Liverpool Urged to Sign Adam Wharton for Midfield Rebuild
Liverpool’s summer has been about tightening bolts at the back and adding a dash of flair out wide. One prominent voice thinks they’re looking in the wrong place.
With three weeks left in the window, Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony has thrown down a challenge to Anfield: stop browsing, and go big on Adam Wharton.
“Splash out” call for Wharton
Liverpool have already moved early. Jeremy Jacquet is in. Ronald Araujo has arrived on loan. Victor Munoz has been added to the forward line. The midfield, though, looks almost exactly as it did – save for Harvey Elliott’s return from an ill-fated spell at Aston Villa.
For MacAnthony, a lifelong Liverpool supporter, that’s a problem.
Speaking on talkSPORT’s White and Jordan show, the 50-year-old made his pitch crystal clear. He wants Liverpool to rip up the current midfield plan and build it around Crystal Palace’s 22-year-old playmaker.
“I’d love them to sign Adam Wharton,” he said. “I think [Alexis] Mac Allister, for me, his legs were gone last year. It was only when he put an Argentina shirt on that his legs reappeared.
“If you could do business there with him going, I think you bring [Wharton] in and you’ve got a player for the next seven, eight years that will be a starter. He’s got so much upside and potential in him. Even if he costs £85m-£100m or whatever else, you’re getting the player for the long-term.”
That’s not a gentle nudge. That’s a demand for a reset in the heart of Liverpool’s team – and a willingness to sanction a fee north of £100m to do it.
Liverpool’s priorities pulled in different directions
There’s a snag. Liverpool’s big-money gaze currently sits elsewhere.
The club are chasing a marquee move for Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola, a pursuit that would swallow a huge chunk of their remaining budget. Turning from that to another nine-figure deal for Wharton, this close to the deadline, would require a dramatic change of course from sporting director Richard Hughes and the ownership.
Wharton has been on the radar. Earlier in the summer, the Palace midfielder was linked with a possible move to Anfield, but those whispers have gone quiet. No active talks, no fresh noise.
What hasn’t gone quiet is his reputation.
Declan Rice has already branded Wharton a “top-level” player, and the numbers back up the praise. Across 70 Premier League appearances for Palace, he has grown into one of the division’s most assured young midfielders, knitting play together and driving his team up the pitch.
Last season’s metrics underline the profile. Per 90 minutes in the 2025/26 Premier League campaign, Wharton ranked in the 95th percentile for big chances created (0.49) and 84th for overall chances created (1.55). He averaged 5.8 recoveries per game, putting him in the 85th percentile, and won possession in the final third 0.6 times per match, good enough for the 75th percentile. Add 2.46 tackles and 4.92 duels won per 90, and you get a picture of a midfielder who reads the game, wins it back, and immediately looks to hurt opponents.
He isn’t a destroyer. He doesn’t crash into tackles like an old-school no.6. But he wins the ball, keeps it, and turns it into danger. For a side that wants to suffocate teams with pressure and quick transitions, that matters.
The missing no.6 and a Monaco warning
Liverpool’s midfield is not short on bodies. That’s not the issue. The concern is the profile that’s missing.
The defeat to Monaco on Sunday dragged that problem back into the spotlight. Liverpool went 2-0 up, then lost control. The structure frayed, the spaces grew, and Monaco cut through them far too easily.
The Liverpool Echo’s Ian Doyle described how the Reds “became disjointed and far too easy to play through” after taking their two-goal lead. James Pearce, writing in The Athletic, pointed directly at the recruitment gap, calling it “a worry” that Liverpool have not signed a specialist holding midfielder to ease the burden on Ryan Gravenberch.
That’s the context in which MacAnthony’s plea lands. Not as a wild fantasy, but as a pointed suggestion that Liverpool’s midfield rebuild remains incomplete.
Wharton, on paper, doesn’t tick the classic no.6 box. He isn’t the archetypal shield in front of the back four. What he does offer is control, ball-winning higher up the pitch, and the ability to launch attacks from central areas – qualities that fit the modern, aggressive pressing game Liverpool still want to play.
Will Liverpool move?
Right now, the expectation is simple: Wharton will stay where he is. Liverpool are not actively driving a deal, and the Barcola pursuit looks set to dominate their late-window manoeuvres.
Inside Anfield, the argument will be that there are already enough midfield options, that resources must be spread across the squad, that the spine can cope.
Outside, voices like MacAnthony’s are growing louder, pointing to the same thing: Liverpool still lack that one elite, long-term answer at the base of midfield.
If the club stick to their current path, Wharton will continue to shine in Palace colours, his value climbing, his admirers multiplying. If they change course, they’ll be paying for more than numbers on a spreadsheet; they’ll be buying seven or eight years of a midfielder who looks built for the Premier League’s sharp end.
The window is ticking. The question is whether Liverpool see Wharton as a luxury they can admire from afar – or the missing piece they can no longer afford to ignore.
