Plymouth Argyle’s Morgan Whittaker has marked himself out as one of the EFL’s top young talents over recent seasons.
The technically excellent attacking player is one of Pilgrims boss Wayne Rooney’s key men as he looks to put his stamp on things at Home Park, but how much is the 23-year-old worth in today’s transfer market, according to AI?
Whittaker, who can play out wide, as an attacking midfielder or an out-and-out ‘number 10′, came through the youth ranks at Derby County, making 32 first-team appearances over two years for the Rams, before moving on to Swansea City in early 2021.
Playing internationally for every England age group side between Under-16’s and Under-20’s, the creative talent showed glimpses of the quality he possesses in a Swans shirt.
Rangy, two-footed, and able to glide past opponents with ease, Whittaker’s time in South Wales was punctuated by hugely successful loan spells with League One clubs Lincoln City and Plymouth Argyle, respectively, in 2022.
While his parent club exercised their recall clause and ended his temporary stay with the Devon side at the start of 2023, the Pilgrims would go on to be promoted to the Championship in May, before signing Whittaker permanently for a club record fee totaling in excess of £1m ahead of their first season back in the second-tier.
The Devon-born player has continued to go from strength-to-strength in a green shirt, helping his side consolidate at the higher level and picking up January’s EFL Championship Player of the Month award.
While Rooney’s men have begun the season a little disappointingly, the former Everton and Manchester United forward will be hoping his star man can be the one to kick-start things over the coming weeks and months and propel his side up the table.
While player transfer values and worth are extremely subjective and dependent on multiple, ever-changing factors, footballtransfers.com uses AI to estimate individual players’ cost in the current market. So how do they do that, and how much do they believe Whittaker is worth right now?
AI is used for a vast array of things in this day and age. FootballTransfers use a player valuation tool known as ETV (Estimated Transfer Value) that they developed in partnership with SciSports in recent years.
The tool uses a proprietary algorithm to assess every fact, consideration and variable available and calculate a realistic transfer value figure for each individual player.
What that algorithm currently shows is that, should they choose to cash in on Whittaker at any point, Plymouth stand to make a tidy profit, with the attacking midfielder valued by the aforementioned system at between €5.4m and €8.9m.