Liverpool have entered advanced negotiations to sign Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton ahead of next season, according to Spanish newspaper Marca, with transfer insider Matteo Moretto backing the report and describing Liverpool as having “preempted” a potential move from Real Madrid, who have been long-standing admirers of the 22-year-old English [International](https://londoninsider.co.uk/category/international/).
The development accelerates a saga that has been building throughout the second half of the season, with Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes understood to have been actively exploring midfield options after a campaign in which Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister both regressed significantly from the form that powered the club to last season’s Premier League title.
Wharton himself is described as fully expecting to leave Crystal Palace at the end of the season. His preference, with Real Madrid also circling, is explicitly to stay in the Premier League, a stance that makes Liverpool the natural frontrunner given their position and the fact that GiveMeSport’s sources confirm preliminary contact between the relevant parties was established weeks ago.
His role under Oliver Glasner at Selhurst Park, functioning as a disciplined holding midfielder who combines defensive solidity with clean progressive passing, maps precisely onto the tactical gap Liverpool’s coaching staff identified during their title defence collapse. Martin Zubimendi was the original solution Slot pursued when he arrived at Anfield, and Wharton represents the second serious attempt to fill the same positional and stylistic vacancy.
The fee discussion sitting around £70 million to £80 million would set a new record for Crystal Palace, surpassing the fee [Arsenal](https://londoninsider.co.uk/tag/arsenal/) paid for Eberechi Eze, with a 15 percent sell-on clause negotiated into Wharton’s original £22 million move from Blackburn meaning the Championship club would receive a meaningful windfall above the £22 million base from any future sale.
Palace are resisting the departure publicly, with the club described as “determined to keep hold of their prized possession,” but the player’s expected departure and the competition from Manchester United and Real Madrid effectively removes their practical leverage since holding firm risks losing him to a bidding war rather than a controlled sale to a single interested party.
Wharton has made 46 appearances across all competitions this season, contributing seven assists from midfield despite Palace operating well below their European ambitions in the Premier League, with his individual performances remaining consistently high quality against the backdrop of collective results that have not done justice to his contribution.
Curtis Jones is entering the final year of his contract at Anfield and attracting concrete interest from Inter Milan, while Alexis Mac Allister’s future has been questioned after a below-par domestic campaign, meaning Liverpool’s midfield rebuild in the summer extends well beyond a single addition and gives the Wharton pursuit a structural urgency that goes beyond simply wanting to improve the options available to Slot.
The Champions League qualification Liverpool appear set to secure gives them the key commercial and sporting argument that separates their pitch from Manchester United’s, with Wharton’s known preference to compete at the highest European level making Anfield a significantly more compelling proposition than Old Trafford if United’s own Champions League qualification remains uncertain through the final weeks.
Liverpool’s £250 million summer budget, reported by multiple outlets, gives Hughes the spending power to pursue Wharton, the already-signed Jeremy Jacquet, and multiple attacking additions without requiring any of the asset sales that would normally complicate a rebuild of this scale, positioning the club for a significantly more ambitious transfer window than their 2025/26 results on the pitch might suggest a club in rebuilding mode would typically execute.