You could look at the contracts in two ways. The most obvious is that the club are tying up it’s most sellable assets so as to protect it’s financial viability but it would also suggest that the club are also planning on building a competitive side that’ll last a good few years.

This is another ‘crossroads’ close season for Airdrie coming up. Next season’s league will prove to be competitive. Already the signs are that St. Johnstone and Dundee will be different propositions from this season, both sides making big improvements in recent months. Gretna will be favourites due to their media hype and Mr. Moneybags and it wouldn’t be amiss to think that Clyde and Hamilton will look to improve in their second seasons with Roberts and Reid in charge. Partick coming up could be interesting if they invest in the right kind of player too, and presuming that John Robertson comes downwards with Livingston it would be right to think that Robbo is capable is quickly assembling a competitive low budget side. Airdrie’s summer will decide whereabouts in that mix we end up.

Airdrie have built a fairly decent first team this season and would seem to be only one or two players away from a side that could compete for promotion and look to go even further in the cup competitions. The squad also needs a bit of padding out in terms of quality, the sides that are getting promoted tend to have a very strong 16 or 17, rather than our 9 or 10 plus filler. I think that we need to be looking at improving rather than standing still as we'd be looking to benefit from the kind of crowds that are generated when competitive teams collide. The crowds are affected too much when we're on a downer, we need to guard against this syndrome.

It’s clear looking at our side this season that the foundations are definitely there though. Look at the desire in the faces of Prunty, McKeown and McPhee. We have good youth with McLaren developing into a mercurial playmaker and MacDougall excelling in his first full season but still looking like he’s got a heck of a lot more to come. I haven’t seen enough of Holmes to decide just how good he’ll become but the signs are that he’s in the same quality bracket as the Pruntys and McKeowns of the side. But we’ve looked fragile in defence this year. McGowan has been up and down for long spells and at times overpowered in the air. Without McManus we’ve been leaking too many goals and we don’t have the quality back up to keep our performance level when he’s missing. McKenna is starting to toil in his first full season and looked flat footed lately. He should come good again maybe the stresses of the season are taking a bit of a toll on him but he still looks a good prospect.

I’m going to start speculating a fair bit now on the kind of players I’d like to see and throw in some names, more as examples of my thinking, to fill my blanks. As a fans website I defend my right to play these kind of games and would suggest that my views are not taken seriously. Firstly I think we’d need a centre half. The most obvious one for me is still Stewart Greacan from Morton. If they don’t get promoted again I’d love to see us make a move. We need a big but mobile centre half in. I’d also like to see us try to get another one as cover, maybe the youngster Craig Sives from Hearts. We’d also need to get in a midfielder who fits in with our prototype. That’s why I’m again going to throw in the name of Darren Brady again. I remember the job he did in Archibald’s side. He was the ball winner in central midfield whose job was to protect the back four, win the ball and feed the ball out accurately to the players who could play a bit. Dosser has done a great job this season but can’t carry the load single handedly. With Homer in there too we’d have as good a midfield as anyone else in the league. That would let McLaren or MacDougall play off a front two in a playmaker or wide role depending on circumstance. Lastly I’d love to see us go for someone like John Stewart