Adam Wharton given alternative Premier League destination where he could unlock key man

Adam Wharton will surely have plenty of suitors this summer as he continues to shine in the Crystal Palace midfield.

A switch to a Premier League ‘Big Six’ club could await him at the end of the season, but Newcastle are also a suggested destination.

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Recent reports have linked Wharton, who signed for Palace in 2024 from Blackburn Rovers, with a potential move this summer.

The 21-year-old is an FA Cup winner with the Eagles and has made 57 appearances in the Premier League since arriving at Selhurst Park.

Palace chairman Steve Parish told talkSPORT last year that Wharton is keen to play for a Champions League club in the near future.

Manchester United have him on a three-man list of midfield options for the summer as they look to replace Casemiro, while Chelsea are known to be long-term admirers.

However, Jack Cunningham of talkSPORT’s Inside Toon show believes Wharton could get the best out of Nick Woltemade at Newcastle.

The German striker scored four goals in his first five Premier League matches following his £69million move from VfB Stuggart.

Woltemade has only netted three more in 15 matches since that run, but Wharton could be the man to unlock his potential in the attack.

“If you manage to build a team where you’ve got legs around him… that’s probably one criticism, maybe he probably can’t get around the pitch as well as an Elliot Anderson for example,” Cunningham said.

“If you build a team where you’ve got legs around which I think, if you look at the Newcastle midfield, that’s probably one thing we’re not lacking, legs and energy in the midfield.

“If you get legs around him and tell Wharton just to be the creative midfielder because when he plays for Palace, he always plays forward passes, he doesn’t really play backwards.

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“It’s usually into a forward man, into the front man, and I just think that if you introduced a player like an Adam Wharton into the Newcastle team, you would suddenly start seeing the best of Woltemade.

“He’s someone who’d actually find Woltemade’s feet, rather than what we’re doing at the moment now where we’re kind of leaving him up top on his own and not getting enough people around him.

“If you get the ball from Wharton into Woltemade, someone that’s playing into his feet, then you’ve got the wingers running off him, I think you’d start to see the best of Woltemade.

“You need a player in the midfield who is going to be able to find those little intricate forward passes, because that’s probably the one thing…

“Bruno Guimaraes can do it, 100 per cent, but he also does so much else in the team that it can’t always be on him. Someone like an Adam Wharton, I think, makes sense.”

Cunningham also highlighted how Newcastle struggle to break down opposition defences amid an apparent lack of a creative spark.

He cited their 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday as an example, and how a player like Wharton could make the difference with his passing.

“That feels like the one thing that Newcastle are missing, just that ability to break down a low block. Because we saw against Wolves, and even Villa… look, once they scored, it was pretty comfortable for them, really.

“I know [Emi] Martinez made two outstanding saves, one was at 0-0, then the one from [Lewis] Miley was a good save, and then in the second half, [Anthony] Gordon should have scored when that cross came in from [Kieran] Trippier.

“But apart from that, it was just endless crosses into the box and I didn’t feel like there was much penetration to it, wasn’t enough to it. I feel like Villa were the total opposite.

“They had [Emi] Buendia, [Morgan] Rogers buzzing around [Ollie] Watkins and it caused us all sorts of problems.

“I feel like, looking at the Premier League at the moment, a lot of teams are pretty comfortable just sitting everyone back, but not a lot of teams have someone who can actually break that lock.

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“I think if Newcastle can find that profile of player and get that person, then I think that elevates us to another level because we’ve got everything else in the team, realistically.

“It’s just that that we’re missing, and that’s why teams when they get the lead, or even teams who are happy just to let us have the ball, will just let us have the ball because we’ll just pass ourselves to death, basically.”