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Coronavirus latest: St Mirren have no plans to slash wages, eyeing new signings

The Buddies have vowed to honour all contracts for Jim Goodwin's first-team squad as well as the rest of the club's employees.

St Mirren insist they have no plans to slash wages and are instead discussing signing targets for next season.

Relegation rivals Hearts have been forced to ask players and staff to take a 50 per cent cut to their salaries after the coronavirus shutdown sparked a cash-flow crisis at Tynecastle.

But the Buddies have vowed to honour all contracts for Jim Goodwin's first-team squad as well as the rest of the club's employees.

Saints chief executive Tony Fitzpatrick says not only are the Paisley outfit looking to offer new terms to players whose deals expire this summer, they are also drawing up plans to make fresh additions for when domestic action is finally able to resume.

Fitzpatrick told the club's official website: "There is a lot of uncertainty and the club is like any business just now.

"There's a bit of trepidation but as was mentioned in our statement the other day the club is in a reasonable enough position to deal with this at the moment.

"There are no thoughts of cutting anybody's wages or making anyone redundant. We don't know how long this will last so we will continue to monitor the situation as things go on.

"These are difficult times but I also think this is a real chance for us to really reflect on everything at the club.

"The board has been together quite a bit to discuss everything at the club. We have a number of players who are out of contract at the end of the season and we have loan players.

"We'll obviously honour all those contracts and there are players in there that we would like to offer new contracts to.

"Jim will also have had a list of players that will be out of contract that we'd have been looking to sign in the summer and we are constantly discussing that.

Simple Digital Arena has been shut down to the public
Simple Digital Arena has been shut down to the public (Jeff Holmes/PA)

"It's on hold a bit just now as we aren't sure where we are at with things but I'm a great believer that if we put the right plans in place and we keep working away then we'll be ready when this all passes.

"We will need to wait for a decision from the SPFL in terms of how the league finishes and whether they will pay clubs on the basis of where they currently sit in the table.

"These organisations care about the clubs and there have been plenty of meetings that have taken place and hopefully they'll be able to come to some sort of decision soon."

Saints have already shutdown the Simple Digital Arena to protect staff from the spread of the virus.
Now Fitzpatrick has confirmed the club's overseas stars have been allowed to return home to hunker down with loved ones.

"The manager has taken the decision to let all the foreign players go home to their families and it was the right decision," he said.

"With football postponed until at least the end of April, players will work towards being back at that date and hopefully by then we may have got on top of this.

"They have all been given an individual training programme to keep on top of their fitness."

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Today's games header
Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
Championship Group
CCeltic550095306593
2RangersRangers531187325585
3Hearts513154421268
4Kilmarnock51224644256
5St Mirren51134652-647
6Dundee50144968-1942
Relegation Group
1Aberdeen54104852-448
2Hibernian52125259-746
3Motherwell52035659-343
4St Johnstone51132954-2535
5Ross County51223867-2935
RLivingston52122970-4125
 
First Phase
CCeltic33246380265478
2RangersRangers33243672234975
3Hearts33195946341262
4Kilmarnock33131284334951
5St Mirren33127143843-543
6Dundee331011124454-1041
7Hibernian33912124451-739
8Motherwell33813124651-537
9Aberdeen33811143549-1435
10St Johnstone33710162446-2231
11Ross County3379173256-2430
RLivingston3339212259-3718


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