DETERMINED Morton boss Dougie Imrie says he will not be pressured into paying over the odds for incoming players as he still looks to add the final pieces to his new-look Cappielow jigsaw.

Imrie told yesterday of where Ton lie in the financial playing field that looks to have been inflated as more teams looks to try and break out of the Championship this season.

And with no financial powerhouse tipped to run away with the league he has now revealed how that is translating into how he has approached prospective new players over the last few months.

Despite previously suggesting that he was prepared to play the waiting game for his final few targets – he says that he’s almost at a crossroads that could see him move onto other options as he looks to find the balance between quality and quantity.

He told the Tele: “Yeah, we’ll have to play the long game. But you can’t wait forever.

“Personally, I’ve been speaking to one or two players for months now and still it’s the same answers that’s coming back.

“There comes a point where you must move on and it’s coming to that stage. But that’s football.

"You do need to wait about and see what comes, but unfortunately at Morton we don’t have that luxury.

“We also certainly can’t pay the money that some people are looking for. That’s not a thinly veiled dig, it’s just reality.

“But for those figures you need to weigh up whether you sign one player or bring in three.

“The sooner people understand that you’re paying figures like that, word gets about, Scottish Football is a goldfish bowl and people speak about what people are paying so it would be silly as a club to do that and open the club up to a market of players wanting silly money that we can’t get too at the moment.”

 Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (left) in training with Morton  (Image: George Munro)

The Ton boss has backed new arrival Jay Emmanuel-Thomas to prove his doubters wrong and become the next in a long line of forwards to make their mark on Sinclair Street.

He pointed to the stories that has seen the likes of Robbie Muirhead and George Oakley turn their careers around in Inverclyde and whilst Emmanuel Thomas comes into the equation at the other end of the scale having already played at the highest level – Imrie hopes he can work his magic on the former Bristol City and Ipswich forward.

He added: “Everyone’s written him off already, I certainly haven’t because I know what he can’t bring to the table.

“I think in my time at the club I’ve shown that I’ve brought players who’ve been written off and they’ve bounced back and moved on.

“When I first came in Robbie Muirhead was apparently no use. He’s gone on and been the club’s top scorer for the last three years.

“George was the same, in a similar situation and he’s gone and scored 20-odd goals before moving on.

“There’s a list of people I could go through. That’s for everyone to take credit though, the club and the squad because you rally round your teammates when you don’t do well.

“We now find ourselves in that situation with JET.”