Manager Jon Dahl Tomasson has confirmed that Blackburn Rovers have rejected an £18 million bid from Premier League outfit Crystal Palace for Adam Wharton.
Having played at the top level of European football for Newcastle United, Feyenoord and AC Milan, the Rovers boss is well placed to pass judgement on Adam Wharton’s chances of reaching the elite.
And, as far as Tomasson is concerned, the Blackburn starlet is already a midfielder with the ball-playing talent of a ‘Champions League-level’ player.
The UCL can wait for the time being, however, with Wharton’s next step likely to be a club in the middle or lower reaches of the Premier League.
HITC Football understands that Crystal Palace have seen an £18 million bid knocked back. Not to be deterred The Eagles are expected to return with a new offer in excess of £20 million for arguably the most exciting and most complete young midfielder in the EFL.
Crytsal Palace want Blackburn ace Adam Wharton
“It is my understanding that the club has rejected the offer,” Tomasson tells Lancashire Telegraph.
“One day, he will go away. We know that, with his quality. I think it is good that the club have turned the offer down. It needs to be the right market value.”
Tomasson adds that, even if Palace were to agree a fee, Blackburn would want to bring Wharton back on loan to Ewood Park until the summer. Their stance, meanwhile, appears to have emboldened by the fact that some of the Championship’s brightest talents – such as Alex Scott, Joao Pedro, Jude Bellingham, Ollie Watkins and Nathan Tella – have all departed for fees well in excess of the £18 million stumped up by Roy Hodgson’s struggling side.
‘Crystal Palace trying to do it in the winter’
“If I was a Premier League manager, I would buy him immediately as well,” Tomasson adds of his Blackburn-born academy graduate. “When you talk about the players that have gone away in the market, the number of games, the quality, you know what the club should receive.
“Crystal Palace have been very proactive in trying to do it in the winter. Adam is a Rovers man, we can’t forget that.
“One day he will go away, and Rovers fans should be proud of him and enjoy him. At the end of the day, I think this part of football.”
Averaging just over a goal-a-game under the embattled Hodgson, HITC Football understands that Palace are also looking at strikers before the month is out. Chelsea’s Armando Broja and AZ Alkmaar’s Vangelis Pavlidis are under consideration.
Free-scoring right-back Daniel Munoz, reportedly on strike at KRC Genk, is another who could arrive.
The agent of Krasnodar frontman Jhon Cordoba, however, has ruled out a January move either to Crystal Palace or Nottingham Forest.
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