Alex Rae has paid tribute to St Mirren legend Steven Thompson as the forward gets ready to hang up his boots.

The 37-year-old announced earlier this month that he would call time on an illustrious playing career as he turns his attention to his media commitments.

Brought up as a boyhood Buddie, Thompson’s finest moment arguably came when he scored the winner for his beloved Saints in the League Cup final back in 2013, a day that will forever live with the former Scotland striker.

With only two games left, Rae – who also played with the veteran at Rangers – knows only too well how much Thommo will be missed around the Paisley club.

And he is keen to give him a good send off – even if the player still has to formally tell him he’s leaving.

“He’s not told me yet,” laughed Rae. “I picked up the paper and saw it.

“I agree with him. When you look at he’s 37 and it is something that comes to us all.

“It’s sad but then you accept it and realise it. He’s trying to carve out a media career and he’s been doing that for a couple years. So it will be an easy transition for him.

“I played with Thommo and he’s been a whole-hearted player over the years.

“He’s managed to get in the goals, he’s a character in and about the dressing room so he’ll be missed.

“He’s obviously been a legend to come back to the team he supported in St Mirren, and he even got the winner in the League Cup final against Hearts.

“Take all that into consideration, his contribution has been fantastic.”

Thompson is just one of potentially a few St Mirren players who could be leaving over the summer as Rae looks to mould his own squad to push for Premiership promotion next season.

The Saints boss was waiting until his team’s safety had been secured before any plans could get underway. Now that’s been achieved, he is keen to recruit players with the right character as well as talent to take them back to the top flight.

“It’s important we bring in the right types because it’s an unforgiving lead. We need to bring people in to take this club forward,” he said.

“I’ll be able to have a chat with a couple of the players over the next week or so. It was important to get the Morton game out of the way and then we can focus on letting people know where they are going to be next year.

“We have an idea. Hopefully we have one or two things bubbling and in the next week or two we can start to gather momentum on that.

“Some boys [already at the club] have done okay and it is borderline, but there are still games to go to make us think we can’t do without them.

“We’ll just keep ticking away with that.

“We have Jamie and Webby who have already resigned so they bring in a wealth of experience. There’s plenty of characters in there, the dressing room is full of them.”