Michael Reeves
Plymouth Argyle sealed their return to the second tier of English Football yesterday with a 1-0 win at Home Park over Burton Albion that now just sees them needing to better Ipswich’s result next weekend to lift the League One title.
A win at Port Vale will lift them over the 100 point barrier for the season and whilst their promotion may not seem that important on the face of it too important to the Swans there was a late second half substitute in Hull yesterday who may have had his future move closer to being sealed as a result.
Morgan Whittaker spent the first half of this season on the South Coast in what was a very impressive loan spell. Nine goals and seven assists in a twenty-five match spell was cut short in January with a clear move by the Swans to try and cash in on the forward during the January window.
That was a move that backfired as no deal was agreed for Morgan and the relative infrequent use of him in the months since show the reason for the recall was certainly not made from a footballing point of view.
Earlier this week, Argyle boss Steven Schumacher admitted he would like to secure the signature of Whittaker when he said “If we could afford him we would love to sign Morgan Whittaker.
“He’s obviously played a huge part in our success this year and helped us get to where we’ve got to in the league, and he really enjoyed it.
“We get on really well, he was a brilliant player for us and he enjoyed it, so I think he just wants to come down and say hello because he left pretty abruptly when Swansea recalled him – so he hasn’t had the chance to come and see anyone since.
“If we were in the realms of being able to bring him back to the club then we would, because we think he could do a job in the Championship with the way we play.
“He’s still got a contract with Swansea, and I don’t know exactly what happened in January – whether he was going to leave or not – I don’t know what anybody else bid, I’m not aware of any of that, I just wanted to say hello to him, it’s good to see him.”
There is still reported interest in Whittaker from North of the border in Rangers but it has been suggested to us by more than one person that the interest has dropped a little in the second half of the season and that could have not just an impact on Plymouth’s move but also the transfer fee that we may be able to demand.
As everyone knows a football player in demand is a football player who sees their value rise although the good news is, from the Swans perspective at least, is that at least one more Championship club at least has been keeping tabs on Whittaker because of his loan spell at Plymouth.
It seems almost inevitable though that the Pilgrims will make a move this summer. Although they do come into the Championship as a very good side it will not be lost on them that they need additional firepower to cement that return to this level of footballer and it is certainly the case that the name of Morgan Whittaker is very high on their list of desired targets.
Given the small amount of time Whitaker has spent on the pitch under Martin – five minutes yesterday in a must win game – it seems inevitable he will leave .It just depends whether Plymouth have the funds available to buy him .It seems like we’ll be looking for 2 million.It also depends on how serious Glasgow Rangers are .
It’s hard to tell just how good he is .We just might be missing a trick
Should have given him more game time when we had a bad patch Player proved himself at Plymouth in a free range role normally coming inside from the wing and either making or scoring goals Hope they look after some of the players on the fringe better than they have done with Whittaker!!!!!
Hope that Plymouth can buy him, but it would break the bank if they do – you never know though!
Agree with Clase . Whst a waste of an opportunity .After 4 months back at the Liberty we still don’t know how good he is .