It pains me to think of Terry Butcher leaving Inverness Caledonian Thistle. If there is such a thing as a perfect marriage of man and club, this appears to be it.
But at time of writing divorce, alas, looks imminent.
Butcher has turned Caley Thistle into something few of us thought possible: a cemented, established Premiership club in Scotland.
And he has done it by near-miraculous means, on a tight budget, and by wheeling in hordes of unheard-of lower league players from England and elsewhere, and turning them into impressive teams.
In 2010-11, Caley Thistle finished 7th in the table under Butcher. In 2011-12 they finished 10th and then last season, pretty spectacularly, they finished fourth. Right now, in repeating the trick, Butcher's team is riding in third spot in the table.
Few believed this Inverness club could enjoy such steady, consistent occupation of Scotland's top flight.
Little wonder the Highlanders love this English Butcher. The Inverness fans have taken to Big Tel like a beloved son, and he in turn has really taken to Highland life.
Last season, when Barnsley approached Butcher about their vacant job at Oakwell, it didn't surprise me in the slightest when he turned them down. I had just interviewed Butcher and he had purred with delight throughout about his life in Inverness.
Turning down Barnsley was a shock to many, in football terms. But, if quality of life is a factor, then it was no shock at all. The erstwhile nomadic Butcher is as happy as he has ever been in the north of Scotland.
It is worth noting too…Caley Thistle have been very good for him. It is not just a one-way street. Butcher's haphazard and sometimes blundering managerial career needed some calm and composure, and Caley Thistle gave him that.
In coming to Inverness having just turned 50 in January 2009, Butcher was arriving at his sixth club as a manager. Down that trail, some debris lay.
We should maybe discount his early, painful experiences in management at Coventry City and Sunderland in the early 1990s, given his rawness back then. Butcher got these jobs on his name alone, without a whit of experience.
Then came Motherwell in 2002, and some reasonable success, before two disastrous interludes at Sydney FC and Brentford. At this last club the fans there cared not a jot for Butcher's illustrious name. Within six months, they were hollering for him to go.
So Butcher came to Inverness in 2009, not lacking in passion, but still a bit of a wounded animal in managerial terms. He needed some TLC and ICT provided it.
At Caley Thistle, Butcher needed to re-establish his credentials, and he has done that impressively, but only via the environment presented by the club in which to do so. In Inverness Butcher found a steady board and a stoicism quite rare in football.
Now the agonising part - to leave Inverness or not for Edinburgh and Hibs? It is a risky step to be taken by Butcher.
Hibs in the past decade has proven quite a graveyard for promising managers. In their different ways, just ask John Collins, John Hughes, Colin Calderwood or Pat Fenlon.
In fact, six of the last eight Hibs managers have left under a cloud, either via the sack or some other rumpus. So the omens are not good for any promising figure who goes in there.
Butcher is the clear favourite for the Hibs job. The question he has to ask himself is, does it make sense to go there?
He may ultimately believe that, in coming up for five years at the helm of Caley Thistle, it is time for a change. He cannot stay at the Highland club forever. ICT's crowds are depressingly low, in spite of their recent success, and Butcher may feel he has given as good as he can at the club.
If Butcher does leave for Hibs it will mark the end of one of the greatest manager/club acts in recent Scottish football history. Butcher and Caley Thistle have been tremendous to behold, a story of progress, colour and fine football achievement.
At Easter Road, will he find the same? Hmmm…
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