John Hughes: Win to help earn your team-mates new contracts
Inverness boss John Hughes has urged his team to guarantee their top-flight status on Saturday - to help give their out-of-contract team-mates some clarity.
Inverness boss John Hughes has urged his team to guarantee their top-flight status on Saturday - to help give their out-of-contract team-mates some clarity.
Inverness took a major step towards Premiership safety with a 3-1 win over second-bottom Kilmarnock on Sunday and Hughes wants to finish the job against Partick Thistle at Firhill.
The Caley Thistle boss knows every place in the league could help towards next season's budget, and could provide a lifeline to the likes of right-back David Raven, whose future beyond the summer is uncertain.
Hughes said: Saturday's match against Kilmarnock was a must-win, to go to 11 (points ahead) instead of five. It was imperative we won it.
We had to do the business. Now you are looking for that extra point just to make sure we are 100 per cent safe, and hopefully we do that on Saturday.
But we have to go down there with a mindset to win the game, we want to pick up three points.
At this time of the year there will be players playing for contracts, players that know they will maybe not be involved next year, but we are asking everyone to have a focus to try and win the next four games.
If we had a good budget, we would keep everybody, but it doesn't work like that, you need to spin plates.
There are one or two hanging on, and if we know where we are going to finish and there was extra money coming into the budget, you would have an answer for these guys. The first place you would look is in your dressing room.''