For Dundee United supporters, feelings will still be raw after the club was relegated to the Scottish Championship on Monday night.

But once those feelings of hurt and anger subside, there is a far bigger picture for those who invest their time and money in their team to review.

Dundee United's financial model is built largely upon being a top six Premiership club. And for relatively good reason. They have finished in the top half of the table in the last eight seasons. The last time they didn't was when they came ninth in 2006/07.

Coupled with a repeated ability to sell players on for big money, the club were able to do a deal to settle their bank debt, pay back money invested by the family of majority shareholder Stephen Thompson, and build a football facility for the next generation of stars to develop.

But for all the good United have done with the cash they came into, they've failed to get to the stage to use it as a springboard to balance the books. We all understand the premise of "saving for a rainy day". But the club appears ill-prepared, as things stand, for the financial difficulties relegation will bring.

First and foremost, it's important to state that Dundee United posted a remarkable profit in 2015 of £3.94m.

But none of that profit was gained from normal operations. Player sales brought in £4.86m, writing off operating losses and creating the overall profit. Such a figure was an exceptional event and isn't easily repeated.

Operating losses shot up over the course of the year, despite an increase in turnover. In 2014, operating losses were £114,335. In 2015, they rose considerably to £798,816.

Continued losses on the same scale will put the business in trouble. And if losses contribute towards putting the club in a debt position, investment will be needed to plug the holes.

This is conceded in the club accounts. They state that "a significant future funding requirement in the next 12 months" will be required in "certain scenarios", one of which is if the club is relegated.

The question therefore is: where is the money going? It's difficult to fully substantiate why losses were so high, but there are some indicators.

Total wages in 2015 were £3.95m, a rise of from £3.52m the previous year. The amount due to trade creditors almost doubled year-on-year from £398,765 to £789,105.

And then there is the "soft loan" taken out from Hugh Drummond Duncan, secured against Tannadice, which was used as partial payment on the clearance of the club's bank debt.

This £1.6m loan, repayable over four years at a 6% interest rate, will make a dent in finances in the coming years. The first payment of £369,250 was made in February 2016. The next is due in February 2017.

The accounts for 2015 also made clear that the level of operating losses were potentially unsustainable regardless of which division the club played in.

It was noted that "such losses can only be sustained by successful player trading, and there is no guarantee of such impressive gains in future years."

And those £4.86m gains in 2015 were impressive. And the club will be able to report further gains of nearly £1.2m in their 2016 accounts from the sales of Nadir Ciftci, John Souttar and Ryan McGowan.

There are also potential revenues available from sell-on clauses on players who have previously been sold.

But with turnover likely to fall, the onus is on the business to cut its areas which cause the significant operating losses.

Revenue from sales comes down to having the players to sell, and a market to sell them to, and neither can be guaranteed.

For the club to survive without transfer revenue, costs will likely have to be cut, money will have to come in from willing investors, or a mixture of both will be required.

Dropping to the Championship will have a direct impact on the club's turnover depending on a number of factors.

The easiest figure to quantify is the drop in revenues from the Scottish Professional Football League. Prize money accounted for was 22% of Dundee United's turnover in 2015, with the club earning £1.28m for finishing fifth in the Premiership.

The 2016 accounts, which are for the 12 months of trading up until June 30 this year, will at least show income from the league is not immediately impacted by relegation.

Dundee United will take in nearly £950,000 for finishing 12th, but will also receive a parachute payment of £300,000, balancing the books in terms of how much is brought in from the SPFL.

It is the impact on trading going forward that will have the greatest impact. Payments from the league are staggered over four instalments between August and June.

Dundee United, as a Premiership club, received £660,000 at the start of the 2015/16 season. In 2016/17, as a Championship side, their opening payment will be £66,000, a drop of 90%.

Even by their third payment in April 2016, the club would have racked up £900,000 from the league in prize money, ahead of a closing payment of £49,500 before the end of their financial year.

In the Championship, by April 2017 a cumulative payment of around £120,000 is all that will have been paid to Dundee United.

Provided the club come in the top four next season, they will be able to at least double, and perhaps even quadruple, that amount in the final June payout. The maximum payment available, £474,500, comes for winning the Championship.

How the club's other revenue streams will be affected, such as sponsorship, gate receipts and hospitality, is down to speculation. The club, in its accounts, say they would expect gate receipts to fall with the club in the Championship.

The challenges faced by Dundee United in the second tier of Scottish football aren't speculative. Most of them are conceded by the business itself in reviewing what the financial picture would look like.

What happens next will be crucial for the club's future. Thompson himself reinforced that point in his statement to fans on Tuesday. He says "radical changes" are necessary and references the "serious financial challenges" the Championship will bring.

The chairman has also promised drastic cost-cutting. That has started with the waiving of his £100,000 club salary. How much deeper that cutting goes could prove pivotal.