Livingston boss David Martindale admits he faces his ‘hardest’ summer at the club as he prepares for a £200,000 budget cut ahead of next season.
The Lions boss – who has fulfilled a variety of roles at the club over the course of the last nine years – confirmed he’ll see a cut to his budget following the club’s failure to reach the top six.
It comes on the back of reporting an £800,000 loss for last season, with a projected £400,00 loss for the current campaign.
Add in the departures of key defensive duo Nicky Devlin and Jack Fitzwater and expected interest in top scorer Joel Nouble, and Martindale confessed he’s in for a difficult off-season.
He also revealed he’s not getting much luck with recruitment from the Championship.
Speaking to the West Lothian Courier, he said: “My budget will be cut by £200,000 next year. That’s what it’s going to have to be.
“We need to cover projected losses. The losses last year were paper losses in the sense that it was money in the bank accrued from running the club successfully over a number of years.
“We’ve got projected losses of £400,000 so where can that money come from? Half of that is from the Scottish Government loan repayment and VAR which aren’t going away any time soon.
“We might have to run with a smaller squad next season or we can run with the same size but with players who are on less money which obviously means you’re maybe not attracting the level of player that you have previously.”
He added: “I think this summer is going to be the hardest since I came to the club. My hands are tied.
“The markets I’m looking to recruit from are one below where I normally try to recruit from but that’s what the finances dictate.
“In the last few weeks I’ve spoken to three players in the Scottish Championship who I think would do a job for us and it’s been radio silence when normally I’d speak to boys at that level and they’d be knocking doors down to get to the club.
“This group of players will likely lose three top players who on form are playing every week. It’s a big gap to bridge but I’ll try and do that to the best of my ability.”
The Lions began selling season tickets for the 2023/24 campaign this week and while they saw an increase of close to 25 per cent in sales last year to around 1200, the gaffer admits it needs to be a long-term process if they’re to match other Premiership clubs.
He added: “We’re working really hard to increase the season tickets but that’s not something that will dramatically impact the budget overnight.
“I’d need an extra 1800 season tickets to fill that loss in my budget and we’re not going to do that in one summer.
“But we’re working hard to bring in more revenue to the club through ticket sales and commercial and sponsorship to try and put the football club in the best position to succeed next season.”
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