King Set To Reign

Simon King will sign for Caley Thistle on August 1 on the expiry of his contract with Gillingham and will thus be eligible for the squad for Saturday's SPL curtain-raiser at St Mirren.

The 29-year-old defender, who cost Gillingham £200,000 from Barnet in 2007, has shaped up impressively in Caley Jags' pre-season training and action. He picked up a thigh strain but manager Terry Butcher expects him to be fully fit for the Paisley trip.

"Simon has agreed to sign on Wednesday and that completes our first team pool", said Butcher. "He's a useful acquisition with good experience and we're pleased to land him."

King joined Oxford United in 2001 then moved to Barnet a couple of years later. He won three caps for the England non-league team, including scoring the winner on his debut against Italy.

He made 149 appearances for Barnet, scoring six goals and was their Player of the Year when Gillingham swooped to buy him in the summer of 2007.

Simon did well enough to Gills' Player of the Year in 2008-09 and was selected for the Professional Footballers Association League 2 Team of the Year for the same season.

He signed a new three-year deal for Gillingham in July 2009 -- only to pick up a bad ankle injury early in the new season which ruled him out for 18 months. He made 101 appearances, scoring three goals.

Butcher hopes that having completed his recruitment drive before the season starts -- unlike in the past couple of years -- will work to Inverness's advantage. "We'll have a settled squad much earlier this time, and they'll all have gone through pre-season together", he said.