Livingston manager David Martindale has confessed he needs to trim his squad this month to balance his books.
The Lions boss has revealed the Almondvale club has to find an extra £200,000 to help pay for the introduction of VAR and for repayments towards the loan received from the Scottish Government during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Martindale has confessed Saturday’s Scottish Cup progress past Stenhousemuir and their current fourth place in the Premiership will help plug the financial gap, as would qualification for European football next term.
But he admits that, with uncertainty over how much those ‘sporting outcomes’ will earn the West Lothian outfit, he will seek to make cutbacks where he can in his first-team pool.
He said: “The agents and people I speak to, it is about other Premiership clubs trying to move guys on to cut their budget.
“I’m no different. It is probably going to be more about getting guys out than bringing people in at this point. Being honest, I probably need to move a few boys on.
“It is no secret that Ivan Konovalov was nearly leaving at the end of the last window. But it never happened, so I am probably a goalie too heavy in terms of where I should be.
“So I need to get some out to balance the books and get my budget down.”
Livi could opt to sell Jack Fitzwater in the coming days if a suitable offer comes in for the defender, who is out of contract at the end of the season, whilst Martindale has already said striker Jaze Kabia’s future lies away from the club.
He added: “This season, we need to find £200,000 from somewhere due to paying back the Scottish Government and paying for VAR.
“So how do we get more income into the club? That’s the difficult part.
“The only way to do it sustainably is player sales, doing well in the league and progression in cup competitions.
“If we get top-six this season that could mean an extra £400,000 more than we budgeted for. That is through crowd numbers.
“You have five European places available, so depending where you finish you could have more coming in. You could have between £300,000 and £3million.
“I have an amount of control over player sales but I can’t make clubs buy my players. I can have a bit of control over where we finish, but I can’t tell you what St Johnstone, Kilmarnock or Motherwell are going to recruit.
“I can only look after Livingston but, as it stands, there are variables I can’t control. I can have an impact on them but not control them and I have to balance the books as quickly as possible.”
