DUMBARTON manager Stevie Aitken has admitted he will be working on a tighter budget this season and will be forced to keep squad numbers down to a minimum.

Aitken continued his squad building for next season as Darren Barr, Gregor Buchanan and Donald McCallum last week signed deals to remain at the club. While former Partick Thistle and Hearts attacking midfielder Ryan Stevenson also signed on with Sons.

That takes Dumbarton’s number of signed players to 12 and Aitken revealed he will only be looking to bring in four or five more.

That will be a reduction from last season when Sons had around a 20-strong squad for most of the season, with three or four loan deals bulking up the numbers. But the Sons boss doesn’t plan to use the loan market as freely as he did last season. 

It is further evidence of belt-tightening at the Cheaper Insurance Direct Stadium after the under-20s team was scrapped for the upcoming season.

He said: “We’re maybe only looking at having one loan player. We’ll be working with a squad of 16 or 17 players next season. Our budget is going to be stretched this year, we’ve had to cut back.

“We’ve got 12 signed at the moment. We’ll have a couple from the under-20s will make up the squad.”

Aitken expects more business to be done this week, with left back, midfield and striking positions the areas he will be looking at.

He said: “We’ve got right back covered, we’ve signed Craig Pettigrew, Darren Barr and Grant Gallagher can cover in that position.

“Centre back and goalkeeper we’ve got covered, left back we have a bit of work to do, we’ll need to speak to Mark Docherty again but Pettigrew can play left back as well.

“The midfield and striking areas we’re looking at adding to at the moment.”

While he expects more signings this week, the Sons manager is already planning to be without two important players from last season.

Aitken revealed he expects Christian Nade and Steven Saunders to move on.
Saunders has had talks with Welsh side TNS while Nade has told Aitken he wants full-time football.