The majority of Dunfermline players are to endure a nail-biting wait before discovering whether they’ll be kept on at the club next season.
Most of the Pars squad are out of contract at the end of this month with only Andy Kirk, Jordan McMillan, Paddy Boyle, Paul Gallacher, Paul Burns, Andy Barrowman, Paul Willis and Ryan Thomson in possession of deals that have another year to run.
Dunfermline’s defeat against Hibs on Monday night confirmed their relegation back to the First Division and manager Jim Jefferies will not find out what his budget will be and who he can retain until after a board meeting early next week.
He said: ”I had a word with the players before training today but I have to know what the intentions of the board are first, regarding budgets.
”There will be an important planning meeting on Tuesday and a lot will depend on the outcome of that. I’ll be speaking to the players next week about that.
”You also never know whether there’s going to be any changes to league set-ups or whatever. Nobody knows what’s going to happen so it’s not an easy thing for any board of directors.
”We’ve got two scenarios but the main thing is we have to accept we’re down and budget accordingly.”
Jefferies has previously stated that this is likely to be his last manager’s job and he insists that even if he does bring Dunfermline straight back up, he doesn’t intend to hang around as long as Aberdeen’s veteran boss Craig Brown.
He added: ”If I can get them back up in one season I’ll have satisfied the club and myself. I’m not looking beyond that. If I bring them back up there’s no guarantee I’ll stay, if I feel it’s time to go.
”I came into this job because I wanted to, not because I needed to. I definitely won’t be doing this when I’m in my late 60s like Craig up the road there.”