Kilmarnock manager Jim Jefferies wants the Rugby Park board to loosen the purse strings to allow him to strengthen his squad.Jefferies will hold discussions with chairman Michael Johnston at the end of the season to see if money can be made available for his transfer budget.
While Kilmarnock have cashed in on goalscorers Kris Boyd, Steven Naismith and Colin Nish, losing all three in barely two years for fees amounting to around £2.5million in total, Jefferies has not been given substantial funds to strengthen his squad.
Instead the former Hearts manager has worked wonders picking up bargains from the lower divisions.
Jefferies believes the board now understand they cannot keep selling off their best players and not reinvest in the squad, if they want to have success in the SPL.
He said: "We know we've got to look at where we go in the future and that can be done at the end of the season.
"Then we can re-address what's needed to be done to take us forward and get back to the two or three years where we've had success.
"We know how to do that, whether we can or not will be down to our discussions.
"I'm sure they've learned their lessons over the last few weeks that you can't keep losing good players, that you have to replace them with good players.
"We have to relent a wee bit in taking these steps and I'm sure they'll do that.
"At this moment we should be discussing getting enough points to pull out of trouble sooner rather than later."
Having finished fifth in the last two seasons, Jefferies has been as frustrated as any of the Kilmarnock supporters to see his side second-bottom in the Scottish Premier League.
But he has not been surprised by their fall down the table, as they have lost so many key players.
Jefferies said: "We're frustrated because when you have success you want to go to the next level, but if you keep losing your good players and are relying on finding somebody, that doesn't work all the time.
"You can't guarantee it because if you could then you'd have no problems.
"Some youngsters come through that are exceptional like Naismith and Boyd. Guys like Gordon Greer and Peter Leven did well for us, Momo Sylla was a top SPL player but circumstances off the pitch made it unworkable.
"But he was a good player we lost.
"To find them in the lower divisions takes time and we've asked them to do too much too quickly.
"You like to bring them in when we're doing well but that's what we've had to do.
"I'm not disillusioned but these are the hard facts and until someone comes in and invests so we can challenge and replace these good players, these are the discussions we have to have.
"I'm not saying we can't get out of trouble because we have the quality to do that. But these boys have had to learn the hard way."
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