Morgan Whittaker has completed his transfer from Plymouth Argyle to Championship rivals Middlesbrough on a four-and-a-half-year contract.

The fee for the 24-year-old attacker has not been disclosed by either club, but Plymouth Live understands that it is £6 million plus £2m in potential add-ons. Whittaker was on Teesside today to finalise his move while his now former Argyle team-mates were preparing for their away game at nearby Sunderland tomorrow.

Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick said: "We’re delighted to be able to bring Morgan into the club. There was a lot of interest in him, but it says a lot that he wanted to come here and be a part of things."

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Whittaker is reunited at Middlesbrough with his former Argyle team-mate Finn Azaz. The pair combined superbly for the Pilgrims, during both the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons, and they will now aim to repeat that at the Riverside Stadium.

Burnley had made moves to sign Whittaker at the end of the 2024 summer transfer window as well as this earlier month but they never came up with an offer which was acceptable for Argyle and now they have lost out to Middlesbrough for him.

The £6m fee smashes the Argyle's club record for their most expensive player ever sold, which was £2.25m for David Norris to Ipswich Town in 2008, but Whittaker's former club Swansea City are entitled to a sizeable sell-on as part of his £1m transfer in July 2023.

Whittaker becomes the third player to leave Argyle this season for a fee of more than £1m. Goalkeeper Michael Cooper moved to Sheffield United for £2m in August while defender Lewis Gibson joined Preston North End for around £1.5m earlier this month.

Middlesbrough are away to Preston tomorrow but Whittaker's transfer was not completed in time for him to be involved in that match. Instead, he could make his Boro debut in the north-east derby against Sunderland at the Riverside Stadium on Monday, February 3.

Whittaker could come up against Argyle for the first time when the Pilgrims travel to Teesside for a Championship match on Good Friday, April 18.

Argyle posted a short statement on their official club website at 8.30pm on Friday night which read as follows: "Argyle can confirm Morgan Whittaker has left the club to join Sky Bet Championship rival Middlesbrough for an undisclosed fee.

"Whittaker returned to Argyle in the summer of 2023 for a record fee and went on to make 72 appearances and score 24 goals in his 18 months with the club.

"Highlights include his 19 league goals in our first season back in the Sky Bet Championship and his strike that saw Argyle defeat Brentford in the Emirates FA Cup Third Round just two weeks ago. Morgan now moves onto the next stage of his career and heads for the North East. We wish him well for his next chapter."

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