Adam Wharton: Rocketman
The definitive SCOUTED50 profile on England's new hope
SCOUTED50 is our collection of the fifty young talents we believe are best positioned to break into the mainstream during 2023/24. Throughout the season, we’ll be detailing all fifty in definitive profiles.
Read the full list here. Adam Wharton came 24th in our ranking.
When we interviewed Adam Wharton in January, he spoke on his determination to return Blackburn Rovers to the Premier League. At the time, murmurs of a move were starting to emerge. Less than a month later, his lifelong journey from the youth academy to the pitch at Ewood Park came to an end.
Blackburn weren’t going to the Premier League, but Wharton was. Just weeks after our interview, he was holding up a Crystal Palace jersey after completing a £20 million move.
Both at the time, and now in hindsight, it was a great move. Crystal Palace are developing a knack for identifying and curating top youngsters from the Championship. In addition, Wharton was offered a clear path to senior minutes. As it turned out, he would take the field as an early substitute in his first match, replacing the injured Marc Guéhi in the 28th minute, and started every single game for the rest of the season.
Phil Costa
12 months earlier, he had only ever started six matches in the Championship. Sometimes, when the stars align for a player, things can happen very, very quickly.
If that wasn’t enough, he performed so well for Palace during their late-season push into the Premier League’s mid-table that he was handed a surprise call-up to Gareth Southgate’s provisional squad for the Euros, having only received his first Under-21 call-up a few months prior.
After an impressive performance in his debut appearance off the bench in a friendly against Bosnia, he stamped his ticket to the tournament proper.
Now he’s on the plane and the whole world’s talking. The skinny kid we spoke to in December has somehow found himself as the hope of a nation with a sizeable hole in its midfield. And with such excitement comes hyperbole and an unwieldy weight of expectation.
So we’re here to cut through the noise. Using bespoke data and seasoned SCOUTED eyes, let’s paint the picture of Adam Wharton: the truth, not the headlines.
In this profile:
- England’s diamond in the rough
- A unique passing engine underpinning Palace’s resurgence
- An elastic defensive game and the perfect partner for Rice
- A breakthrough tournament looms?
