Two top sources, Fabrizio Romano and Ben Jacobs, have delivered updates that make bitterly grim reading for Manchester United and their alleged attempts to sign Adam Wharton.
Man Utd fully intend to add one more midfielder to their ranks before terming their midfield rebuild complete. Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans have been banked, with United now aiming to sign a more defensive-minded option.
As such, it came as something of a surprise to see CaughtOffside claim Man Utd were ramping up efforts to sign Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton.
Those claims were made over the weekend, and while Wharton is an elegant and technically excellent midfielder, he’s not exactly the profile of player you’d have in mind for a club looking for a Casemiro regen.
Nevertheless, the report stated Palace were demanding £85m, and the Red Devils were ‘active’ in their pursuit.
But according to reporter Ben Jacobs when speaking on talkSPORT, Wharton’s situation is completely quiet right now.
What’s more, the fact he didn’t mention Man Utd once in his lengthy update spoke volumes. And per the reporter, if there’s one big club who could make a move for Wharton in the coming weeks, it’s Manchester City, not United.
Adam Wharton likelier to join Man City, not Man Utd
Jacobs explained: “Yeah, no real news on Adam Wharton. It’s been surprisingly quiet, in fact.
“There were some early enquiries as Chelsea looked at their midfield market, but they’ve now added Jordan Henderson and they tried for Granit Xhaka. And the feeling is that Chelsea need to focus on outgoings rather than incomings anyway.
“Of course, we should point out from Palace’s point of view, they’d love to just keep [Wharton] and will hope that it stays quiet between now and the end of the window.
“Manchester City are maybe one club to also keep an eye on because they made an enquiry before the window opened.
“As it stands, they’re focused on Ayyoub Bouaddi, advanced talks ongoing with Lille and City would like to sign Bouaddi now, even though Lille would prefer a loan back or a pre-agreement and then the player to move in 2027.
“But it’s not impossible that Manchester City, should Rodri as expected join Barcelona, look for more than one midfielder.
“So we might get a twist towards the end of the window with Adam Wharton. But at the moment, I think one of the biggest surprises of this window is that all of the noise and enquiries came before the window opened. And as far as I’m aware, as of today, Palace haven’t had a single bid.”
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When reporting on his YouTube channel, transfer guru Romano insisted Man City plan to make another big signing in midfield after Ayyoub Bouaddi.
An agreement to sign the Lille and Morocco ace is close to being finalised. But with Rodri likely heading to Barcelona and Bernardo Silva now at Real Madrid, Enzo Maresca’s side want one more midfielder after Bouaddi, even though they’ve signed Elliot Anderson this summer too.
“This (Bouaddi) is not going to be the only signing for Man City in midfield,” declared Romano. “They want to do more.”
As such, Wharton could wind up in Manchester by the time the window closes, but at the Etihad and not Old Trafford.