Crystal Palace have shamed their rivals by signing Adam Wharton ...
Opinion
Northern Football Correspondent
June 4, 2024 8:18 am(Updated 10:08 am)
There should be some Premier League scouts getting a flea in their ears this morning.
How Adam Wharton was on the market for a mere £18m in January and got just one serious offer from Crystal Palace should prompt deep inquests in recruitment circles.
In an era when data and technology allow crisper insights than ever, perhaps some recruitment gurus should have trusted their instincts a bit more on a player who only turned 20 in February.
There was one club who apparently weren’t sure about his off-the-ball movement. Another doubted whether he had the athleticism to adapt immediately to the rigours of Premier League football. For those who had watched him regularly at Ewood Park, those hot takes will prompt jaws to drop.
Now Blackburn’s best kept secret is dominating pre-tournament talk and making a serious case to be England’s Euro 2024 “bolter”. For while the Three Lions are uniquely blessed with talent in attacking areas, there are few with Wharton’s gifts who could drop so seamlessly into midfield.
“There’s no question he has impressed us,” Gareth Southgate said on Monday night when i raised Wharton’s chances of making the plane.
“We saw things in his performances for his club. The biggest thing for us is that ability to see a picture and play the ball forward early. That sounds really simple but that hasn’t been so simple for us over seven or eight years, that type of player.
“There’s a lot still ahead of him, a lot of adjustment, but the [other England] players have recognised his quality.”
That is no small feat for a player of Wharton’s limited experience. It is just six months since he was playing in a Championship relegation battle for an unremarkable Blackburn side – less than two years since he made his professional debut.
But some players are able to make an instant impact and Wharton is one of those for whom a bigger stage seems to suit him. Playing alongside better players seems to emphasise his quality.
“When you see the positions the other players take, the way they interact with on the training pitch, you know the players have seen something in him,” Southgate said.
Wharton is embraced by England captain Harry Kane after victory over Bosnia (Photo: Getty)“Whenever we call a new player in they always doubt what we’re doing but then they work with these youngsters and they see why we’ve called them up. He showed in his little cameo what we’ve seen in training in the last week and what we’ve seen when we’ve watched him for his club. He’s adapted to everything really well.”
Those warm words suggest Wharton is seen as central to England’s future plans post-Germany. But why can’t he be an option immediately?
For 28 minutes on Monday he looked like he belonged. His pass completion was 100 per cent – 36 out of the 36 he attempted – and these weren’t simple, sideways balls to pad stats. Wharton consistently looked to get England on the front foot against obdurate Bosnian opponents.
Granted, England have options, experience and excellence in the engine room. Every nation heading to Germany would crave a box-to-box midfielder of Declan Rice’s calibre and experience when the margins for error reduce in the tournament’s latter stages.
But England’s mission in the first fortnight is to navigate a group where teams are likely to sit back, spoil and try to spring counter attacks. Denmark are the toughest of three Group C opponents but expect Serbia and Slovenia to try and frustrate either side of that game.
Traditionally England have struggled in those kind of contests. Think the US and Scotland in group stage games at the last World Cup and Euros; they were matches that cried out for a player with Wharton’s vision to alter things from the substitutes bench.
It would be a big call, of course. Southgate hinted on Sunday that the seven cut from the squad would be the players with least experience and Wharton is, of course, among that group. Sometimes, though, it pays to take a chance. Just ask those Premier League scouts who will be ruing their hesitancy.
