MacDonald explained there is a balancing act with the development of Lyon and Tas. Even more so for a goalkeeper. A position which provokes more scrutiny and focus than any other, especially when mistakes are made.
"I think people forget they're 16-year-old boys and it's a big jump," he said. "They've hardly played 18s, never mind going straight in. The B team are in a tough league.
"Physicality, there's still a lot of good standard players in the league as well. I think people sometimes forget that. There's been that question, I'm not here to stunt anybody's growth, I'm here to help.
"Jack's obviously benefited recently, he's played the last three, he came on [against Cowdenbeath]. That was always the plan, it's not like I was going to play the full season. They're young, once they're ready, you start bleeding them in and out.
"We had a game against Gretna eight weeks ago, we got beat 6-1. I know for a fact, if you played one of the young 16-year-olds in that game, there was not much the goalie could do with the goals, but you're maybe destroying their confidence. For myself, at this stage I can brush it off quite easily. For them, they're maybe going away, losing a bit of confidence for the next few weeks.
"People have to realise these things, but the two young boys, unbelievable goalkeepers. If I look back to what I was like when I was 16, I'd say they're miles ahead of where I was at that age. Just physically, mentally and technically. They get to work in a great environment. It goes right through to the academy set-up now, which is so much better as well with the coaching and the standard of players.
"Two excellent young goalkeepers that hopefully, even if it's not here, will forge a pathway in football."
The environment in place for the young players has clearly left a positive impression on MacDonald. He believes that the club are on the right road to producing more of their own talent like they did with him and Craig Gordon while others in the past have had careers in the game.
"You've got Ross on the goalie coaching side, they get their gym work, they've got all of that," he said.
"The biggest thing for me is just giving them little snippets of my experiences of playing the game. The fact that they're asking questions about it as well is a massive thing. They're still young, they're still sponges, they want to learn. That's such a big positive for things going forward.
"As I say, even if it might not be here, hopefully they can forge a career in football in some way. When I was coming through, Hearts were quite successful at that. There was Craigie, even before that, you've got Roddy McKenzie, played some games for Hearts, still had a football career. You've got Mark Ridgers. Again, never played much [for Hearts], but he went and had a football career. Jack Hamilton, that's good numbers just for goalkeepers alone.
"Coming through, we've maybe not quite got that in the last 10 years, but I think now we're starting to see the benefits of the club really putting a lot into the academy set-up and their structure. Fingers crossed, that's what you want to see. You want to see young Scottish players coming through, so fingers crossed."
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