Liverpool Urged to Sign Adam Wharton from Crystal Palace
Phil Thompson has urged Liverpool to go “all out” to prise Adam Wharton from Crystal Palace this summer – or risk walking into the new season badly under-armed in midfield.
The former Liverpool captain believes the 22-year-old England international should be at the top of the club’s shopping list as Andoni Iraola prepares for his first Premier League campaign at Anfield.
Midfield stretched as Jones exits
Curtis Jones is on his way to Italy, with the scouse-born midfielder set to join Inter Milan. His departure strips one more senior option from a midfield department that already looked light.
As it stands, Liverpool will start the 2026/27 season at St. James’ Park on Sunday with just three established central midfielders: Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch.
Szoboszlai shone last term, collecting the club’s men’s player of the year award and emerging as one of the few consistent high points. Mac Allister and Gravenberch, though, went the other way, both regressing under Arne Slot and failing to hit the levels expected of them.
Now Iraola arrives with a demanding, high-intensity style and a schedule packed with fixtures. Thompson looks at that combination and sees a glaring risk.
For him, starting a campaign of this size with only three senior midfielders “is bordering on negligence” from the club.
Wharton the one to go after
Wharton has hovered around Liverpool’s radar for some time. Manchester City recently tested Palace’s resolve with an inquiry, only to be firmly knocked back.
Palace want to keep him. Thompson thinks Liverpool should test that resolve anyway.
Speaking on the BOYLE Sports and Footy Accumulators podcast, “No Tippy Tappy Football”, the 70-year-old did not hesitate when asked which midfielder he would chase.
“Adam Wharton is a player that I would be interested in signing for Liverpool,” he said.
“I can’t understand why nobody, in all this transfer merry-go-round, has picked him up this summer.
“He is one that you talk about in terms of having good character. At a football club, besides talent, you need people of good sort, and I've always looked at Wharton and thought he's a good character.
“I think he’s probably the next player Crystal Palace will have to sell, because they have to sell one a year for big money.”
Thompson’s message is clear: Liverpool should be the club ready with that big offer.
Iraola’s rebuild still looks incomplete
While the Barcola saga drags on – with Liverpool still locked in talks over Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola – Iraola will at least have three new faces available on Sunday.
Defenders Jeremy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo, plus winger Victor Munoz, are all in the door and in contention to feature against Newcastle.
The spine, though, still feels short to Thompson. One or two signings will not be enough if Liverpool genuinely want to stand alongside Europe’s elite this season.
“Liverpool still need four, maybe five, players in different positions,” he said. “Defensively, certainly; maybe a midfield player and a wide player too, because you need two quality players for every position.”
Last summer’s heavy spending has not dulled his view that more is required. The commercial muscle of clubs like Liverpool and Manchester United, he argues, means they should be capable of another decisive push in the market.
“We had a massive spend last season and everybody's saying, 'how can they do it?' You look at the investment we get into our football clubs, the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United. When you see them traveling the world, it shows that they're the two biggest football clubs in the world."
The question now is whether Liverpool act like it in the final weeks of the window – and whether Adam Wharton becomes the statement signing that turns a thin midfield into one fit for Iraola’s ferocious demands.
