Crystal Palace have rebuffed Blackburn Rovers’ attempts to keep Adam Wharton on loan for the rest of this season with the Premier League outfit keen to bring the midfielder to Selhurst Park now rather than in the summer.
EXCLUSIVE from Graeme Bailey
HITC Football understands that, despite a late disagreement between Crystal Palace and Blackburn regarding the teenager’s immediate future, Adam Wharton will still be confirmed as an Eagles player before the transfer deadline on Thursday night.
Palace have completed the details of the deal, Roy Hodgson’s side agreeing a deal worth around £22 million earlier in the week after Blackburn rejected their initial £18 million proposal.
Rovers had hoped to keep Wharton at Ewood Park on loan for the next few months. But HITC have been informed that Palace have left Blackburn in no uncertain terms that they want to add Wharton to Hodgson’s squad before Saturday’s clash with arch rivals Brighton and Hove Albion.
Crystal Palace will sign Adam Wharton from Blackburn
The Blackburn-born 19-year-old is perhaps the most talented young midfielder in the Football League at present. Rivers boss Jon Dahl Tommasson is convinced, meanwhile, that his on-the-ball ability belongs at the elite level.
“He’s not the finished article yet,” Tomasson begins. “But, on the ball, he is Champions League-level. I have trained and played there, I know what is needed. At the same time, he’s developed a lot, definitely.
“If I was a Premier League manager, I would buy him immediately as well. Crystal Palace have been very proactive in trying to do it in the winter.”
‘Champions League-level’
Wharton’s arrival will add some much-needed depth to a Crystal Palace midfield shorn of the services of the injured Cheick Doucoure. The Eagles beat Sheffield United 3-2 on Tuesday to ease some of the pressure mounting on Hodgson, with the masterful Ebere Eze and Michael Olise – both of whom made their name in the Championship like Wharton – combining brilliantly to blunt The Blades.
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