wat a croc!!

[SMEE]

"LOCATION — and not resources — is the main reason behind Caley Thistle's lack of activity in the transfer market since the end of last season"

Above is taken from todays Inverness Courier.

Correct me if I am wrong here. Inverness is 3 hrs drive from Glasgow and Edinburgh.

You can fly direct to all London airports including Heathrow from Inverness airport along with Aberdeen,Glasgow, Edinburgh, Teeside, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Norwich, Bristol, Belfast, Dublin, East Midlands and Birmingham among some lesser destinations!

It has a Train station, and a harbour if yer that way inclined!

Inverness is the fastest growing city in Western Europe!

It has among the top ten highest living standards in UK!

So what is the real problem?

[caley100]

Inhibited, introverted central belt footballers... :014:

Oh..almost forgot, Aberdeen get players from all over the place, it will take the same time to travel from weegieland to Aberdeen

as it would Inverness, is it cos' their a big club?

[finmack]

God's own country. :021:

[wyness_is_god]

Better start sending scouts on the new smyril line from scrabster then  :015: to chesk out Iceland, Faroes and Norway.

Surely the likes of Keflavik, Torshavn and Hammerfest :017: cant be similar to the central belt :029:

[Yngwie]

It is absolutely true that geography is a factor in the minds of players. We have lost actual players and missed out on numerous signing targets (most recently Buchanan) who have stated it as a key factor.

It's not so much an issue for Aberdeen because

a) It's a shorter journey to the central belt, on a much better road.

b) More significantly they pay much higher wages, high enough for players to accept being away from their family and friends.

[+Gringo]

Got to be tough all that travelling as it's not just games they have to attend, there's all the training and PR bits that players need to be in Inverness for. Unfortunately our wage structure will not lure quality players north and we'll continue to resurrect careers of players only to see them bog off back down the road again when they've 'got their name back in the window'. Maybe we should pool our efforts into producing home ground talent but will they be up to SPL standard? It's a tough un.

[Kingsmills]

Something we're just going to have to live with I'm afraid.

[CaleyD]

Although I agree that geography doesn't help I do think that ICT are more guilty than anyone of playing up the problem of location instead of playing it down in order to encourage players North.

Instead of comments like...

"It's a real problem taking players North because of the location and we understand that"

...it should be...

"Inverness isn't as detached as some may think what with the now regular availability of flights from many major airports throughout the UK etc"

- we really do need someone at the club who is a little more media savvy and can help them spin the right stories where needed.

[Guest Get_off_the_park_Wyness!]

'Location' didn't seem to stop Pele, Robbo or Brewster from signing quality central belt players. The current managment are too good at getting their excuses in early. I suppose its shrewd on their part to lower expectations in case things go t1ts up, but I'd prefer if they tried a more positive, less defensive approach.

"Poor me, poor me, poor me another"

Get yourself some b"lls man!

[Guest Arab4Ever]

Inhibited, introverted central belt footballers... :014:

Oh..almost forgot, Aberdeen get players from all over the place, it will take the same time to travel from weegieland to Aberdeen

as it would Inverness, is it cos' their a big club?

most likely yes

[chris123]

It is absolutely true that geography is a factor in the minds of players. We have lost actual players and missed out on numerous signing targets (most recently Buchanan) who have stated it as a key factor.

It's not so much an issue for Aberdeen because

a) It's a shorter journey to the central belt, on a much better road.

b) More significantly they pay much higher wages, high enough for players to accept being away from their family and friends.

add that to the fact that aberdeen is the third biggest city in scotland with two universities and a thriving oil industry

[Scotty]

Geography IS a factor in the minds of (many) prospective players and their agents as is the perception that Inverness is a small town in the middle of nowhere.

In my mind, there are only a couple of things we can do to minimise that perception ....

1. Pay higher wages - not sure we should go down that route .... we should pay what we can, but not offer silly money.

2. Put together a positive package (a brochure even) for prospective players that highlights the good things about the area and plays down some of the myths about transport links. If someone says "but its so far away", the response should be "its only 90 minutes from London and you can get there and back for 100 quid" or similar. If someone bemoans the lack of good restaurants or pubs then show them a copy of Gordon Ramsey's program from Abstract or get Charlie to cook them a meal !!! If someone moans at living costs show them what 150 grand buys in Inverness compared to Glasgow/Edinburgh etc etc etc. In other words, play up our positives instead of agreeing with the often incorrect negatives.

some positives .......

- less than 3 hours by road/rail from most other cities in Scotland.

- Scheduled flights to Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham, Dublin, Leeds, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Southampton.

- beautiful scenery very close by

- clean air, clean water

- decent restaurants, bars and facilities (maybe not the same amount of choice as bigger cities but you can find good ones)

- reasonably priced housing (in comparison to some areas)

- less of a "goldfish bowl" than other cities

[CaleyD]

If someone moans at living costs show them what 150 grand buys in Inverness compared to Glasgow/Edinburgh etc etc etc.

Inverness House prices are now reported to be higher (on average) than Glasgow - You won't get much in Inverness for £150,000 these days.

[ictchris]

Footballers are wimps nowadays.  It used to be that young Scottish laddies would finish work in the pit, cycle to a four hour training session involving nothing but running up and down 5,000 step terraces and playing head tennis with a medicine ball.  If they were spotted by a cloth-capped scout, they'd move to some far off English second division side, for a half crown per week with no complaints whatsoever.

Now they all have streaked dyed hairdo's and if they aren't filming roasting sessions on their new fangled 'mobiles' they are moaning about being away from their mum and dad.  Scotsmen travelled the globe during the halycon days of the Empire, shaping the globe (and killing anyone who didn't want to be shaped) now our young men get to snivelling if they have to spend a couple of weeks in digs in Blackburn.

[Scotty]

Why do I get the mental picture of a young lad pushing a bike up a steep hill with 'Hovis' music playing in the background ..........  :015: :015:

[Harry Chibber]

If someone moans at living costs show them what 150 grand buys in Inverness compared to Glasgow/Edinburgh etc etc etc.

Inverness House prices are now reported to be higher (on average) than Glasgow - You won't get much in Inverness for £150,000 these days.

I very much doubt that, me and the mrs are looking to get a 2 bedroom flat in the West end in Glasgow and prices range between £170k - £200.....  FOR A FLAT!!

[CaleyD]

From a document I have sitting here - House prices in Inverness in the last 5 years have gone up more  than any other town/city in Scotland.

Inverness - 132%

Dundee - 122%

Edinburgh - 89%

Glasgow - 89%

In real money terms the average prices are (as at January 2007)

Edinburgh - £217,049

Inverness - £154,235

Glasgow - £148,848

Dundee - £136,566

[Scotty]

CaleyD .... what is failed to be shown in those stats is that Glasgow (and Edinburgh) have a far wider range of house styles and conditions .... eg depressed areas that bring the average down.

If you were to compare like for like in terms of both neighbourhood as well as style of house etc I am confident that Inverness would not be more expensive.

HGTV over here has a lot of property programs from the UK and I recently watched one where a Glasgowcouple were looking to move to a bigger flat. One of the houses they looked at was a former council house in Paisley that had been done up. I would say that the house was comparable to similar areas in Inverness like Dalneigh ..... the house was listed at about 160k ..... which is higher than the average former council house price in Dalneigh of around 110-130k.

[Alex MacLeod]

If it was just the player that had to be considered then I would imagine a lot more woud come to Sneck Unfortunately there are usually families involved and moving to a new area is not always easy.

[Heilandee]

From a document I have sitting here - House prices in Inverness in the last 5 years have gone up more  than any other town/city in Scotland.

Inverness - 132%

Dundee - 122%

Edinburgh - 89%

Glasgow - 89%

In real money terms the average prices are (as at January 2007)

Edinburgh - £217,049

Inverness - £154,235

Glasgow - £148,848

Dundee - £136,566

Widny beh ya a lavvy in St Andrews!!!!!! 

Des Res in St Andrews!!!!

[CaleyD]

Granted, Inverness is fortunate enough to have fewer/smaller depressed areas than Glasgow and even the few we do have are undergoing price hikes due to rumoured developments.  But you also have areas within Glasgow and Edinburgh which are far more "Elite" and drag prices up again at the other end of the scale - it's swings and roundabouts.

[caley100]

Pretty cool eh!  a house with his n' hers downstairs lavvy's !    might pong a bit though....

[kencar]

Footballers continually moan that it's a "short career" so why feking complain spending a small part of that in a "backwater" like Inverness. I'm sure some of the folk working offshore or deployed in Iraq/Afghanistan might prefer it despite our lack of casino  :008:

[Guest Get_off_the_park_Wyness!]

We don't need a casino. There a poker tournaments at Rileys now.

[TheresNoEsInBlack]

Anywhere you'd WANT to live in Glasgow is more expensive than Inverness for the same type of dwelling.  You shouldn't believe stats without getting the full story because 63.2% of all stats are made up on the spot anyway.