Liverpool Urged to Sign Adam Wharton for Midfield Revamp
Liverpool’s summer has been measured, calculated, almost cautious. Darragh MacAnthony wants them to rip that plan up.
The Peterborough United chairman, a lifelong Liverpool supporter, has gone public with a demand that cuts right to the heart of the club’s biggest on-field question: spend up to £100m on Adam Wharton and sort the midfield for the next decade.
“Bring Wharton in”
Speaking on talkSPORT’s White and Jordan show, MacAnthony didn’t bother with subtlety. He went straight for the current anchor of Liverpool’s midfield.
“I’d love them to sign Adam Wharton. 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,” he said.
Then came the punchline.
“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 is the challenge thrown at Liverpool’s new sporting director Richard Hughes: be ruthless, cash in on a World Cup winner if needed, and build around a 22-year-old from Crystal Palace.
A quiet midfield while the money goes wide
So far, Liverpool’s business has been focused everywhere but the middle of the pitch.
Jeremy Jacquet has arrived in defence. Ronald Araujo has come in on loan. Victor Munoz has been added out wide. Harvey Elliott has returned from his short-lived Aston Villa spell. But the core of the midfield remains untouched.
At the same time, Liverpool are chasing a big-money deal for Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola. That pursuit alone makes a late, nine-figure push for Wharton feel unlikely. There was interest in the Palace midfielder earlier in the summer, but those links have gone quiet as the window has ticked on.
The timing is awkward. The need is not.
The hole at no.6
Liverpool are not short of midfielders by headcount. What they lack is a natural, elite holding midfielder who can lock down transitions and still feed the attack.
That flaw was brutally exposed again in the defeat to Monaco on Sunday. After going 2-0 up, Liverpool lost their shape and their grip on the game.
The Liverpool Echo’s Ian Doyle described how they “became disjointed and far too easy to play through”. James Pearce, writing in The Athletic, underlined the structural issue: the absence of a specialist no.6 to ease the burden on Ryan Gravenberch remains “a worry”.
That is exactly the space into which Wharton walks.
He is not a destroyer in the traditional sense. He doesn’t live off flying into tackles. But he wins the ball, he reads danger, and he turns regains into attacks with a calmness that belies his age.
Last season in the Premier League, his numbers painted the picture of a modern midfielder who does a bit of everything and does it at a high level. Per 90 minutes in the 2025/26 campaign, he ranked in the 95th percentile for big chances created (0.49) and 84th for chances created (1.55). Off the ball, he sat in the 85th percentile for recoveries (5.8) and 75th for possession won in the final third (0.6), with solid output in tackles (2.46) and duels won (4.92).
Declan Rice has already called him a “top-level” player. Seventy Premier League appearances for Palace have backed that up.
This is not a project. This is a ready-made Premier League operator with a ceiling that still feels some way off.
Will Liverpool move – now or later?
The reality, as things stand, is stark. Liverpool are pushing hard for Barcola. The clock is ticking on the window. Wharton would cost at least £85m, probably closer to the £100m mark that MacAnthony floated.
It is hard to see Liverpool pivoting to that kind of outlay on a second major deal in the same window, especially this late. The suggestion of selling Mac Allister to make it happen would be a huge call for a new sporting director and a club that usually preaches stability.
Yet the argument will not go away. Not after Monaco. Not with the Premier League season demanding control in the middle of the pitch from day one.
For now, Wharton looks more like the one that got away than the one walking out at Anfield with his arm around the manager. But if Liverpool’s midfield continues to creak without a true no.6, how long can they ignore a player built for exactly that storm?
