Houston hopes success will force reassessment

Manager Peter Houston is hopeful that another good season for his Dundee United side could avoid reductions in his budget at Tannadice.

Houston has already accepted the need for cutting the wage bill next season but is still working at repeating the Arabs' fine exploits of last term, when they famously won the Scottish Cup and also finished third in the SPL.

"If we were to do that again, I'm sure the board of directors would reassess the financial situation because there's money to be made," he told BBC Scotland. "And we must have made a lot of good money that covered the downfall of the Setanta deal. So, if we were to have a similar run, I'm sure the budgets would change yet again."

Chairman Stephen Thompson had already revealed earlier this week that his family can no longer afford to bankroll the club's wage bill.

"It's something I have to live with," Houston continued. "It's been reported that it's going to be half a million, but the chairman hasn't told me what the figure is.

"We'll have to blood young players. We'll have to make sure our youth development programme is running well, which it is just now."

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