Wayne Rooney sure Plymouth Argyle will get bids for Morgan Whittaker

Wayne Rooney expects Plymouth Argyle to receive bids for Morgan Whittaker this summer after his stellar 2023/24 Championship season.

The recently-appointed Pilgrims' head coach declared he wanted Whittaker to be part of his squad but acknowledged the club would have to consider any 'crazy offers' they get for the 23-year-old attacking player.

Whittaker began his career at Derby County and in 2020 was a team-mate of Rooney as the England legend came to the end of his illustrious playing career and then moved into management with the Rams.

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Argyle rejected an offer of £8.5 million for Whittaker from Italian club Lazio at the end of the winter transfer window in January and while less effective than he had been in the first half of the season he still played an important part in the Pilgrims winning their fight for Championship survival.

After a quiet summer in terms of speculation about Whittaker, a report surfaced yesterday (Thursday) from Pete O'Rourke, transfer correspondent for Football Insider, that Premier League pair Brentford and Wolves were battling to sign him.

O'Rourke also linked Lazio, Spanish side Celta Vigo and German club Stuttgart to Whittaker and stated: "Plymouth are now looking for a fee in the region of £15million to sanction a move for their star man this summer."

Rooney was asked about the future of Whittaker, who scored 19 of his 20 goals for Argyle last season in the Championship, at his introductory Press conference as the Pilgrims' boss yesterday.

He said: "Firstly, Morgan is a fantastic player, as we seen last season, but he's a really good human being as well. I played with him. Actually after Covid, when you could go back in groups of two, I was training with Morgan the first week, which wasn't easy at my age to try to keep up with him!"

Rooney continued: "Morgan has come in as everyone else has for pre-season. He has trained really well I have to say, with a smile on his face, and he's a quality player, there is no getting beyond that.

"I'm sure there will be interest, I'm sure there will be bids for him, but from our point of view he's an Argyle player and I want to try to move forward with Morgan. Of course, if you are getting crazy offers as a club you have to look at that, but we want him here. We want him to be part of the squad."

Whittaker still has three more years remaining on the contract he signed with Argyle when he joined them from Swansea City for £1 million last summer.