Former Tottenham and Newcastle boss Ardiles, who won the 1978 World Cup with Argentina as a player, was the first man to publicly declare his interest in the vacancy following the sacking of Craig Brewster on Monday.

Caley Thistle chairman George Fraser hopes to have a new manager in place next week and director of football Graeme Bennett has revealed the club plan to interview three or four candidates over the weekend.

Bennett said in the Scottish Sun: "We've had a number of expressions of interest and there is a high calibre of candidates.

"We've been through the application process where all the agents get in touch, but we always earmark a couple of people we'd like to speak to ourselves.

"Whether they would like to speak to us is another matter. We do have some in employment who have applied for the job, that's why we must keep things in confidence.

"Ardiles is one of the names we will talk about but we've not ruled anyone in or out.

"Now we'll whittle it down to a shortlist of three or four with a view to interviewing over the weekend."

As well as Ardiles, other names linked with the job include former Inverness boss John Robertson, Scotland assistant manager Terry Butcher, Partick Thistle'sIan McCall and St Johnstone's Derek McInnes.

Brewster was dismissed following a run of seven straight Clydesdale Bank Premier League defeats, which left Inverness bottom of the table.