Plymouth Argyle: Potential Morgan Whittaker replacement could be waiting in the MLS: View | OneFootball

Plymouth Argyle will be trying with all their might to keep hold of Morgan Whittaker this summer, with the 23-year-old said to be attracting interest from a number of top clubs.

There have been a number of interested parties in the former Swansea City man, with Premier League sides Brentford and West Ham both said to be keeping tabs on the left-footed wizard in the recent January transfer window.

Argyle are said to be holding out for at least £15 million for their talisman, who was named in the Championship Team of the Season after a campaign which has seen him rack up 27 goal contributions so far.

A contingency plan will no doubt already be in place at Home Park should they valuation be met over the summer, and one potential player who could fill the void on the right side of attack is currently plying his trade Stateside.

Tyler Boyd could be an ideal short-term Morgan Whittaker replacement for Plymouth Argyle

Tyler Boyd made the move from LA Galaxy to Nashville earlier this year, having played the majority of his football in Europe during his early career, and is one of the players who FBRef regard as most similar to Whittaker from the available stats to hand.

Born in New Zealand, the 29-year-old started his career with Wellington Phoenix - the same side Argyle signed current striker Ben Waine from last January - before making the move to Europe to join Vitória de Guimarães in 2015.

Having endured numerous loan spells across Portugal and Turkey, Boyd made the move to the United States - the country of his mother's birth - last February, and found the net seven times for Galaxy before finding himself on the move again before the current season began.

You only have to look at Boyd’s highlight reel to see why the comparisons will have been made with the current Argyle man, with the 29-year-old boasting his own collection of long-range strikes during his time in the MLS.

Whittaker has got his side out of jail time and time again with his ability to find the target from distance during his time in Devon; whether that was on loan in League One or in his career-defining season panning out in front of our eyes this campaign.

If he is to leave Home Park this summer, the Pilgrims will need to find a player capable of producing something out of nothing like he has done so often in the past eight months, as well as have the creativity and vision to find teammates on a regular basis.

Boyd has showcased that ability with a number of top performances in America over the past year, with his ability to beat a man and whip a ball into the far corner proving too good for all manner of MLS defences.

The underlying numbers show that Boyd, like Whittaker, over-performs on xG, which displays that laser-like ability to find the net from distance, while the New-Zealand born star boasts a higher pass completion rate of 73.0% to 69.3%

Both players rank equally on shot-creating actions per 90 with a number around the 3.5 mark, while the elder statesman’s 46.1% take-on rate is well above the 38.9% shown by the Argyle man.

With the recent sacking of Ian Foster from the Greens’ dugout, a return to the free flowing attacking football we had come used to seeing at Home Park looks set to return, with the Pilgrims still on the search for a new permanent boss.

Boyd has proven that he has a similar eye to goal to Whittaker, while his tricky feet and razor-sharp footballing mind make would make him a real menace for clubs in England’s second tier should Argyle stay up this season.

Plymouth Argyle would have to pay a significant sum for Tyler Boyd

Having played for both the New Zealand and USA international sides, Boyd is a highly-regarded attacking midfielder, and Nashville were eager to snap him up following the expiration of his contract in LA at the end of last season.

The Tennessee-based side agreed a deal to keep him at Geodis Park until the summer of 2026, with an option to extend that until 2027 also said to be included.

That could spell bad news for Argyle if they were interested in a deal for the goalscorer, although chairman Simon Hallett would have some extra cash to play with if their main marksman does leave through the exit door during the off-season.

After bringing Whittaker to Home Park for a club-record £1 million last summer, Argyle are a side looking to sustainably make their mark in the transfer market, and an eight-figure profit on their main investment could go some way to seeing them battle it out for some key signatures ahead of the next campaign.

Although as unlikely as the Boyd deal could be, it goes some way to showing how far the club have come in recent years to be considered to be capable of making such a transfer, having been on the brink of liquidation a little over a decade ago.

Championship survival will be top of the agenda at the moment for the Pilgrims, with four points separating them and the bottom for with three games remaining, and then what promises to be a hectic transfer window will begin.

With everyone expecting Whittaker to be on his bike, a player who would get fans off their seats like Boyd could be an interesting player to consider, with the attacking third a key area to invest in during the off-season.