Foran confident Shinnie will stay
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RICHIE Foran insists Graeme Shinnie has told him that he is planning on being a Caley Thistle player next season.
Speculation has seen the full back, who also impressed in midfield towards the end of last season, linked with a summer move to Scottish Premiership rivals Aberdeen.
The Dons are on the lookout for a left back and were reported to have made their interest in Shinnie known, but Caley Thistle did not receive any formal bid for the 22-year-old.
Aberdeen now appear to be an unlikely destination for Shinnie with vice chairman George Yule saying yesterday that it would be unwise for the club to consider paying transfer fees for under contract players.
However, it is understood there is interest in Shinnie, who was voted as both players and fans player of the year last season, from south of the border as well.
But Caley Thistle chairman Kenny Cameron has already insisted that Shinnie, or any other players at the club for that matter, are not for sale unless a truly exceptional offer comes in.
The former Scotland under-21 international is one of several members of the current first-team squad going into the final year of their contracts that manager John Hughes plans to speak to about extending their stays with Inverness beyond next summer when they return to begin pre-season training on Thursday 26th June.
Foran would like nothing better than to see Shinnie, who deputised as captain in the Irishman’s absence through injury over the final two months of the campaign just ended, sign on for another few years.
But regardless of what transpires from those talks, he fully expects Shinnie to be at Caley Thistle when next season begins.
"I have spoken to Graeme and he doesn’t want to leave," said Foran. "He wants to stick around.
"The chairman has already issued a very strong statement that none of our players are for sale, so unless bids come in which are crazy money, then I don’t think other clubs will get our players.
"Of course you can replace anyone, but we can’t afford to let a player of Graeme’s ability go.
"He’s someone who I am sure will go on to play at a higher level, and I hope he does, but just two or three years further down the line.
"Graeme can play at a bigger and better standard like the Championship, or even the Premiership down south. He can play at the highest level because of the way he conducts himself.
"Just now you perhaps got agents who are trying to upset Graeme a little bit, but he’s fully focused on Inverness."
Meanwhile, Foran maintains that he will be ready to begin pre-season training with Caley Thistle.
The 33-year-old was sidelined since the end of March after undergoing a clean up operation on his knee, but has been busy working hard in recent weeks to get himself back to fitness.
"I’ve been going down to Bught Park and doing a lot of running," said Foran. "It’s all going very well and I’ve had no problems at all.
"Pre-season is such an important time for any footballer. If you miss it, then you struggle once the season gets going and that’s not something you want to happen. You want to come out of the traps flying.
"The last couple of season’s, we’ve got off to good starts and been able to put a lot of points on the board early on.
"I put that down to having had good pre-season’s on both occasions, so we’ll be looking to do it again this time round."
CALEY Thistle striker Billy Mckay played for 81 minutes before being substituted in Northern Ireland’s 1-0 friendly defeat by Uruguay in Montevideo.
The 25-year-old, who scored 22 goals for Inverness last season, could be given the chance to add to his six caps so far when the Northern Irish take on Chile in the early hours of Thursday morning.
