AS the curtain falls on another domestic season in Scotland, most of the players are already lying on a beach relaxing somewhere in the sunshine, resting up their weary bones after a long, hard season.

The lucky ones will be either under contract with their current club, or will have agreed a deal to go elsewhere before they jetted out. Peace of mind that they will still have a wage rolling in over the summer and a club to go to for pre-season training at the end of June. It certainly makes the Strawberry Daiquiri taste a little sweeter.

But for the hundreds of players out of contract currently in Scotland it really is a worrying time. I know this from personal experience. Unfortunately, it might be a while before they receive their next wage packet.

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It wasn't always like that mind you in Scottish football. It used to be a case of not accepting or being happy with a deal your current club had offered you, and gambling a little bit because you knew clubs had plenty of money and you would always pick something up elsewhere.

However, as budgets have tightened and squads have shrunk over the years, players really need to be careful and take what they can – because it can be a long horrible summer without any wages. When you are earning three or four hundred quid a week, then going to nothing, that can really bite.

I actually had spells towards the end of my career where I had finished playing in May and still had no club or a wage until the September. Not a nice experience.

Of course, the players at the top end of the game in England or even up here can afford to pick and choose their next destination. But players at a certain level don't earn the money that most people think, and they feel the pinch big time, just like everyone else when no money is coming in to pay the bills.

When you are a more experienced player, and maybe have a wife and kids to feed, it is a very tense time. Oh, and it certainly wasn't me being greedy or refusing a deal. I just hadn't been offered a deal anywhere. Maybe that was because I had played and been chased from virtually every club in Scotland already, or did I have a rubbish agent? I always believed it was the latter, but that could be up for debate.

Read more: Six of the best Auld Enemy matches: Scotland 0 England 0 (1970)

But joking aside, it is a seriously trying time, physically and mentally, not having a club, or as other people would call them, an employer.

When that phone just isn't ringing despite you staring at it every day and willing it to, that gets to you.

And, when you are out of contract, it is vitally important you stay in peak condition so that when that phone eventually does ring and you get a sniff of a move or are even offered a trial period, you are ready to go in and impress immediately. But the longer it goes on, and you see squads filling up and budgets being spent, the harder it gets to get up in the morning in the rain and run around public parks.

I can remember going in and doing a pre-season at Falkirk under Steven Pressley. I was out of contract and slogged my guts out for two weeks to get fit and earn myself a deal, only to be told that they didn't have the budget to sign me. But I was grateful, at least, for Elvis giving me training facilities and being back amongst the boys.

I can remember some of them moaning about how hard it was and me turning round and saying "at least you are getting paid to spew your guts up."

Read more: Six of the best Auld Enemy matches: Scotland 0 England 0 (1970)

It can be a very dark time for players and it certainly was for me at times, but the SPFA thankfully have acknowledged this and have put together training camps with the showpiece game usually at Broadwood. It has received a lot of publicity the last few seasons and hopefully it is here to stay. It is a major help to players desperate for a club because there was nothing worse than training yourself plodding around roads.

There will also be players who will need to go part-time, just in order to keep their senior careers going.

For lots of players, getting a job and having that security behind them so they don't need to suffer every summer, may be the way forward. With full-time wages shrinking every year, it's often far better financially to go part-time and get a job. And unfortunately, I don't see this trend ending any time soon.