The Morton winger and boyhood Rangers fan from Rothesay could have been a Champions League star by now. Dan Petrescu, the manager of Rangers’ Group G rivals, was keen to take the 23-year-old Scot to Romania after McAlister impressed against his team in a 3-1 pre-season defeat at Cappielow in the summer and for them in a bounce match against Plymouth Argyle in Glasgow.

McAlister tells of the warm welcome he received from the Unirea players when he met up with them at the city’s Thistle Hotel, and of being impressed by both the technical ability in the squad and the former Chelsea star’s down-to-earth approach to the game. But he ultimately declined Petrescu’s off, deciding along with his agent that his interests would be better served by staying in the UK and going on trial at Malky Mackay’s Watford, as his contract at Cappielow ticks inexorably away towards its expiry next summer.

McAlister can hardly have imagined back then that fate would see Unirea return to Glasgow on Champions League business quite so soon, but his loyalties are anything but divided. “If Rangers wanted to know anything I am a fan and I would be happy to help,” he said.

Unirea are regular pre-season visitors to Scotland – Petrescu feels the physical style of the game they encounter here gives them an edge back home. McAlister’s involvement with them began when he caught the eye with a mazy run to set up Steven Masterton for Morton’s only goal that night in July.

McAlister admits that when he first heard of their interest – communicated to him straight after the match – he was inclined to think he was the victim of a practical joke. “After the game when I was coming out the dressing room our chairman, Douglas Rae, was walking past and he said, ‘How would you like the chance to play in the Champions League?’.

“I laughed and thought, ‘Aye, very good’, and kept walking. But he said, ‘No, I am serious, and I want to know how you feel about it, because their manager is quite interested and he was asking me about you there’. I said you would have to be pretty daft not to be interested in a chance like that.”

The interest certainly was real enough, even if the money involved was never likely to be in the Garry O’Connor to Lokomotiv Moscow category. “Dan Petrescu had it in mind that he wanted to set up for the season as a 4-3-3,” McAlister recalls.

“He had a striker but didn’t have players to play off the striker on either side and interchange. That was the area where he was looking to bring players in and it just so happens that was the position I was playing for Morton that night.

“I think if it had involved life-changing money then I would have jumped at it, but I don’t think it would have been anything like that,” he added, “Dan Petrescu said that himself, that they weren’t on a massive budget, in fact their stadium was smaller than ours.

“But don’t get me wrong, I took a lot of time to talk about it with my family but ultimately I wasn’t 100% committed to doing it. They do struggle to attract players from other countries, because of the standard of living, and I still think there is a lot of poverty there.

“I spoke to my agent, who had spent days and days doing research and background work, and he advised me not to go. He said it is all very well having six games in the Champions League but he didn’t think that the standard of their domestic game was up to much.”

Champions League football or not, winning the admiration of someone like Petrescu – a European Cup finalist and scorer in the 1994 and 1998 World Cups – was certainly good for McAlister’s confidence. “When I was a boy I saw him playing for Chelsea in the Premiership, and in World Cups for Romania, and you just to have pinch yourself at times,” he said. “Getting praise from somebody like that gives you a massive boost. I must have done something right to catch his eye.”

McAlister admits he was as surprised as anyone when Unirea took a point at home to Stuttgart in their last European fixture and added: “Rangers are a bigger club and should be looking to beat teams like that home and away.”

Whether or not McAlister moves up in the world, Morton fans certainly have no cause for complaint after his seven years of sterling service for the club. The player, signed from amateur football by John McCormack, made his debut as a 17-year-old in December 2002 and is closing in on 250 appearances in all competitions.

He was effectively priced out of a move to Motherwell last season and declined a new contract with Morton last year which means the Greenock club could lose him for nothing at the end of the current campaign.

McAlister’s ambitions to play at a higher level were inflamed by his three days on trial alongside the likes of Don Cowie and Scott Severin at Watford, who train on Arsenal’s old training ground at London Colney in Hertfordshire – right next door to the new facility used by Cesc Farbrecas and co.

Morton were still in contention for promotion to the SPL with just three Irn-Bru First Division games left last season but have started poorly this time and have yet to appoint a permanent successor to manager Davie Irons after he parted company with them a month ago.

“I have got annoyed when moves have fallen through – I would never deny it,” admitted McAlister – whose career highlights include excellent performances in cup upsets against both Kilmarnock and Hibs and a nomination for the Second Division player or the year award in 2007.

“But that is life and that is football. You just have to knuckle down and hopefully another opportunity will arise. I spoke to Malky Mackay when I came back up the road and he said he was very impressed with what he saw and felt my attitude was different class. He appreciated me taking the time out to come down here, and said he would closely monitor my situation.”

In turning his back on Urziceni, based in a city with a population of 17,000 in Romanian backwater Ialomita County, McAlister may have declined the adventure of a lifetime. But he may not have to wait too much longer for his next big chance to arrive.