Midfielder Nick Ross’ desire to play regular football again was the driving force behind his decision to leave Caley Thistle for Scottish Premiership rivals Dundee.
The 23-year-old, a product of the Inverness youth system, turned down a contract offer from the Highlanders in favour of a move to Dens Park.
Ross, who has signed a two-year deal with the Dark Blues, grew weary of a bit-part role and hopes a move to Tayside will kick-start his career.
He said: “It’s an important move for me at this stage in my career. I had been at Inverness for a long time but I wasn’t playing a lot of games and I was getting frustrated.
“It was a great season, but I just felt it was the right time to leave and my decision was due to a lack of games.
“At the start of last season, I was on the bench a lot and not getting on at times which was hard to take.
“Then I had a run in the team where I felt I had done well but I was taken out again. The team was doing well, though, so I couldn’t really complain too much about it.
“I just had to get on with it and now I’m here, I have a chance to play regular first-team football which is what is what everyone wants to do.”
The decision to leave his home city was not one Ross made lightly.
Inverness return to training today in preparation for their European debut against Romanian side Astra Giurgiu on July 16 but Ross, who helped his former club win the Scottish Cup last season with a substitute appearance in the 2-1 win against Falkirk, believes his new team is capable of emulating the feat of Caley Jags last term.
He said: “If they can do it at Inverness then I don’t see why we can’t do it here at Dundee. Inverness is a small club and nobody really expected them to do so well last season and get into Europe.
“It might be the same here in that some people don’t expect us to do it. But having been in the top-six last season, we want to improve on that.
“And with the supporters behind us I’m sure we can improve.”
Ross becomes Dundee’s eighth new arrival this summer and manager Paul Hartley is delighted with his latest signing.
The former Aberdeen captain said: “Nick is a player we’ve been chasing for a while and he fits the bill in terms of how we want to play.
“He’s at a good age and we did well to get him because there were a number of clubs interested in him.
“We told him our plans and how we want to play next season and how excited we were about the future. He bought into it and we’re delighted to get him.”