Manager on Thursday

22/05/14: JJ - "We are still going to be a full time club and they will know that next year is a big year and we must go up.

Jim Jefferies has made his players aware of the club's situation had they won promotion. He met with several whose contract situation had not been secured prior to Sunday's final match of the season:-

"We are still going to be a full time club and they will know that next year is a big year and we must go up. Rangers will not be in the league but teams are not going to make it easy for us. We are a year older, we finished in second place by 12 points clear so we know what we want to go with to get up."

With Jordan Moore, Lawrence Shankland and Ryan Wallace all out long before the play offs, the Manager was in no doubt that it was the striking department that required his immediate attentions, speaking exclusively to the website he said:-

"You need to look at trying to improve areas where we are short. It was a big miss to have these four strikers out, particularly three of them for a while. Smith was just out at the latter end but he has had a tough year with illness and injury. Wallace has just recovered from an operation."

Budget restraints means that the offers to the out of contract players can only be the best they can be.

"Callum Morris is moving on so we need a centre back. We need a natural wide player and maybe even a couple of strikers. So to do that we need to look at the squad and it is unfortunate that Stephen Husband is out of contract when we are over provided by younger players emerging like Shaun Byrne and Lewis Spence. Ross Forbes is under contract for another year as arranged when he signed.

"We see Ryan Thomson has to come out of that striking role because he has tried to do a job there for us but he is not a natural striker. It was a bit unfair to him at times but he will come back into midfield. Stephen Husband was out of contract and leaves because we had enough numbers in midfield and to be fair to him, the offer was not conducive to what he needs. That is understandable.

"It is the same with Kerr Young who had a great finish to the season after being out for a while. We are losing Callum and need a centre half but Kerr has a lot to improve on. He is a young player and can improve a lot. He has done reasonably well recently so we have made him an offer and he needs to go away and think about that.

"Jonathan Page is another who is out of contract and we felt if we could have Lewis Martin, Kerr Young, Jonathan Page and maybe one other central defender that would cover us for suspensions and injuries. We have made Page an offer as well to go away and consider."

Danny Grainger is out of contract and failure to secure promotion has made a realistic contract offer difficult. JJ has made it clear to the 27 year old defender that there is an option open to him at Dunfermline. He continued:-

"Danny loves it here and knows that we are interested in him. He will probably wait and see what his agent identifies as options to play at a higher level. He is a good experienced player who would be a great asset to us in this division. I don't think he has ruled us out 100% but he said he would phone me and keep me posted on what he was going to do. If he gets an offer, he could play at a higher level and I am sure that we couldn't match the money anyway. I will keep my fingers crossed that nobody wants him!"

Craig Dargo will not have a player's contract but will concentrate on coaching. Players who had agreed a contract before the end of the season included Andy Geggan, Josh Falkingham, Alex Whittle and Faissal El Bakhtaoui. The young players who have come through the youth system have all been offered terms - Ryan Goodfellow, Ross Drummond, Scott Mercer, Declan O'Kane, Lewis Spence and Finn Graham - and they are expected to make up the backbone of the Under 20s team that the board have backed for 2014-2015:-

"There is no point in scrubbing the under 20s because two years ago we started something that is bearing fruits for us now with young kids coming through. That is the future of the club. A lot of these boys can play in the under 20s next year even though the rules are changing a bit to include other experienced players. We want to keep them because we feel that they have the potential to get better.

"We have already seen Finn Graham come into the first team. Declan O'Kane has been on the bench a few times, Scott Mercer got on against Rangers so they have another year to go and show what they can do."

Jefferies is however interested in several players that he hopes would be interested in coming to Dunfermline. News of any progress will hopefully be broken by this website.

Allan Smith and Ross Millen when they signed contracts