In today's Greenock Telegraph (14.6.07) Chris Fitzgerald has revealed that Jim McInally made a bid to sign striker John Sutton by offering him a 3 year deal. It looks likely that he will choose to return to England rather than stay in Scotland.23 year old Sutton recently left Morton's rivals St. Mirren where he scored around 13 goals last season. He is the younger brother of Aston Villa's Chris Sutton and counts Tottenham, Millwall, Raith Rovers and Dundee among his former clubs.
Sutton would have been the perfect signing. A strong striker who would have got plenty of goals at 1st division level.
The only problem is that he comes across as a bit of a mercenary. He never stays at a club long and always appears to want to move on the moment his contract is up. This links in with a rumour that circulated when we first attempted to sign him two years ago. I heard that Sutton was on his way to Greenock to finalise terms with Morton but his agent phoned ahead to say that they would be delayed as they were just stopping off at Love Street to see what they were offering. Apparently McInally was fed up being messed about and told Sutton not to bother even coming down to Greenock if he was going to Love Street first and he subsequently signed for St. Mirren. If this story is true it would be surprising to learn of McInally's renewed interest although he might have taken the perspective that Morton could 'use' Sutton just as he would use us.
The failure to sign Sutton means that the search for new players goes on.
http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=sport&id=8806
* Story update : According to the BBC sport website we (or any other Scottish club) would have had to pay St. Mirren compensation for Sutton : http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/st_mirren/6708267.stm
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