Liverpool Targets Adam Wharton as Iraola Era Begins
Liverpool’s reset under Andoni Iraola is gathering pace, and the next target on their radar cuts straight to the heart of their midfield.
According to GIVEMESPORT’s Ben Jacobs, the club are plotting a summer move for Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton, a player described as “really appreciated” inside Anfield and one Liverpool are now actively tracking.
The interest comes at a moment of sharp transition. Arne Slot’s sacking, coming not long after he had delivered a Premier League title in his first season, jolted the club out of what had seemed a settled trajectory. Iraola has been parachuted in and, almost immediately, the conversation has shifted from what Liverpool were to what they need to become.
Key figures have gone. Andy Robertson, Mohamed Salah and Ibrahima Konaté – three pillars of recent Liverpool sides – have all departed, ripping out experience and reliability from the spine and the flanks. The holes are obvious. So is the scale of the job.
A squad that once felt layered and balanced suddenly looks thin in crucial areas. Out wide, the drop-off after Salah’s exit is stark. Seventeen-year-old Rio Ngumoha is exciting, but he is still learning the pace and brutality of senior football. Liverpool are already deep in talks with RB Leipzig over Yan Diomande, the 19-year-old phenomenon earmarked as the preferred long-term successor on the right.
Diomande, though, will not come cheap. Leipzig are holding firm at a valuation north of £100m, even with reports that personal terms with the player are in place. Liverpool, who have already shown a willingness to operate at that financial level, know this is not a quick negotiation.
And yet the rebuild cannot be confined to the forward line.
Midfield, the area Liverpool tried to overhaul not so long ago, is back under scrutiny. Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister struggled to hit their previous heights during a disappointing 2025-26 campaign. Performances dipped, consistency vanished, and the control that once defined Liverpool’s best displays often went missing.
Dominik Szoboszlai remains one of the first names on the team sheet, his dynamism and end product too valuable to ignore, but the supporting cast around him feels in flux. That is where Wharton enters the picture.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Jacobs underlined Liverpool’s interest: “Keep an eye on central midfield. Adam Wharton is a player really appreciated by Liverpool.”
Wharton, 20, still has three years left on his deal at Selhurst Park, where Palace will host Europa League football next season. On paper, there is no urgency for Palace to sell, and the club’s stance is strengthened by manager Oliver Glasner’s public praise in recent weeks, when he called Wharton “one of the best midfielders in the world.”
Yet the midfielder’s omission from Thomas Tuchel’s England squad has fuelled speculation about his next step. A player widely tipped for a rapid rise now finds himself at a crossroads: stay as the heartbeat of a growing Palace side in Europe, or jump into the maelstrom of an Anfield rebuild under a demanding new manager.
Liverpool’s admiration suggests they see him as more than a depth option. This is a club already stacked with big-money talent. Last summer they pushed past the £100m barrier for both Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, signalling a willingness to live permanently in the upper reaches of the market. That intent has not softened.
Diomande is one of several potential nine-figure deals under consideration. Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League winner Bradley Barcola and Bournemouth winger Rayan have both been linked, each carrying valuations in excess of £100m from their clubs. The numbers are eye-watering, but Liverpool’s transfer strategy is clear: pay elite prices for players they believe can define the next cycle.
Wharton sits slightly apart from that attacking cluster. He would be a statement about structure rather than stardust, about control in the middle of the pitch rather than fireworks in the final third. For Iraola, who builds his teams on intensity, verticality and aggressive pressing, the right midfielder is as important as any winger.
Liverpool’s hierarchy appear ready to give him the tools. The question now is whether Wharton becomes one of the cornerstones of this new era, or whether he chooses to keep orchestrating games in south London while Anfield’s rebuild rages on without him.
