James Featherstone, the agent for Adam Wharton, has outlined a structured pathway for the midfielder as he targets a regular England place. Central to that plan is Champions League football, a requirement Featherstone says any potential suitor must be able to meet if they are to help Wharton reach the international level.<\/p>\n
United have been repeatedly linked with Wharton as a priority midfield target. The player is described in scouting terms as an upright defensive midfielder who lacks the lashings of physicality favoured by Ruben Amorim but offers a penetrative passing range that could improve supply to a costly frontline that can at times lack service.<\/p>\n
Wharton also carries experience of operating in a 3-4-2-1 system that Amorim favours on team sheets, even though Crystal Palace set up differently. What he does not possess is Champions League experience.<\/p>\n
Wharton\u2019s rise has been rapid. A Blackburn Rovers academy graduate, he had not played a top-flight game before the start of 2024. Palace signed him in February 2024 and by the end of that season he had been called into the England squad for Euro 2024. Gareth Southgate did not give Wharton a single minute during England\u2019s run to the final, and the 21-year-old waited until November to make his competitive debut under Thomas Tuchel.<\/p>\n
Featherstone made clear that international recognition is the priority and explained the steps. \u201cWhen he was at Blackburn we sat down and spoke about shooting for the stars and playing for England,\u201d Featherstone outlined on talkSPORT . \u201cSo how do you get there? Personally I think to play for England you have to play Champions League, to play in the Champions League you have got to play for one of the top teams in one of the top leagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat jump to a Champions League team [straight from the Championship], I think you can get lost. The plan below that was to play for a Premier League team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Featherstone also urged patience. \u201cWe have got a plan,\u201d he insisted. \u201cHe [Wharton] is 21. I have to check myself to remember that every now and then. It doesn\u2019t have to be achieved yesterday, today or this moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has got his in-game, in-season targets and goals. He has got to do his bit and the rest will look after itself in a very structured, calm way to ultimately add value and maximise his ability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Featherstone\u2019s criteria mean that any destination, including Manchester United, would have to qualify for the Champions League. Ahead of Monday\u2019s clash with rock-bottom Wolverhampton Wanderers, Amorim\u2019s side sit 12th but remain only three points adrift of the top five, with fifth likely to be sufficient for qualification this year. Amorim is not getting ahead of himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Agent, James Featherstone lays out Adam Wharton’s plan: Premier League first, Champions League next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[465,1083,1163],"tags":[216,983,1047],"class_list":["post-4954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crystal-palace","category-man-utd","category-transfers","tag-adam-wharton","tag-agents","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}