So how big is our little black book of contacts?
As a recruiter myself, it would alarm me if it did indeed happen to be so that the club simply doesn't know the local market - it's not like we're short of clubs either side of us in the playing structure that we should have a decent level of knowledge of, or (even better) have some sort of networking relationship with. For example, someone mentioned a lad at Rochdale - a very similar club, who push their youngsters through, who (events of many years ago aside) should be where we're looking.
If the club needs a hand with north west 'mapping' and all this sort of thing, surely there would be some willing volunteers, or am I being naïve?