Livingston boss David Martindale says the Lions would be open to the possibility of becoming a feeder club for an English Premiership outfit - and admits he doesn’t see his long-term future being at the club without investment to take them to the next level.
The Tony Macaroni Arena outfit have continued to punch well above their weight and are currently in their fifth consecutive top flight campaign despite continually having the smallest budget in the division.
That results in players regularly leaving West Lothian for more money elsewhere while a string of experienced players could be heading for the exit this summer with skipper Nicky Devlin and midfielders Jason Holt, Stephane Omeonga and Andrew Shinnie being out of contract.
Asked if he can see himself working at the club for the remainder of his career Martindale, who has performed various roles during his nine years with the Lions, commented: “Under the current infrastructure, no. For the club, and for me, to kick on in the next five to 10 years we need someone to come in.
“We need a Mark Ogren, a Dave Cormack. Folk moan about these investments but I’d bite your hand off for it at Livingston. Our CEO John Ward would bite your hand off for it.
“I’m not going to say we’ve hit a glass ceiling so to speak because I think there is more to come from the current people at the club, including myself and the players but it’s very difficult every year replacing coaches and replacing players. It’s very difficult when you are losing your best players to other clubs because they can pay more money.
“My best players aren’t saying, ‘Can I get another contract on the same money?’ Why would they? But I can’t offer any more money.”
He added: “Yes we’re doing very, very well but do I want to keep treading water in terms of where we are as a club?
“All my staff, we all want to kick on. We all want to be in European football every year, we all want to be chasing top six every year, we don’t want to be one of the favourites to get relegated every year.
“So how do we change that? I don’t care what anyone says, finances in football play a huge part.
“We’re an anomaly in terms of that. Given your budget, roughly where you are will be one or two places either side. If you’ve got the 12th best budget in the Premiership - which is the worst - really, you should be finishing in and around 12th place.
“Where we differ is I’ve had 14 transfer windows. I don’t think you can replicate what we’ve done here at the 11th best budget over two transfer windows,
“As a club how do we kick on? We need an extra 1500 fans through our turnstiles which gives me another £300-400,000 every year.”
And the gaffer admitted being part of an English giant’s portfolio could be a way to fix that problem, especially since Brexit and work permit issues that have arisen from that.
He commented: “Look at Brighton and the clubs they own in other countries, that business is very successful.
“Why would the bigger clubs in England not want to purchase a Livingston Football Club and use it as a feeder club? Leave the infrastructure and staff but give us investment.
“I think now with Brexit, it’s really difficult for foreign players to break into the English Premier League, if a club owned Livingston and invest - what do they spend on their under-23s down the road? Millions.
“Give us a couple of million a year, supply players and if we play European football that player is guaranteed to play in England.”
Don't miss the latest news from the West Lothian Courier. Sign up to our free newsletter here
