With rumours circulating about manager Roy Hodgson’s future at Crystal Palace, the Selhurst Park outfit did make a very late deal in the January transfer window, and they brought in 19 year old former Blackburn Rovers midfielder Adam Wharton.
The youngster comes into the club on a five and a half year deal after an initial fee of £18 million was agreed between the two clubs, but the total transfer could potentially rise to £22 million.
Having come through the youth ranks of the Ewood Park club, he has gone on to make a total of 41 starting appearances for them, with ten further showings from the substitutes bench, and he has already returned four goals.
It is a huge fee for someone of his experience, but Palace are clearly banking on his development potential and their hopes that he will continue to show significant further improvement in the years to come. Having previously had an £18.5 million bid rejected, Palace were clearly adamant that they would get their man.
“I’ve always wanted to play in the Premier League and to play for such a big club like Crystal Palace is a great honour. The way they’ve brought players from the Championship and developed them into world-class players in the Premier League is something that stood out to me, and it’s a big reason why I wanted to come here.”
Chairman Steve Parish seemed to imply that this may have been more of a club led signing, as opposed to managerial driven, and it is clearly with one eye to the future and he referenced Wharton’s ‘rapid development’ and stated that they had been following him very ‘closely’ indeed.
“Adam’s consistently impressive performances for Blackburn at such a young age have understandably caught the eye of many a club, but we believe Palace to be – as has so often been the case in recent years – the perfect place to harness his undoubted potential, and we look forward to working with him in the years ahead to do so.”
Hodgson’s side, currently sat in 14th place in the Premier League table, have also signed Genk defender Daniel Munoz for a fee believed to be in the region of £6.8 million as they look to have a far stronger second half of the campaign and pull themselves a few places up the top flight table.