A prominent Liverpool-focused journalist isn’t ruling out an Anfield swoop for one ‘top level’ midfielder this month, although it’d require ‘crazy’ money to pull it off.
David Lynch was speaking on the Born N’Red podcast (via Playback) when he mentioned the Reds’ long-standing interest in Adam Wharton, whose fairytale 2024 has seen him earn a Premier League move to Crystal Palace and make the England squad for a major tournament.
The reporter stated: “Adam Wharton was definitely someone [LFC] watched at Blackburn, so they obviously kind of liked him around then, the recruitment staff, so I think that’s interesting.
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“The big problem there is obviously what would Palace ask for? They’ve only just signed him, he’s just become an England international since then, his stock has just gone up and up and up. The fee could be crazy and they would strike a hard bargain, but let’s see.
“I don’t think that’s one you can confidently rule out just on the basis that they’ve liked him in the past. I’m sure from what they’ve seen at Palace they won’t have gone off him.
“That’s one maybe to keep an eye on but that’s real tentative stuff to be honest. It’s a player they’ve liked in the past so let’s see if anything comes of that.”
As Lynch pointed out, Liverpool’s interest in Wharton does indeed pre-date his arrival at Palace – the Reds were credited with interest in the midfielder last November when he was still at Blackburn.
He cost the Eagles an initial £18m in the winter transfer window (BBC Sport), but with his stock rising exponentially since then – England teammate Declan Rice dubbed him a ‘top level’ player on the eve of Euro 2024 (Sky Sports) – the 20-year-old could surely command a far higher fee now.
An average of 3.33 tackles per 90 minutes over the past year places him in the top 5% of positional peers in Europe’s five main leagues in that timeframe, while he also ranks in the 84th percentile for interceptions per game with 1.39 (FBref).
Those figures suggest that Wharton would provide Liverpool with an uncompromising presence at the base of midfield, and someone to hold down that position in the long-term at Anfield while already being proven at a high level.
In truth, we don’t envisage the Reds making a big-money offer for the Palace enforcer this month given how difficult it’d inevitably be to persuade the Eagles to sell, but he certainly fits the profile of player who’d be ideal for the project that Arne Slot is striving to create on Merseyside.
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