Hibernian boss Mixu Paatelainen admits the bigger SPL sides will continue to take his better players. Financial constraints dictate that sales are necessary, with Paatelainen forced to accept this unpalatable fact.

He told The Scotsman: "We realise the difficulty of building a team. We are not a club that pays huge wages.

"Players with proper talent, fantastic players, are used to getting big wages and we are not in the position to offer that kind of money.

"I want to build, I want to keep the best players and bring in others to improve and get the whole team playing well.

"But football is a short game and if someone comes in from even the lower leagues in England, they can offer the players twice or three times the money they get from us."