Cove Rangers boss Paul Hartley insists the club will not stand still as he prepares to make decisions on his squad.
Hartley will have to assess the future of a number of players as he prepares Cove for life in the Championship.
The departure of full-back Harry Milne has already been confirmed, with the 25-year-old heading to Partick Thistle this summer.
Kai Fotheringham will return to parent club Dundee United but Ryan Strachan, Leighton McIntosh, Ola Adeyemo and Jevan Anderson find themselves out of contract. There is also Ross Draper to factor in, given that he spent most of the season on loan at Elgin.
Strachan and Anderson have had injury-affected seasons, with the latter heading out on loan to Elgin before a shoulder problem curtailed his campaign.
McIntosh got a run of games over the festive period but has been in and out of the side. He grabbed the late equaliser against Queen’s Park last month. Adeyemo has primarily been used as a substitute after joining in September.
‘I’ve got to keep improving the group’
“We’re a club on the rise and we want to continue that,” said Hartley. “We can’t stand still. My job is to keep the club moving all the time on the pitch. Sometimes you have to make decisions for the best of the club.
“We’ll have to make decisions on players over the next period. That’s my job and you have to make them.
“I’m used to it; players come in, players stay and players leave. Some maybe want to leave. That’s just part and parcel of the game.
“We have to make decisions based on the football side and I’ve got to keep improving the group.”
While difficult decisions will have to be made, the Cove boss knows he has the backing of a strong chairman in Keith Moorhouse.
“The chairman is a very clever businessman,” added Hartley. “He knows how to handle things and have the best structure in place, on and off the pitch.
“We had a good conversation the other day to say we’d get our teeth into it this week. What do we need, what’s our budget, what can and can’t we afford.
“We have to be sensible. He’s ran the club well over a number of years in charge.”