Liverpool Urged to Sign Adam Wharton as Midfield Concerns Grow
Phil Thompson has warned Liverpool they are walking a dangerous line in midfield – and says Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton should be the club’s priority before the window shuts.
With Curtis Jones on the brink of joining Inter Milan, Andoni Iraola is preparing for the new season with just three senior central midfielders: Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch. For a club with Liverpool’s schedule and ambitions, Thompson believes that is nowhere near enough.
Szoboszlai arrives into 2026/27 as Liverpool’s reigning men’s player of the year and one of the few bright spots from last season. Mac Allister and Gravenberch, by contrast, went backwards under Arne Slot, leaving serious question marks over the balance and reliability of the current midfield unit.
Factor in Iraola’s high-energy, front-foot style and the numbers look even more alarming. Asking three senior midfielders to carry Liverpool through a full campaign across domestic and European fronts feels, in Thompson’s eyes, like an accident waiting to happen.
That is where Wharton comes in.
The 22-year-old England international has hovered around Liverpool’s radar for some time and recently drew an inquiry from Manchester City, only for Palace to shut the door. The London club are determined to keep him, but Thompson is adamant Liverpool should test that resolve.
Speaking on the BOYLE Sports and Footy Accumulators podcast, ‘No Tippy Tappy Football’, the former Liverpool defender made his stance clear.
“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.”
Palace may not share that view, but Thompson sees an opening Liverpool cannot afford to ignore, especially with the club already locked in a drawn-out pursuit of Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola.
While that saga drags on, Iraola heads to St. James’ Park on Sunday to open the 2026/27 campaign against Newcastle with three new signings available: defenders Jeremy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo, plus winger Victor Munoz. It is a start, not a solution.
In Thompson’s eyes, Liverpool are still several bodies short of a squad capable of living with Europe’s elite.
“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.
“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 message is blunt. Liverpool have the financial muscle, the global pull and a manager whose style demands depth and legs. What they do not yet have is a midfield built to withstand that storm.
Wharton, in Thompson’s view, is the kind of signing that turns a precarious plan into a serious title challenge. The question now is whether Liverpool move with the urgency he believes this summer demands.
