Caley Thistle last night parted company with manager John Hughes after agreeing a severance package to end his stay at the club.
Hughes was contracted until 2018 but a dispute with chairman Kenny Cameron over next season’s playing budget left strained relations between the pair.
Hughes’ departure comes only 12 months after he secured Inverness’ first major silverware, lifting the Scottish Cup and finishing third in the Premiership, which secured European football at Caledonian Stadium for the first time.
His relationship with Cameron is understood to have hit rock-bottom in recent weeks, however, with Hughes frustrated by a lack of funding to replace key players who have departed.
Hughes said: “I will look back on my time at Caley Thistle and in the Highlands with a genuine fondness and warm affection for the club, the area and the community. The welcome I received from the supporters and the response I got from the players throughout my two-and-a-half years there will live long in the memory as will everything else we shared in some of the ground-breaking successes we all enjoyed together during that period. I enjoyed every minute of my time at the club. I can assure my successor that they will inherit an excellent group of players and to each and every one of them could I also say a huge thanks for making my time with them so successful and so memorable.”
A statement on behalf of the Caley Thistle board of directors said: “All of us at Inverness would like to take this opportunity to thank John for his contribution since joining us in December 2013 and specifically his coaching skills and commitment, which helped deliver our successes, and, in particular, lifting the Scottish Cup for the first time in the club’s history as well as our first foray into European club football. John will be remembered here at Caley Thistle as a member of a great winning team and we wish him every success going forward.”
Current club captain Richie Foran is the most likely successor, having previously been tipped for the role by Hughes.
The veteran Irishman, who spent more than a year on the sidelines with a knee injury sustained in March 2014, has assisted with coaching duties and has started working towards his Uefa A licence. The 35-year-old’s lack of managerial experience could pave the way for Maurice Malpas to return as his assistant.
Malpas spent nearly five years at Caledonian Stadium as Terry Butcher’s right-hand man, with the pair responsible for bringing Foran to the club in January 2009. Foran also previously worked under Malpas during his spell at Motherwell.
Other names being linked with the job are Aberdeen under-20s coach Paul Sheerin and former Motherwell and Rangers manager Stuart McCall.
Sheerin formerly played for Caley Jags, spending more than three years at the club, and scored in the club’s famous 3-1 Scottish Cup victory against Celtic in February 2000. McCall is out of full-time management after leaving Rangers last summer but is part of Scotland manager Gordon Strachan’s backroom team.