“Wouldn’t surprise me…” – Ex-Man Utd scout drops Wharton transfer claim after Liverpool audition

Liverpool ‘will feel they can’ sign Wharton this summer

Ex-Man United chief scout Mick Brown believes that Liverpool would be capable of signing Wharton in the summer, backing the Palace star to raise the overall level of the Reds’ midfield.

He told Football Insider: “Liverpool were keeping a close eye on Adam Wharton’s performance. He’s somebody they’ve been aware of since his time at Blackburn with the connections they’ve got there, so they know plenty about him.

“A good performance at Anfield is another feather in the cap for him, because it counts for a lot when you see somebody doing well against your own midfield, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they made a move for him, he certainly ranks highly there.

“There’s lots of talk about Wharton and whether he can leave Palace, and it will take a big fee to get him out, but Liverpool will feel they can go and get him.

“Their midfield at the moment is a big stale, a bit the same, and I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way because they’ve got a very good midfield; but Wharton, his range of passing, how silky he is in possession of the ball, he would add something to Slot’s team that they haven’t got at the moment.”

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Wharton would tick several important boxes for Liverpool

The 22-year-old would give Liverpool that genuine no.6 presence they don’t have in their current line-up, although the data from Fotmob shows that he’s so much more than a mere ‘destroyer’ in midfield.

Although Palace tasted defeat at Anfield on Saturday, Wharton put in another strong performance as he won five duels in the middle of the park whilst completing all three of his dribbles, creating two ‘big chances’ and recording three key passes (Sofascore).

Another important factor is his homegrown status, which could be a vital criterion for the Reds if Curtis Jones were to depart in the summer, given that our current squad is short on players who tick that particular box.

As Liverpool know all too well from the Marc Guehi saga last year, doing busines with the south London club can be rather tricky, and it could take as much as £80m (talkSPORT) to even bring the Selhurst Park hierarchy to the negotiating table.

If the Reds were to lose one or more of their current first-team midfielders in the summer, that could prompt FSG to pursue Wharton as a priority transfer target, even though it’d surely take a monumental effort to prise hm away from Palace.