Phil Thompson urges Liverpool to sign player ASAP - and it's not Bradley Barcola

Phil Thompson has urged Liverpool to go all out and try to sign Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton this summer in a bid to strengthen Andoni Iraola's first-team squad

Phil Thompson reckons Liverpool should go all out to land Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton this summer.

With Curtis Jones set to depart Merseyside for Milan in a move that will see the scouse-born midfielder join Inter Milan, Liverpool's senior options in the middle of the park look thin. As things stand, Liverpool will enter the 2026/27 campaign on Sunday against Newcastle with three senior central midfielders in the form of Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, and Ryan Gravenberch.

While Szoboszlai was one of Liverpool's standout performers last season, winning the club's men's player of the year award, both Mac Allister and Gravenberch regressed significantly under Arne Slot.

Given how many games Liverpool will play this season and the intensity with which new manager Andoni Iraola wants to play, the idea of the Reds entering the new season with only three senior first-team central midfielders is bordering on negligence by the club.

Wharton is a player who has been linked to Liverpool over the years. He was recently subject to interest from Manchester City, which made an inquiry to Palace over the England international, only to be firmly rebuffed.

However, despite Palace's desire to keep hold of Wharton, Thompson believes the 22-year-old should be on the Reds' shopping list this summer.

Speaking on the BOYLE Sports and Footy Accumulators' podcast, 'No Tippy Tappy Football', the former Liverpool star said: "Adam Wharton is a player that I would be interested in signing for Liverpool.

"I can’t understand why nobody, in all this transfer merry-go-round, has picked him up this summer.

"He is one that you talk about in terms of having good character. At a football club, besides talent, you need people of good sort, and I've always looked at Wharton and thought he's a good character.

"I think he’s probably the next player Crystal Palace will have to sell, because they have to sell one a year for big money."

With the saga involving the Reds' move for Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola still ongoing, the Reds head to St. James' Park on Sunday with three new additions at Iraiola's disposal in defenders Jeremy Jacquet and Ronald Araujo and winger Victor Munoz.

However, in Thompson's eyes, if the club wants to compete with the best in the world, it needs to add four or five players before the transfer window closes.

He added: "Liverpool still need four, maybe five, players in different positions. Defensively, certainly; maybe a midfield player and a wide player too, because you need two quality players for every position.

"We had a massive spend last season and everybody's saying, 'how can they do it?' You look at the investment we get into our football clubs, the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United. When you see them traveling the world, it shows that they're the two biggest football clubs in the world."

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