JIM Duffy says he’s pleased to have completed most of his transfer business early this summer after leaving it late last season.

Duffy has brought in a Robert Thomson, Bob McHugh and Gary Harkins to add to the five stars who penned new deals at Cappielow — Andy Murdoch, Michael Tidser, Ricki Lamie, Michael Doyle and Mark Russell.

While the Ton boss insists he is happy with the business he’s completed since the end of the season, he is also hopeful that his new players can complement the squad already in place for next term.

He told the Tele: “It’s always good to have the players back in and a wee bit of sunshine certainly helps, even if the players might prefer it a little bit cooler. 

“But it’s about getting them back to a level of fitness that allows you to compete in the Championship.

“I was getting a fair bit of stick last season for not signing players and we ended up doing not too badly but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

“In football, if you can’t get the players you want you have to be patient but this time we had targeted the front line as an area we needed to strengthen and obviously we had signed Robert Thomson on a pre-contract.

“Then we got Bob McHugh in quickly and Gary Harkins as well. We have Jai back 100 per cent fit so that gives us plenty more options now in an area that we weren’t maybe that strong as other areas last year.

“But the players have got to fit together, understand each other, complement each other. 

“And that’s the reason we can’t really look too far ahead of ourselves at the moment because you never know how the team is going to bond. 

“We’ll work at it over the next few weeks and see whether we can get an understanding, and if we can do that it gives us the chance to do well.”

On the players re-signing their new deals to keep them at Ton, Duffy said: “I’m delighted about that. 

“If you’ve got good players who are important players, they have decisions with their careers and they’ve got to feel comfortable and happy at Morton and feel that it’s a positive club to be at. 

“And the atmosphere at the club is something the players enjoy. If you enjoy your work on a daily basis that’s an attraction to help to sign players.

“If you have a positive atmosphere and a group of players who get on well with each other then that helps attract the players to stay. 

“So I’m absolutely delighted that the players have committed to stay. And it certainly helped me because it means I didn’t have to go about looking for seven or eight players like I’ve had to do every year. 

“We had a good nucleus of a squad there and we’ve complimented it with the new guys.

“That should allow us to move things forward a bit quicker in terms of the organisational side of it that we’re not bedding in too many new players.”