'Playing every week' key to Whittaker's Plymouth stay

Morgan Whittaker joined Plymouth Argyle permanently last summer

Morgan Whittaker says being a regular starter was one of the main reasons he chose to stay at Plymouth Argyle over the summer.

The 23-year-old scored 20 goals last season and was one of just two players from sides in the bottom half of the table to make the 2023-24 Championship team of the season.

It led to multi-million pound bids from a number of clubs, including Burnley, to try and prise him from Home Park over the summer, but the £1m signing stayed at the Pilgrims.

"As a player I value playing over everything," he said.

"I'm not really old, I'm getting older than I want to be, but I value playing over everything, especially where I'd been at.

"So that's why I'm happy being here and playing because I'm getting the opportunity to play every week."

Whittaker returned to Argyle for a joint-club record fee last summer having spent the first half of the 2022-23 season on loan at the club from Swansea City.

He has scored once this season in seven games but has been an ever-present in head coach Wayne Rooney's league selections so far, having featured in all 46 Championship games last season.

While he is happy at Argyle, Whittaker still has ambitions to play at the top level of the game.

"If I got the chance to move, I'm moving to the higher level that I want to be getting to," told BBC Radio Devon.

"So I don't see it as a bad position to be in because I'm playing here and loving it here, and on the other hand I had the opportunity to go and play as high as I can and that's what I want to do as a footballer.

"You want to play at the highest levels and that's what I want to do."

Morgan Whittaker was the only player in the Argyle squad to have worked with Wayne Rooney before he took over at Home Park

Whittaker worked with Rooney when the former England captain joined Derby County in 2020 before the Rams sold Whittaker to Swansea City in early 2021.

Rooney says he has been impressed by the player, who he previously worked with when Whittaker was a teenager trying to break into the first team at Pride Park.

"I think his progress has been huge," Rooney said.

"My job now, and the challenge for Morgan is, can we improve him and get him even better?

"There's certain things from his game where I believe we're already seeing that.

"If you look at his work rate - the effort he's putting in to help the team out - I think that's huge, we need that every game and he's showing that now for us every game.

"That's the next progression for him, but also you want him to be effective and score goals for us, so I've been delighted for him."