Livingston boss David Martindale admits that his January shopping is likely done because he needs to trim the club’s budget.
Steven Bradley and Luiyi de Lucas have both been signed, but the Livi gaffer says that he now needs
to move people on with goalkeeper Ivan Konovalov and defender Jack Fitzwater – who is set to leave for free in the summer – the most likely departures.
Martindale admitted: “Being honest, I need to move a few boys on in this window. It is no secret that Ivan Konovalov was nearly leaving at the end of the last window.
“So I need to get some out to balance the books and get my budget down. This season we need to find £200,000 from somewhere due to paying back the Scottish Government and paying for VAR.
"Where does the money come from? 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 than we budgeted for just through possible 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, if you are lucky enough to go straight into the group stages in Europe."
He added: "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 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.”
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