Leading up to the January transfer window, Newcastle United were regularly linked with Adam Wharton.
It was revealed last May that Dan Ashworth and senior scout Mick Tait traveled to Ewood Park to track the young midfielder, while Mark Douglas at iNews confirmed he was a player we were showing serious interest in after watching the 20-year-old ‘regularly’ ahead of the winter window earlier this year.
At the time, Joelinton was ruled out after surgery and his contract situation was unclear, Joe Willock was struggling to stay fit, Sean Longstaff was managing an ongoing ankle issue and Sandro Tonali remained banned. It was clear the club needed midfield reinforcements but constantly reported that FFP was massively hindering what we had available to spend.
Thankfully, we passed up on an expensive loan deal for Kalvin Phillips, allowing the Man City man to join West Ham instead, but our decision to keep our powder dry heading into the summer saw us lose out on Wharton to Crystal Palace.
Newcastle scouts clearly rated him highly and we all know of Eddie Howe’s fondness to sign exciting young English talents, so there’s likely to be some Toon staff wondering ‘what if’ now he’s excelled following an £18m move to Selhurst Park.
He looks an absolute gem of a player and effortlessly transitioned from Championship to Premier League over the second half of the 2023/24 season. The tall but elegant midfielder glides with the ball, his passing is slick, he’s combative, creative and tough. He reminds me of a mixture between Mousa Dembele and Declan Rice.
All these qualities earnt him his first senior England cap last night, which he ironically made at St James’ Park as we beat Bosnia 3-0, and many believe he’s already pushing for a place in Gareth Southgate’s starting 11 ahead of Euro 2024.
Wharton looks like everything you’d want in your engine room, but I suspect our FFP issues, the hope Joelinton would sign a new deal and Bruno Guimaraes stay meant we decided not to invest more money on our midfield.
You win some and lose some in football, yet this feels like an opportunity missed given Wharton’s talent, temperament and fact he’s now worth at last treble what Palace paid for him in January.
