With the chances of promotion back to the Premiership growing slimmer with every game most fans have written off this season. Instead they are desperately hoping manager Peter Grant will start to put his own stamp on the team with a busy summer, and a good start to 2007/08.

With the chances of promotion back to the Premiership growing slimmer with every game most fans have written off this season.

Instead they are desperately hoping manager Peter Grant will start to put his own stamp on the team with a busy summer, and a good start to 2007/08.

However, all the signs suggest the club's immediate future prospects do not offer light at the end of the tunnel.

There are currently 13 players out of contact in the summer, namely Adam Drury, Gary Doherty, Paul McVeigh, Peter Thorne, Craig Fleming, Ian Henderson, Dion Dublin, Matthieu Louis-Jean, Joe Lewis, Andrew Cave-Brown, Matthew Halliday, Robert Eagle and Andrew Fisk.

Many of these players will be able to leave on a free transfer come June, so the club could be left in a position where the squad size is woefully short, with little prospect of raising revenue from transfer sales to bring in top names.

Further cause for concern comes with the fact the club will no longer be able to count on Premiership parachute money, which sees sides relegated from the top-tier given £12million over two years to help them cope with the fall-out.

And to add insult to injury by missing out on promotion to the Premiership, the club will also miss out on the benefits of a new television deal, which is expected to mean in excess of £10million extra income per club.

Fans will be hoping that there will not be a return to the previously tried and tested method of bringing in revenue by selling top players, which in this case would set alarm bells ringing over the futures of top striker Robert Earnshaw and midfielder Youssef Safri.