Caley Thistle manager John Hughes wants to recruit in his former assistant Brian Rice following Russell Latapy’s departure last week.
Rice was in the dug-out for Saturday’s 1-1 pre-season friendly draw against Championship side St Mirren in Paisley on Saturday where Greg Tansey’s free kick was cancelled out by a similar effort from Saints’ Alan Gow.
Hughes will step up his efforts to recruit the 51-year-old who works for Qatari club Al Khor and said: “Brian has been in visiting. I always keep in touch with him and ideally, he’d be my number one choice for assistant-manager. I’d like to get it done.
“I’m trying to convince him, although he’s absolutely loving it here. He’s been casting an eye over things in training and in the pre-season games and giving his opinion on what we can improve on.
“He is probably the best coach I’ve worked with. He’s a clever man who wants to be out there among the players and he has been delighted to work with players who want to give everything.
“Hopefully, that will go a long way towards convincing him to stay here.”
The deadline for registering new players for the Europa League qualifier against Romanian side Astra was on Friday, but Inverness are still permitted to make one wildcard signing prior to Thursday’s first leg in the Highlands.
Trialists Dani Lopez, Oliver Norburn and J. J. Hooper all played against St Mirren on Saturday, with Hughes keen to add to his summer additions of midfielders Nat Wedderburn and Jordan Roberts.
Hughes added: “It was important to not rush things just because of the European deadline and I have to make sure we sign the right players to the club.”