JAMES MCPAKE insisted it is “business as usual” despite the club's German investors deciding to sell their shares.

The news broke last Thursday that the Hamburg-based group want out and while that's led to upheaval off the pitch, there are pressing matters on it for the Pars boss with a return to action at Hamilton on Saturday.

Dunfermline are bottom of the Championship with no points and no goals scored, they still only have one senior goalie in Deniz Mehmet while McPake has repeatedly stated that his squad is short on bodies and not equipped for a title tilt. 

In fairness, there's little he can do about the off-field financial issues and he told Press Sport: “I had spoken to David [Cook] and Thomas [Meggle] so before the news broke, I had been aware of it.

“From a footballing point of view, when I spoke with David, I was told it’s business as usual.

READ MORE: Dunfermline directors 'surprise' as German investors sell up

“There’s no uncertainty in that sense so we had a free week, we had a bounce game against Livingston and we focused on preparing the team as best we can for the games coming up.

“From day one, the fans have been fantastic at this football club – we’ve had some great runs and some poor runs.

“The fans just want to see a team that’s giving everything and winning games and that’s what we’re working towards.”

The investors bemoaned the fans demand to see results straight away, indicating that long term success was being devalued in favour of quick wins and short term progress.

Despite their decision, the statement “recognised that the current squad needs to be strengthened" and there was confirmation at a board meeting on August 12 that funds would be released for the manager to go shopping for signings. 

There's no news yet with McPake explaining that he has been scouting for additions since then.

He said: “We’re trying and we’ve identified where we feel we need to beef up certain positions in the team and which areas we need to bring certain players in.

“Over the last week or so, I’ve spent a lot of time with David and I’ve been on a lot of recruitment calls with David and Thomas.

“We’re trying to get people in to add depth to the squad but with that, we want to bring in players who can provide quality as well.”

He continued: “At the point we’re in at the season, the pool of players (available) is different to what it was earlier in the summer when a lot of players were out of contract.

“There’s certainly more players out there and I know more will become available during the last day of the window.

“We’re looking at both the loan window and the transfer window.”

The lack of goalie cover has been a particular problem but the boss said they have been picky. 

“From the very start,” he went on. “We could have went out and signed another goalkeeper pretty easily but it’s not a backup keeper we want.

“We want a goalkeeper that can come in and challenge Deniz, that is capable of playing in our team if Deniz gets injured.

“Likewise, if Deniz isn’t doing well in games for a prolonged period of time, they can come in and challenge him to be the new number one.

“We’re hoping to have that resolved pretty quickly, we would’ve loved to have had it done quicker.

“We were pretty close with one and that deal went away from us but we know the requirement as a squad that we need to fill that position.

“I’m certainly doing all I can.”