David Martindale confirms three players departing Livingston in the summer

Livingston boss David Martindale has confirmed three more first team players who will depart at the end of the season amid the club’s battle to remain in the top flight next year.

Joel Nouble, Ayo Obileye and Bruce Anderson will all leave the struggling West Lothian side in the summer when their contracts expire.

After a comprehensive 3-0 defeat to Scottish champions Celtic on Sunday, Livingston remain bottom of the cinch Premiership table having secured just three league wins so far in this 2023/24 campaign.

With around half the squad out of contract in the summer, Martindale lamented that losing key players is not an unfamiliar situation for the Livingston manager.

He said: “We’re not in a great place. We probably lose three or four first team players every year and it’s generally your better players.

“You go back to Lyndon Dykes leaving, Nicky Devlin, Jack Fitzwater, there are loads within that, Craig Halkett. You lose three or four of your starting 11 - that has not changed in terms of what I’ll lose in terms of the starters.

“You are maybe keeping 10-12 [players], then there is maybe another 8-10 that you are losing. It kind of comes in three-year cycles. I think the year we lost big Jon Guthrie there were 15 out of contract. That was my first proper year as a manager.”
 
With just seven league games remaining and Livingston 10 points adrift of 11th place Ross County, recruitment plans for next season hang in the balance.

Martindale, whose side host Aberdeen this weekend as they fight to escape relegation, admitted he's got much to ponder in the weeks ahead.

“Recruitment becomes really hard but I felt that in the summer anyway, January even more so." he said. "We were probably in a positive position in terms of wages. We lost £5000 per week from the wage bill in January and we spent £2500 as it was really difficult to bring in the players I wanted.

“It’s been really difficult and now I have to plan for both scenarios - but how can you recruit for both scenarios? How can I recruit what I perceive to be Premiership players that might be playing in the Championship because financially there is a big jump? I could recruit Championship players but then we’re in the Premiership.

“You are working in a really small pond at this point, trying to find players theoretically on Championship wages that can play in the Premiership is difficult. You are taking chances on boys but that’s where we find ourselves.”