Middlesbrough have “held talks” with Plymouth Argyle over a potential transfer for winger Morgan Whittaker, who is due to line up against Sunderland this weekend.
The Black Cats face the Pilgrims at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon, and will be hoping to fare better than when the two sides met back in September – a contest which marked Regis Le Bris’ first league defeat in English football. Whittaker played a full 90 minutes in that match, and has been an influential presence for Argyle so far this term, scoring four goals across all competitions, including the winning strike in an FA Cup third round victory over Premier League outfit Brentford earlier this month.
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For their part, Plymouth are said to value their player at somewhere closer to the £10 million mark, and would be “reluctant to accept much less” due to the notable sell-on fee they would owe Whittaker’s previous club, Swansea City following his 2023 transfer to Devon.
Elsewhere,Sunderland promotion rivals Burnley are understood to have already had an offer rejected by Plymouth this month, but there is an expectation that Argyle may eventually be tempted into a sale as they look to enact a squad rebuild of their own amid growing relegation fears.
Muslic suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of QPR in his first outing as Argyle boss, and speaking after the final whistle, he gave a blunt assessment of his side’s display. He said: “I’m very disappointed because simply we lacked the desire to win the duels. Those are the basics.
“We had some injury doubts the last couple of days, but I don’t think this was the problem and had to adapt the system because you cannot play with a back three if you only have two centre-backs. But I don’t think this was the problem. We just lacked physicality and the difference between our players and the physicality of QPR was just immense in everything – defensively, offensively, set-plays, throw-ins. We lacked that desire to win duels and if you can’t win duels, you don’t have a chance.”
Addressing Sunderland’s own transfer plans in a press conference on Monday afternoon, Black Cats head coach Le Bris said: “There is nothing [close at the moment]. We’re focused on the next game so there’s nothing to say right now. The market is open with a lot of speculation and rumours.”
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