Dumbarton boss Jim Duffy has revealed end of season talks between himself and the club have yet to take place.

The planned meeting between Duffy and the club’s board of directors that was pencilled in for last week after the season came to a close has been postponed due to time constraints but the gaffer is certain that talks will commence sooner rather than later in order to allow adequate time to build a squad capable of challenging in League One next season.

The 60-year-old took over the reigns in October with the club sitting near the foot of the table after parting ways with Stevie Aitken.

Duffy helped turn that around, however, with 10 wins and eight draws from 26 matches as Sons finished the season sixth in the table - just five points off a play-off spot.

And while Duffy is sure he will still be in the dugout at the Rock come the start of next season, he admits he needs some assurances about the budget available to him and the club’s ambitions going forward.

“There’s been no progress in terms of a meeting with the board unfortunately,” Duffy told Reporter Sport. “A couple of members were unavailable after the last match so we didn’t get the chance to discuss anything.

“We’re going to try to rearrange that meeting soon. We really do need to get motoring on that because the summer is very short. It’s not always easy to get a date for everyone to make it but we need to discuss all of that sooner rather than later.”

Elsewhere, there had been some fear amongst the Sons faithful that the end of the season would signal the end of Duffy’s time at the club.

But, the gaffer, while confident he will be at the helm when the season kicks-off, hasn’t quite quashed those fears, instead insisting that in order for him to take the club forward, confirmation on the budget available to him is a must.

“I’m still the manager and I don’t have any reason to think that won’t be the case come the start of next season,” he said. “But, as I’ve said before, and I’ll be honest because you need to be honest with the supporters, I need to know what the club’s views are. I’m an employee so I need to know what my employers want to do in regards to the future which is one of the reasons why we need to sit down.

“I’ve been at a number of clubs where the finances were extremely tight so I totally understand what’s going on. There’s no wealthy benefactor about to pop up all of a sudden, but I need to know exactly where we are and what we have. I need to know what we can get with the money we have.

“My problem right now is that I don’t know what I would be working with. That would be a problem for any manager - as long as you know then you can work with that. It’s now about finding out that information and then moving forward.”

One of Duffy’s main issues in the uncertainty is that a number of key players have already been released by the club with no guarantees in place to ensure they are suitably replaced.

Read more: Jim Duffy and Calum Gallagher scoop League One awards for April

He said: “As a manager, in terms of ambition, I need to know where we can go and how best to try and achieve that.

“To do that, you need to sit down with the facts and figures and all the aspects of how the club want to move forward. Once we get that done then we will have a clearer picture of how to try and achieve that.

“We haven’t signed anyone because we don’t know what we can offer. All I have said to the players is ‘in principle, would you be interested in signing?’. Those I have asked have said yes, but until such times when we can put an offer on the table, there’s a threat that other clubs could swoop - good players will always attract attention from other clubs. If those players get offered a good wage elsewhere then we will lose out on them.

“Pre-season starts back in mid-June so we need to get a move on. Recruitment is vital, so I need to know where we stand.

“I understand the club has to do it all properly and make sure they’re not putting themselves at risk. These are things that supporters can sometimes get frustrated about but it’s vital for Dumbarton to live within its means. To do that, we need to make sure what we can offer players is affordable. That can take a little bit of time.”

Duffy, meanwhile, has praised his side after a strong finish to the season which left them just five points away from Montrose in the play-off spot.

He added: “We improved a lot after the turn of the year and that is something all the players can take a lot of credit for.

“It was a tough season, there’s no doubt about that, but I think we finished on a really positive note.

“We played almost all the teams in the league over the last few months and although we did lose the odd one, we did show what we were capable of in most of the matches towards the end of the season.”

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