Whittaker is wanted but happy to remain a Pilgrim

ARGYLE FORWARD HAS ASPIRATIONS TO PLAY HIGHER, BUT NOT JUST YET

- CHRIS ERRINGTON

MORGAN Whittaker has declared he is 'really happy' at Plymouth Argyle after a summer of at times intense transfer speculation, including bids for him from Championship rivals Burnley which were turned down by the Home Park club.

The talented 23-year-old attacker has his focus on playing for the Pilgrims, although he has admitted he wants to progress his career by getting to the highest level he possibly can. That is understandable given the tremendous success he has had at Argyle, both in an initial loan spell from Swansea City and then after completing a joint club record £1 million transfer ahead of what turned out to be a stand-out 2023/24 season for him.

It led to Italian club Lazio making an unsuccessful bid for Whittaker last January and then Burnley made a strong push to sign him at the end of the summer transfer window, but on both occasions he remained at Argyle.

Whittaker was also at the centre of transfer speculation in January 2023 when he was recalled by Swansea from his loan at Argyle and was strongly linked to Scottish Premiership side Rangers, but no move materialised for him.

So all the talk about his future this summer was nothing new to him. Whittaker said: "I have been in this situation before so I know how to handle it and I found ways it worked for me, and that's just focusing on what I can do.

"I think the difference to when I was at Swansea is I knew I was going to play here. In my eyes it was a win win because I love it here and I'm playing all the time, and if I got the chance to move it would be to the higher level I want to be getting to. I didn't see it as a bad position to be in."