MICHAEL Doyle was so excited to sign his new deal at Cappielow that he got off a plane home from Florida to Scotland and went straight to Parklea to join his team-mates for pre-season training.

Doyle put pen to paper on a new one-year deal at Morton yesterday after making a beeline for training straight from the airport. 

And the defender is delighted to be back in the swing of things after missing a few days worth of work with his Ton mates — even if he is still a bit jet-lagged.

He told the Tele: “I started pre-season back yesterday. I had been in contact with the manager throughout my holiday and obviously I didn’t want to miss any days of pre-season.

"It’s not the best thing to do, but I did miss a couple of days. But my flight home landed at 8am and I was in training in the afternoon. I’ve not had any sleep, but I wanted to be back running. 

“I’m delighted to be back and have everything sorted, there was a good buzz about the changing room and I think the boys are glad to have me back. 

“I’m a bit of a pest in the changing room so it’s good!

“I text the gaffer in the morning and he just said ‘get to your bed and then come in and see us’ because I hadn’t slept. 

“I was travelling for 10 hours and with the time difference I didn’t sleep on the plane. 

“But I thought I may as well join in and Hagi [Craig McPherson] had me out running so that’s me back. I may as well jump in the deep end.

“I did running on holiday, I was still on holiday mode but I had to keep fit. I’m a bit jet-lagged but I’m back. 

“I love training and sometimes you’ve actually got to drag me off the training ground.”

Doyle was pleased that his fellow out-of-contract team-mates also pledged their future to the Cappielow club. And he reckons the fact that all five players offered new deals at the end of last season decided to stay on is proof that Morton have improved steadily already — and the players have the ambition to continue progressing at the club.

He said: “I think the team did really well last year and while we didn’t get the finish we really wanted, it’s progression from the year before. And it showed that all the boys the manager wanted to re-sign did re-sign.

“We’ve added a bit of quality which shows that we’re building every year. That shows that even though we did really well, there may well have been some interest in a lot of the boys but they’ve signed on.

“I thought personally I had a really good year last year. 

“Like most of the boys I probably fell away a wee bit towards the end of the season but I’d like to think after my first year I’m settled in now and hoping to improve this season and really kick on with the team.”