³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Plymouth Argyle head coach Wayne Rooney says he wants highly rated forward Morgan Whittaker to stay at the club.

The 23-year-old scored 20 goals in all competitions last season following his £1m permanent move from Swansea City.

Whittaker was named in the Championship Team of the Season and was the subject of a bid from Italian giants Lazio in the January transfer window.

"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," Rooney said.

"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."

Rooney already knows Whittaker - he played alongside him when the Derby County academy product was coming through the ranks at Pride Park before going on to be his manager at the Rams.

The former England captain, who took over as Argyle boss in May, rates Whittaker highly.

"He's a fantastic player as we saw last season, but he's a really good human being as well," Rooney added.

"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."