Paul Hartley Hopeful Dundee’S Budget Won’T Be Hit

[JoeCovenant]

Paul Hartley hopes Dundee’s budget for next season does not take a hit after the bitter blow of missing out on the Premiership top six. While the prize money does not differ much between finishing sixth or seventh, the staging of the payments and sums released to teams the wrong side of the divide is very different.

Teams in the bottom half can only expect the equivalent to 12th-placed finishers’ cash up front prior to the end of the campaign, while those in the top half will receive much more. As a result, there are fears the Dark Blues’ well-laid plans for the summer and beyond might have to be curbed, in the short term at least. But Paul is hopeful the slip-up at Hamilton, which meant Dundee dropped out of the top half of the table, will not have an impact on player recruitment, summer plans and contract talks.

When asked whether his budget would be hit, the gaffer replied: “Hopefully not. “We have a couple of players coming in and we have most of the players signed up who were out of contract. “We are still looking to add one or two more. “We are a team in progress. We still want to finish as high as possible, though. “We set targets and we didn’t meet them. “Our next target is seventh. Sixth and seventh in the first two seasons would not be bad but we know we need to improve on that.â€

Paul did not mince his words about how big a blow missing out on the top six was to his dressing-room, though. “The players aren’t angry, they are quiet. “We set our sights high this season. “It’s a massive blow for us. “We had aspirations to get into the top six and we felt it was in our own hands. “We just didn’t perform. There’s no doubt about that.

“In the first half we just didn’t get going. We couldn’t cope with the physicality of Hamilton. “The second half was a little bit better but we didn’t turn up. “But it isn’t just Saturday why we aren’t in the top six. “We have had 14 draws this season. “We have been in good positions where we should have won games and haven’t capitalised.â€

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[TheDarkBlues]

This is a ray of light in what was a cloudy weekend for us. So hopefully those who were worried about our future signing and player contracts can feel a bit more at ease.

Now, we have to finish as high as possible in the bottom six.