St Mirren manager Oran Kearney admits his bloated squad is so big he has been forced to split it in two just to make training more manageable.
The Buddies boss has moved to trim back his numbers this week after sending loanees Nicolai Brock-Madsen and Hayden Coulson back to their parent clubs.
But that still leaves the Northern Irishman with an unruly first-team of 29 players and a headache laying on training sessions.
“At its peak, the squad had 31 players,” said Kearney. “You can only put out 11 on a Saturday so that I suppose leaves some people frustrated.
“There is probably an optimum number to have in a squad that you’d like to have – something around the 22 mark.
“But a squad of 29-30 is too big, even just for the functioning of the training ground and the training pitch.
“We’ve even had to split the training squads just to get manageable numbers, which isn’t ideal even though it’s no disrespect to the players who are not on one side of the training ground.
“It possibly can lead to friction but that’s football and I have to concern myself with the 18 who are playing on a Saturday.”
Striker Brock-Madsen has returned to Birmingham after failing to net in his five appearances for the Paisley outfit.
Coulson started the season brightly but managed just 43 minutes of action following new boss Kearney’s arrival before he was sent back to Middlesbrough.
Both players were among a raft of 11 signings made by former boss Alan Stubbs in the summer but his disastrous recruitment drive ended up costing him his position after just four league games.
It is now Kearney’s job to clean up that mess and he admits more are likely to go in January.
He said: “At this point in time, the squad still is big of number.
“The two players made the decision to move on this week. We wish them all the best, sadly it just wasn’t the right time for them here but that’s football.
“They haven’t figured a huge amount in relation to the games and with the players we’ve brought in since, that was probably going to limit their opportunities even more going forward. With that in mind a collective decision was made.”
Meanwhile, Kearney is set to be boosted by the return of Adam Hammill ahead of Saturday’s Kilmarnock clash.
It was feared the former Liverpool, Dunfermline and Barnsley winger had dislocated his shoulder against Aberdeen a fortnight ago and could miss up to three months.
But Kearney said of his recovery: “Adam has trained this week and we will call it closer to Saturday’s game. Compared to the initial prognosis, when we were horrified by the thought of signing somebody for three months and him only playing 26 minutes before waving him goodbye, it’s great to have him out there again.”
