Manchester City and Liverpool have reportedly both ‘held discussions’ with Crystal Palace over the signing of Adam Wharton, but both are currently willing to pay £17million lower than his valuation.
City find themselves searching for a holding-midfielder after the injury to Rodri. Indeed, he went off in the first-half of the 2-2 Premier League draw with Arsenal in September, and will not be seen again this season as a result of his knee injury.
Liverpool, meanwhile, have not strengthened the position in a while, and after missing out of Martin Zubimendi in the summer, have settled with playing Ryan Gravenberch in a deeper role than he is used to.
Both clubs have been linked with Palace’s Wharton of late.
And according to Ekrem Konur, both have ‘held discussions’ with Palace over the signing.
City and Liverpool are both said to be willing to pay approximately £38million (€45m, $50m) but the Eagles are looking for closer to £55million (€65m, $72m).
That means that both clubs must decide whether they’re willing to make up the extra £17million, or just bid as they see fit and hope Palace accept.
Prem giants have competition
City and Liverpool are not the only big Premier League clubs with eyes on Wharton.
TEAMtalk recently revealed that Manchester United want the Palace man, with Christian Eriksen seemingly soon to leave Old Trafford.
Sources state that interest is also evident from the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham and European giants Bayern Munich.
As yet, though, it looks as if only two sides are actively working on the transfer.
Man City ins and outs on cards
City have a few options to strengthen the midfield with in the wake of Rodri’s injury.
Reports of late have stated Martin Zubimendi, who has previously rejected both Arsenal and Liverpool, will be pursued by the Citizens.
But they could lose a huge asset of their own at some point.
Indeed, Erling Haaland is ready to sign a new deal, which should be good news, but it’s believed he has stipulated that there must be a £100million release clause, which has piqued the interest of Barcelona.
How do Wharton and Rodri compare
The obvious conclusion to draw from the stats comparison last season is that Wharton clearly had more work to do than Rodri in a defensive capacity due to City’s domination of possession.
The England midfielder won more tackles and ground duels than the Spaniard and made almost twice as many interceptions than the City midfield talisman.
The one area where Rodri was king, as expected, was in the passes per 90 category as he completed more than two-thirds more per match. While that is not surprising, one thing that cannot be ignored is how good of a passer of the ball Palace star Wharton actually is.
He has a career completion rate at 83.5 per cent but does take more chances with forward and defence-splitting passes than his Spanish counterpart. That’s evidenced by the fact that Wharton tallies 1.2 key passes per outing, while Rodri is down at 0.8.
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