Report: £80m Liverpool target ‘is expected to leave’ current club; he could be ‘perfect’ for Reds

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One rumoured Liverpool transfer target is reportedly expected to move on from his current club during the summer, thus fuelling speculation over a potential switch to Anfield.Some sources had reported last year that Merseyside chiefs held talks over a proposed swoop for Adam Wharton, although those discussions are understood to have been merely ‘exploratory’.DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL EMPIRE OF THE KOP APP FOR ALL THE LATEST & BREAKING UPDATES – STRAIGHT TO YOUR PHONE! ON APPLE & GOOGLE PLAYThe midfielder is set to come up against the Reds when Crystal Palace visit L4 on Saturday week, and his future is in the spotlight once more ahead of the fifth on-field meeting between the teams in the past 11 months.Liverpool showing renewed interest in WhartonAccording to Alex Crook for talkSPORT, Liverpool are once again showing an interest in the 22-year-old, who ‘is expected to leave’ Selhurst Park at the end of the season, with the Eagles placing an £80m asking price on their player.Anfield chiefs are understood to be exploring prospective midfield signings amid ‘uncertainty’ over the futures of Curtis Jones and Alexis Mac Allister.Manchester United are also believed to be firmly in the mix for Wharton’s signature, and while Palace are understandably determined to hold onto him, it’s reported that the England international is eyeing an exit from south London ‘in the hope of testing himself at a higher level’.Want more Empire of the Kop coverage?

Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trustCould Liverpool persuade Palace to sell Wharton this summer?Liverpool have a reasonably healthy stock of midfielders as things stand, but if either or both of Jones or Mac Allister were to depart, that could force sporting director Richard Hughes to treat the position with greater priority.Homegrown, 22 years old and proven in the Premier League, Wharton immediately ticks several important boxes for the Reds, and Crook’s report for talkSPORT says that he ‘provides the perfect foil’ for what Arne Slot needs in the middle of the park.Whilst playing primarily as a defensive midfielder, the Palace dynamo is more of a creative than a destructive presence, as his underlying statistics from this season (compared to top-flight positional peers) would suggest (see table below, with data from Fotmob). 2025/26 Premier League Per 90 minutes Percentile among positional peers Expected assists (xA) 0.24 95th (top 5%) ‘Big chances’ created 0.45 94th Assists 0.2 88th Successful crosses 0.86 79th Chances created 1.31 77th He certainly wouldn’t come cheap, but he could give Liverpool a hugely influential midfield presence for a number of years if they were to win the race for his signature.As Hughes knows all too well from the doomed pursuit of Marc Guehi last summer, the Selhurst Park hierarchy can be tricky negotiators, and you can be sure that it’d take all of his powers of persuasion to convince the Eagles to sell Wharton.His performance at Anfield next week will command particularly close attention from the Reds’ powerbrokers.