The Arabs have some difficult decisions to make this summer

Dundee Utd have enjoyed a great season. Craig Levein might have left mid-season to take the Scotland job, but after a brief wobble they overcame that and ended the season 3rd in the SPL, and winning the Scottish Cup.

No wonder the crowds were out in Dundee last weekend to celebrate, and with Peter Houston looking likely to accept the manager's job on a permanent basis, the club can look back on 2009/10 with immense satisfaction.

Gary Kenneth thinks they can improve on this, and even split the Old Firm next season. Well, sorry to burst the party atmosphere, Gary, but here's a good reason why you can't - chairman Steven Thompson has admitted that his family's support for the club is unsustainable, and players might have to be sold to balance the books.

Thompson claims that the £450,000 loaned to the club this season takes his family's total "investment" to £5m, which was generally reckoned to be the figure his dad Eddie had put in before he died.

But whatever the true figure, it seems clear that this arrangement will not continue. Dundee Utd simply have to balance the books, and that might mean selling players this summer.

Kenneth himself is seen as a likely target for English clubs (Blackpool had a bid rejected in January), while Craig Conway and Morgaro Gomis are also subjects of transfer speculation. Captain Andy Webster will return to Rangers after his loan expired.

And while the fans will have chuckled long and hard at Dundee's late season implosion which ended their promotion hopes, the Arabs could have done with those city derbies next season to help boost match day revenue. No wonder Stephen Thompson used those Cup parade celebrations to ask fans to come to Tannadice more often next season.

So much is speculation at the moment. If a bidding war develops for one or more of their players, Dundee Utd could bring in more than they could hope for this summer... but this might mean negotiating right up until the end of the transfer window. And they may well gamble on reaching the Europa League group stage and the added revenue that will bring.

How much is Stephen Thompson prepared to risk?