The latest Crystal Palace transfer exclusive reveals that the Eagles are closing in on signing Blackburn Rovers youngster Adam Wharton in a deal worth over £20m.
Adam Wharton Closes In On Palace Move
Crystal Palace are signing Adam Wharton for £22million, in preparation for a fight to hold on to three major first team players of their own. The Eagles are concluding a deal for Blackburn’s Wharton in a bid to show ambition at a time when there is fear they will be targeted for a raid by big Premier League clubs in the coming months.
Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal are among clubs that have tabs on three stars at Selhurt Park in Marc Guehi, Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze.
It is going to be a testing summer for Palace on that front, but their new move for Wharton is in line with a need to show supporters there is a strong plan for the future.
There has been pressure on owner Steve Parish to replace Roy Hodgson as manager and also to start spending on squad improvements. As the team were beaten at Arsenal 5-0 earlier this month, fans held up a banner declaring: ‘Wasted potential on and off the pitch. Weak decisions taking us backwards.’
In light of that defeat Palace made an £18m offer for Blackburn’s highly-rated midfielder Wharton, and on Monday evening they had reopened talks over new negotiations to strike a deal.
Rovers have been wanting more than £20m for the England under-20 international and were keen an agreement ahead of deadline day if he was to go.
Palace have satisfied them financially and the player was given the go-ahead to travel for his medical on Tuesday.
Eagles Anticipating Summer Changes
Palace realise they can not expect to hold onto all three of Guehi, Olise and Eze beyond the summer without a serious fight and this Wharton signing is believed to be the first step in showing their intent.
The club will bring in a new boss in the summer with Steve Cooper one of the names they are most interested in recruiting. Parish also has big ambitions for Selhurst Park, and wants to begin plans on a stunning new main stand.
He had also been planning to give a new boss a decent transfer kitty for the summer – and that is still to be expected on top of Wharton in this January window. Even if the reality is that one of the big names does have to be sold to help fund any sort of overhaul.
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