New contracts for ICT management duo

The Courier understands that the board at Inverness will be entering into discussions with manager Butcher and his assistant Malpas in the near future.

The pair were rewarded for their efforts in guiding Caley Thistle back into the Scottish Premier League last April with a contract extension, which expires at the end of the forthcoming season.

Such is the impact Butcher and Malpas have made following their arrival in the Highland Capital two years ago, the club’s board want to act swiftly to broker new deals for the duo.

The news of the imminent contract offers to Butcher and Malpas comes only two days after the club confirmed that a group of Inverness exiles have expressed a willingness to invest a six-figure sum into Caley Thistle.

Discussions between the club’s board and five separate individuals, all born and brought up in Inverness, had taken place over the previous eight weeks, but they have since formally submitted their intentions in writing.

Caley Thistle chairman George Fraser conceded there were still issues that needed to be agreed upon by both parties, but remained hopeful these could be completed within the next two weeks.

“It’s now a case of the board at Inverness needing to do a bit of research on this potential investment, while both sides still have a few things to look into,” he said.

“We are working on this just now and provided there’s nothing untoward then the two-week timescale we’re looking to get it done by is a realistic one.

“It’s a group of five individuals who have come together. They are all enthusiastic fans of the club, who want to invest a six-figure sum.”

Fraser was not willing to divulge the identities of this mystery group, or where they all come from, but did confirm they would be looking for representation on the board at Inverness.

It is, however, understood that Jeff MacDonald, the Texan-based oil tycoon who was strongly linked with becoming an investor at Caley Thistle back in October 2006, is not involved.

MacDonald, the older brother of former Liverpool player Kevin, made his money from buying and selling two oil and gas companies for a combined total of nearly £600 million.

In a press release issued by the club on Wednesday, Fraser stated that the proposed investment is connected to a previous statement made by former Inverness chairman David Sutherland in December last year in which he offered to transfer his shares in the club, understood to be around the 25 per cent mark, to new investors with the proviso that they invested in the football side of the operation.