Rooney plans for life without Cooper

The 24-year-old has travelled to Championship rivals Sheffield United to undergo a medical and agree terms on a permanent deal.

Media reports have hinted that Argyle will receive an initial £2 million offer for the shot-stopper, but that could well rise to £4m with potential add-ons.

Addressing the matter at his pre-match press conference ahead of Argyle’s clash with Cheltenham Town in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night, Rooney would not confirm any potential fee for the player, but admitted that the player was likely to be moving on within the next few days.

“I think it’s happening,” said the Argyle head coach. “I think he’s travelling down there today. Personally, I’m really disappointed, I spoke to Michael the day after I got announced for this role and from that moment he said he wanted to leave.

“Whether or not it was going to happen, as I’ve been saying to you guys, the offer we received wasn’t enough. But I think it gets to a point where the player wants to leave - and I’ll say now it wasn’t for financial reasons - but from my conversations with him, he wanted a different challenge.

“I’m disappointed, of course, because he’s a fantastic goalkeeper. We made him a great offer to stay at the football club but, with a year left on his contract, I think the club have to do what’s best in our interest and he moves on.”

The future of Cooper has been one of several talking points for the Green Army during the close season and Rooney himself remained hopeful that as time ticked by, the homegrown talent would have a change of mind and remain at Home Park.

Sadly, that doesn’t appear to be the case now and Rooney says the search is already underway to find a replacement to challenge Conor Hazard for the No.1 spot.

“I don’t think it’s ever good when you lose one of your better players,” added Rooney. “We want to keep all our best players here. As I said, I spoke to Michael on my first or second day at the club and he said he wanted to leave.

“We felt we could try and make change his mind or try and keep him here for the season, but it wasn’t to be, so we move on from here.

“I think as a club we’re grateful for everything he’s done for the club. I know he’s been here for a long time and, hopefully, he gets a good reception when he comes back in the future. We wish him all the best, but we have to move on and do what’s best for the club now. Unfortunately, Michael’s not part of the pans now, so we have to move and get the right person in to come and replace him.”

With just over two weeks left of the transfer window, Rooney says finding a replacement will be a priority, not just because of squad numbers, but because he wants genuine competition for places amongst his squad in all areas.

“Losing him now does make it more difficult because players we had identified and looked at, they’ve now moved on as well. There are though other goalkeepers out there for us to bring in, but we will obviously speed that process up now because we need a goalkeeper to come in and challenge Conor."

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