Motherwell boss Graham Alexander confirmed that striker Tony Watt has agreed a pre-contract with Dundee United, but admits he doesn't know what happens next.
Having spent his entire managerial career down south, Alexander says the concept of agreeing to sign for a rival club in the same league is unusual.
Dundee United would need to pay to prise Watt away this month, and Alexander says as far as he's aware, nothing has been forthcoming from the Tannadice club.
When asked on the Press Box Podcast if he was resigned to losing Watt, Alexander said: "I believe so, yeah. He will be leaving.
"The timeline of when he leaves is not 100 per cent, it's not even been talked about, to be honest.
"We've been told that he's signed a pre-contract at Dundee United and that's as far as it goes.
"It's quite an unusual situation for me, to be honest, because I've never really experienced this before because obviously it's my first stint managing in Scotland.
"The pre-contract, signing for another club in your own league and still playing for the other club is quite an unusual and unique set of circumstances, so I'm still getting my head around that scenario.
"He will leave, but the timeline for when he leaves hasn't been decided, because we haven't heard from Dundee United in terms of a bid or anything.
"If he's here until the end of the season, we will enjoy having him with us from now until then."
Alexander says Watt remaining at Fir Park until the summer will be similar to that of former captain Declan Gallagher, who made it clear that he was leaving for Aberdeen.
The Fir Park boss said: "We had a similar sort of situation last year with Declan Gallagher, who straight away from January I knew would be leaving, either in January or at the end of the season.
"Once we got to February 1, it was like 'right, he's leaving at the end of the season'. We just cracked on.
"He was as good as gold, he worked hard, trained hard, and played well for the team, but it was slightly different because it was kept in-house.
"I think Aberdeen announced he was signing for them somewhere, and it became a bit of a different situation... I don't want our team to be about one player, because we know that one player could leave at any particular window."
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
