John Hughes ready for testing times in transfer market

Inverness manager John Hughes admits it is a constant challenge to maintain standards in his squad after losing two more players during the international break.

Midfielders James Vincent and Danny Williams both signed pre-contract deals with Dundee, following in the footsteps of Nick Ross, who made the same journey last summer.

Hughes has had to watch former players Edward Ofere and Billy McKay line up for Dundee United, Ryan Christie at Celtic and Graeme Shinnie at Aberdeen, and lost Marley Watkins to Barnsley.

And he is finding it difficult to bring replacements in despite being linked with a move for Partick Thistle midfielders Stuart Bannigan, Abdul Osman and Steven Lawless.

Hughes said: We are busy trying to bring someone to the club. We are going to lose Vincent and Danny Williams and it's our job to replace that.

We are finding it difficult to get one or two over the line and we are finding it difficult to keep who we want to keep.

Our budget will not be right up there, we will be in the bottom two in the league. We have to be very shrewd in the way we spend our money.''

Hughes also expects to lose Miles Storey once his loan spell from Swindon ends.

I've never heard anything but what will happen, just from being in the game a long while, Miles Storey will probably move somewhere on the back of the season he has had here,'' Hughes said.

And that will not be his choosing, it will probably be the agent trying to cash in. If Miles Storey wanted to come back here for roughly the same deal, then we would jump at it.''

Despite losing players and having a significant injury list for the majority of the season, Caley Thistle still have a chance of finishing in the Premiership top six ahead of Saturday's visit of Motherwell.

But Hughes said: The next three games are must-win. We need to pick up nine points to get in the top six.''

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