Morton goalkeeper Andy McNeil has followed in the footsteps of superstars Oscar, Hulk and Axel Witsel by making the move to Chinese football.

It is doubtful though whether the 29-year-old’s new position as reserve goalkeeper coach of Guangzhou R&F will involve similar remuneration as some of the contracts dished out to those players.

Manager Jim Duffy granted the release of the former Hibs and Livingston keeper from the Cappielow club to take up the opportunity despite being contracted to Morton until the end of the season.

McNeil told gmfc.net: “It wasn’t something I expected; it came out of the blue.

“I do some goalkeeping coaching for Edusport Academy, run by Chris Ewing, and a representative from Guangzhou R&F got in touch with Chris looking for someone to work with their goalkeepers. He phoned me and said I should have a listen.

“I spoke to the manager about it and he obviously wanted me to stay at the club, but he also recognised it was a unique and pretty good opportunity.

“He was very, very good about it and he just said I should do whatever I wanted to do. If I wanted to stay, he would be delighted to keep me at the club because I had played quite a few games in the first half of the season.

“But he also completely understood and said that if I wanted to go and take on this opportunity, he was more than happy to support that as well, which was great. It’s not going to be easy but I’m really excited to go there and get started.”

McNeil has fond memories of his time at Morton, and he is grateful to manager Duffy for persuading him to come back into football after falling out of love with the game after leaving Alloa.

“It ended up being a massive turnaround from where I was at Alloa to where I ended up, so I had a really good time with a fantastic bunch of guys,” he said.

“I travelled through with Lee Kilday, Ricki Lamie and Derek Gaston. They are fantastic guys and it was good fun, those early-morning drives with good company. I had a really good time at a good club that was enjoying success and I feel really lucky.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to leave at this time if it wasn’t for this opportunity. This came up and I felt that I had to do it – under different circumstances I would have fulfilled my contract until the end of the season and taken it from there.

“Right up until the very last minute I felt fully involved. When my big mate Ricki scored on Saturday, I was right off the bench and getting involved in the celebrations. It’s a really good club with really good people. I had a great time.”

Meanwhile, winger Aidan Nesbitt has extended his loan spell at the club from Celtic until the end of the current season.

The 19-year-old has impressed during a largely successful spell at the Championship outfit so far, scoring once in 11 starts and six substitute appearances since making the move to Greenock in the summer.

The Scotland under-21 star’s initial loan was set to expire yesterday, but he has now put pen to paper on a deal to the end of the campaign.