In reference to this subject on some other posts around, surely we as a club should be promoting Inverness and the Highlands as an area for a young professional footballer to come and live and work in??  Rather than viewing this as a hindrance to attracting players? 

Fresh air, scenery, schooling, safe place to live (somtimes) and the list goes on....

A work colleague who's a Flkirk fan went to his first game at TCS this season and was amazed at the size of Inverness.

Was he equally amazed at the price of the mud huts?

We should be looking to the East - to which Inverness has some affinity - rather than to the South for young footballing talent from outside the Highlands. Consider those currently in our team who are either local or from the East - Grant Munro, Richie Hart, Mike Fraser, Don Cowie, Russell Duncan, Rosscoe, Roy McBain, Rory McAllister, Dennis Wyness (it could also be argued that Barry Wilson and Richard Hastings are settled here because of family connections to the area).

These guys have been with us for the long haul and form the backbone of the team. Southerners are more likely to stay until they find something 'better' (e.g. Dargo, Dodds, Bingo, Rankine etc.). No point trying trying over-hard to keep them - they invariably possess a hankering to return South and usually go after a season or two anyway.

Sure, players from the south will do us a good turn - but they will only ever be a short term fix.

In my opinion, the whole issue of promoting our location to potential young players from the south is an irrelevance, a red herring, totally unimportant and not worthy of debate.