Why Adam Wharton has yet to spark Crystal Palace into life this season

Adam Wharton was supposed to be the player who made a difference for Crystal Palace this season. So, when he failed to emerge for the second half of Palace’s goalless draw with Manchester United last Saturday, eyebrows were justifiably raised. 

It has been a tough start to the season for Palace, and that has been reflected in Wharton’s toils, with the midfielder yet to rediscover his form from last term. There are mitigating circumstances and he has not been a poor performer; he has simply not hit the heights of the previous campaign. It mirrors the team as a whole.

With a midfield not functioning as effectively as it could, Palace are desperate for Wharton to come good again.

Few players can lay claim to such a remarkable rise to prominence as Wharton.

This was a player who had only 12 Championship starts to his name as he approached the 2023-24 season, the campaign where he had been earmarked for more regular involvement at Blackburn Rovers in the second tier. Suddenly the midfielder was a fixture in their side, playing a part in all but two of the team’s first 28 league games last season, then moving to Palace during the January transfer window.

He was an ever-present there after making his debut in the Premier League, graduating to the senior England squad at the end of the season and then watching on from the bench as Gareth Southgate’s team progressed to reach the final of Euro 2024.

His life has been a whirlwind.

It is easy to forget that Wharton is still only 20. He was a teenager when he signed for Palace. His debut came days after his 20th birthday. He cost Palace £22million ($29.4m) including add-ons, a sizeable fee which brings its own expectations. He has had to adjust to living alone in London, learning to cook for himself and all the things that come with moving away at a young age.

That is not to say he cannot handle the upheaval, but the sheer number of things to which he has had to acclimatise will no doubt have taken some kind of psychological toll. Physically, learning to cope with the relentless intensity of the Premier League poses its own issues.

According to Opta, only five players aged 20 or under have played more minutes across Europe’s top five leagues than Wharton’s 1,694 since his Palace debut.

That level of involvement is justified because Wharton was one of the outstanding players in the Premier League over the second half of last season. But, since February, he has barely had a break.

A short period of rest at the end of the season would not have been sufficient to compartmentalise his rapid rise and everything that had come with it. He had gone from being an exciting prospect to someone being talked up as a future regular in the England team. He almost completely bypassed the under-21s, having played just once at that level before joining Southgate’s senior squad, with the manager talking him up publicly as what England had been missing for years.

“The biggest thing for us is that ability to see a picture and play forward early,” the England manager said of Wharton in his press conference following his debut in a pre-tournament 3-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. “That sounds really simple, but that hasn’t been so simple for us over seven, eight years; that type of player.”

Southgate’s words were no doubt received warmly, and intended to pep confidence in a young player who had impressed. Whether they felt quite so reassuring as Wharton watched the entirety of Euro 2024 from the sidelines, one of three outfield players who never made it on to the pitch, is open to debate.

This season it has been a stark contrast.

There is more pressure, a weight of expectation, but that does not seem to be the sole reason for Wharton’s quiet start. He has been suffering from a groin injury since the Euros, an injury that he is partly managing through painkillers. Palace manager Oliver Glasner said in his press conference before the 1-1 draw with Chelsea that Wharton was “not at his top fitness level and he can’t be” because he had only spent three weeks training, “but hasn’t been able to do every single (session)”.

“Adam has had an unbelievable development here,” Glasner added. “Since he came back from the Euros, he has had some issues with his body. It’s about load management and how much we can do to avoid making his problems worse and what he needs to improve his fitness levels. It’s also important to understand what happens in the life of a 20-year-old boy — eight months ago he played for Blackburn in the Championship.

“Then he was on the bench trying to win the Euros final after playing an unbelievable season. There was so much in his mind and the mind always influences the body. He’s a great player, he’s a great guy and he will be back in his best shape quickly. Everybody can see how much he gives to our squad with his passing.”

Those close to Wharton, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, say that he is not a particularly reflective person and that he tends to take everything in his stride. That approach is likely to have contributed to his success, but even he must have taken some time to process the speed of his meteoric rise.

There may not have been any expectations with England that he would start or feature regularly, but it would be natural to come away from the tournament in Germany with some level of regret at not being involved at all. He may now harness that frustration as a source of motivation to feature more prominently in future.

He has looked nothing like the player of last season so far, though.

That is probably because Palace have been ponderous in their build-up play and, with so many new players in their group, still lack familiarity. They endured a disruptive summer and Wharton himself only played 45 minutes in pre-season during Palace’s Stateside Cup tournament victory in the United States. His groin problem, while not serious, will have had some impact too.

“He just needed to train individually last week. He also had some days off to recover. But when we started on Tuesday this week, he had every training session,” Glasner said in his press conference before Palace’s 2-2 draw with Leicester on September 14.

Wharton will return to the north west on Saturday as Palace travel to Everton, and there will be hope from all quarters that he can use that game as a springboard to find his way back into form. Those incisive passes through to the forwards were critical in Palace’s attacking play last season and have been missed this time round. He has struggled to find his own rhythm — again, understandable in the circumstances.

Perhaps expectations have to be qualified. The youngster’s progress was unlikely to be serene forever. Perhaps so much happening in such a short space of time is merely catching up with him. 

Maybe he would benefit from sitting out England Under-21s’ games against Ukraine and Azerbaijan on October 11 and 15 respectively. On the one hand, he needs to train and play to find his fitness after that lack of action during the summer, but he also needs to be managed carefully through his groin problem and the psychological impact of not having had much rest, however headstrong he may be.

Palace are acutely aware that he has demonstrated talent that makes him one of their most important players. After a slow start to the season, Glasner will be eager for Wharton to return to form as soon as possible. With Cheick Doucoure injured, withdrawing the England midfielder out of the action is harder than it otherwise would be.

Cajoling him back to his best is another conundrum Glasner and his staff need to solve.

(Top photo: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)