JIM McAlister says he was happy to sign up for next season at Morton after hearing the club’s plans to progress.

The club captain, who has made over 300 appearances for the Ton, was at Cappielow to sign a fresh contract.

After talks with new manager David Hopkin, McAlister was delighted to get his future sorted, and says the changes the manager plans to make at the club have been needed for a long time.

Hopkin has previously spoken to the Tele about overhauling the club’s ground, making it their daily base, as well as installing a gym and redeveloping the changing rooms and dugouts.

McAlister told the Tele: “It’s good to get my future sorted out. It’s probably a bit longer to sort out than normal, there’s obviously been a lot of change at the club recently and different budgets.

“Hopefully we can start building for the future now.

“There’s a lot of change with the new management coming in. I’ve had a couple of good conversations with the manager and the future sounds exciting with the club and it’s now progressing internally with different things.

“It sounds professional and probably stuff that should have happened at the club years ago.”

The 33-year-old first joined the club back in 2002, and as a teenager he went straight into the first team, coming on as a late substitute against Peterhead for his debut.

The Rothesay native played with the club for seven more seasons before making the switch to Hamilton in 2010.

He had spells at Dundee and Blackpool before returning to Morton last summer.

The midfielder says he took a considerable wage reduction when he moved back to the Greenock outfit last year, and budget cuts affecting the club this time was another thing he had to weigh up.

But McAlister says if the players start getting more success on the pitch it can help ease the financial situation for the Sinclair Street side.

He added: “I took a considerable wage cut to come to Morton last year. The manager’s come in this year and the budget’s been cut from last year as well.

“It’s difficult but the club needs to start getting success on the field, and hopefully that can then help the manager.

“Success on the pitch can hopefully help it financially off it.”