Morgan Whittaker is a name which many felt might haunt Rangers after a failed transfer bid in January 2023.
The former Swansea attacker had just spent the first half of the season on fire at Plymouth Argyle – then of League One – and was recalled to the South Wales as a result.
Under Michael Beale, Rangers tested Swansea’s resolve with a bid for Morgan Whittaker believed to be somewhere in the £2m range.
Then Swansea manager and ex-Rangers defender Russell Martin even apologised to Ibrox fans after the bid was thrown out.
Joining Plymouth permanently last summer, Morgan Whittaker has just taken the Championship by storm with 19 league goals last season.
Now Plymouth Argyle’s new manager has claimed it’ll take ‘crazy’ money to tempt the Pilgrims to sell.
Rooney lauds ‘fantastic’ Whittaker
Legendary former Manchester United and England manager Wayne Rooney certainly knows a thing or two about football.
Man United’s greatest goalscorer of all time (253) the striker is also the most-capped outfield player in English football history (120).
After retiring from the beautiful game in 2021, Rooney has since turned his hand to management.
Following failed stints with DC United and Birmingham the 38-year-old has just been appointed at Plymouth Argyle.
Talking last week, the Englishman insists that Morgan Whittaker is crucial to his plans and won’t be sold until big money is on the table.
“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 and move forward with Morgan,” said Rooney as quoted by BBC Sport.
“Of course if you’re 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.”
Later the ex-Everton striker added: “He’s a fantastic player as we saw last season, but he’s a really good human being as well.
“After Covid when you could go back in groups of two, I was training with Morgan in the first week, which wasn’t easy at my age to try and keep up with him.
“But Morgan has come in, as everyone else has for pre-season training, trained really well with a smile on his face and he is a quality player, there’s no getting beyond that.”
Rangers could rue transfer near miss
Michael Beale probably rues Rangers missing out on Morgan Whittaker as much as anyone.
Had the Englishman signed the prolific attacker in that January window perhaps things might’ve ended differently for Beale at Ibrox.
Perhaps he’d even still be in a job.
But things have gone very differently for Beale, Rangers and Morgan Whittaker ever since the interest surfaced 18 months ago.
It’s very likely that Rangers would be priced out of a move now with the likes of Lazio quoted as being interest in signing Whittaker this summer.
However much the winger fetches it’s likely to be a pretty penny and whilst Wayne Rooney wants to keep the 23-year-old around, if someone stumps up we’ll be left thinking what might’ve been.
