"Will need to pick up performances" - Plymouth Argyle: New Morgan Whittaker price-tag mooted | OneFootball

FLW's Pilgrims fan pundit has set his price tag for Whittaker if clubs come sniffing in January

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Football League World's Plymouth Argyle fan pundit believes that the club should only accept offers of no less than £10m if interest in Morgan Whittaker materialises into a concrete transfer advance in the January window.

Versatile forward Whittaker has been Argyle's star man since he first joined the club on loan from Swansea City in July 2022, and his standout form over the last 18 months has seen him garner transfer attention from a whole host of top clubs.

The 23-year-old joined the Swans in 2021 after he had found it tough to break into the first-team on a consistent basis at boyhood club Derby County, but his sporadic chances in South Wales saw him make that initial loan move to Home Park over two years ago, with the club in League One.

Whittaker impressed with the Pilgrims in the third-tier, so was recalled to Swansea for the second half of the 2022/23 season, but he then rejoined Argyle for a reported club-record fee of £1 million last summer, and has not looked back since.

His 19 goals and eight assists in 46 league games effectively kept the club afloat in the Championship last term, and so commenced a summer of strong transfer rumours, but he has remained a Plymouth player under Wayne Rooney for this season.

Sizeable Morgan Whittaker price tag mooted ahead of January window

Whittaker has not quite had the same impact this term as he did in the last, with three strikes in 13 appearances in all competitions so far, but it has been a tricky start to the season for Argyle in general, so it has been tough for him to find the back of the net consistently.

Scottish giants Rangers reportedly saw two bids for his services knocked back by Plymouth in the summer, as Football Scotland claimed that they wanted closer to £10million for his services, and FLW's resident Argyle fan pundit, Chris, has now proposed a similar price tag for the 23-year-old, after we asked him for the minimum amount the club should accept for his services if a January bid comes in.

He said: “Morgan Whittaker has had a very much an up and down start to the season, scoring a last-minute winner against Blackburn Rovers, then (producing) a lacklustre performance against Cardiff City away.

“However, I still believe he is a vital player to keep in the squad, and therefore I would expect us to receive at least 10 million pounds for his signature come January.

“I believe that he will need to pick up his performances, as well as show some consistency in those performances, in order to attract more potential buyers.

“I do still hope, however, that he remains in the squad after the January window.”

January interest in Whittaker is bound to emerge despite his form

It may have been a less than ideal start to the new season for Whittaker, but he proved his abundance of talent last term, and is bound to go through good and bad patches of form given his age and relative inexperience in senior football.

The 23-year-old was unplayable for large parts of last season, and to net 19 goals in the Championship is no mean feat, especially given Plymouth's struggles and fight to stay up that eventually saw them finish in 21st place, just one point above the drop zone.

He was named in the ​​​​​​Championship Team of the Season at the end of the campaign, in a forward line that boasted the likes of Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter, who each left Leeds United for the Premier League in the summer for respective fees of £25m and £40m.

He was the subject of plenty of transfer speculation throughout the transfer window, with Championship rivals Burnleysaid to be keen admirers, as well as Rangers, but Argyle were pretty clear in their stance that he was not for sale.

Some interested clubs may well have re-evaluated their willingness to spend big on Whittaker this time around, particularly if he is still out-of-sorts in January, but transfer attention is still bound to be widespread regardless, and the Greens may once again have a key decision to make come the new year.