Barry Wilson says Caley Thistle have made it clear they are preparing for the worst after outlining their precarious financial position.
Inverness released a statement on Wednesday, which confirmed they will look to initiate contact with an insolvency practitioner if the club fails to find fresh investment.
It is the latest twist in a turbulent week, which started with the resignation of chairman Ross Morrison.
Caley Jags also appear to have scrapped their much-maligned training arrangement with Fife-based Kelty Hearts, after confirming they will continue to train at Fort George.
Although the announcement stops short of confirming the club is headed for administration, former Caley Thistle player and coach Wilson feels it indicates a recognition it is on the cards.
Wilson said: “The good thing about it is they are looking for their own insolvency practitioner, rather than it being forced on them.
“It looks like they are maybe ready to accept their fate. If they are looking themselves, they know it’s not far away unless they can find someone.
“Hearing rumours, I doubt anyone would come in and put in money for current directors to take out their loans, and all of a sudden their money is kind of gone.
“You could imagine how difficult it would be, so if there any investors they would maybe wait until the insolvency button was pushed before they would do anything.
“It’s so sad, when you spend so long of your career as a player or coach, to see a club struggling like that just now.”
Wilson calls on supporters to rally
Should Inverness begin an insolvency process, the Highlanders face being hit with a hefty points deduction following their relegation to League One.
The SPFL’s rules state if a member club has an insolvency event, a points deduction of 15 points in the first season and a five-point deduction in the second season will be applied.
In the event of that, Wilson is hopeful supporters will find it easier to rally around the cause following the abandonment of the heavily-criticised Kelty proposal.
He added: “It’s difficult times, and it’s hard to watch from the outside looking in.
“I missed out on administration at Livingston.
“It would be hard, even on the football side. If it’s 12 or 15 points, that causes its own problems, and probably puts more pressure on the management to get off to a good start.
“You have to win four or five games to get to zero.
“But, I would still have confidence in them clawing their way back into that.
“It looks as though they will have to hit the reset button. Everyone’s expectations need to drop slightly, and everyone just needs to rally round as much as they can.
“The good news is they have knocked the Kelty thing on the head. I totally disagreed with it right from the get go.
“I think the reaction of the fans was pretty overwhelming, they felt it was ripping the heart out of the club.
“Rightly so the fans made a lot of good noise about the Kelty thing, and they all stuck together which is really commendable.
“Now the club have listened. I know the fans still want a little bit more action than just what they have got, but they have an important role to play – as a lot of people do.”
Moffat: ‘Worst case scenario is administration’
Andrew Moffat, from the Wyness Shuffle podcast, has urged potential investors not to delay getting involved.
Moffat said: “It looks like this is a last hurrah behind the scenes to try and get some investment.
“But will people invest in a company whose accounts haven’t been filed for two years?
“Everything in these past two weeks been conjecture and rumour. There is conjecture and rumour that there are investors, and there is conjecture and rumour that they won’t come in unless things change at the football club.
“Things are changing at the football club. If investors are reading this – I would urge them to get involved with the club as soon as possible.
“The worst case scenario is administration. There are people who will lose their jobs.
“Some people think that if we go for administration, it will be a reset button.
“It’s good in terms of starting afresh, without creditors and debt, and we can maybe have a new manager.
“But we are not even talking about football at the moment, there are people who will lose their jobs.”
Kelty plan started ball rolling
While pleased the Kelty deal has been scrapped, Moffat believes the episode has brought on unnecessary problems for the club in recent weeks.
He added: “That’s what started the ball rolling in all of this.
“I thought it was entirely unavoidable. All they needed to do was discuss it with the now very well-organised ICTFC Supporters Trust.
“If they had done that, the supporters trust could have garnered some views. We would never have got to this stage.
“While it’s good that fan power has won out in terms of the identity of a football club, it’s never good that a football club is looking at insolvency.”
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