Everton could have the next John Stones on their hands if they purchase this superb Championship talent…
Premier League clubs fishing for new talent to add to their squads often look to faraway leagues in Europe to buy from, but looking a little closer to home often pays off with the Championship full of exceptional players worthy of a top-flight challenge if purchased. Everton are a club to have found notable success with such a strategy.
Players such as James Maddison, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ivan Toney all flourished into top players in the Premier League after finding their feet in the second tier of English football – Brentford signing Toney for a cheap initial £5m transfer fee from Peterborough United, a bargain looking back with the 27-year-old now an established goalscorer at top-flight level.
The Toffees have more than utilised this method of signing up-and-coming talents from the Championship effectively, acquiring the likes of Tim Cahill from Millwall and Joleon Lescott from Wolves in the past.
But, the standout name is John Stones, who Everton signed from Barnsley in a transfer around the £3m mark in 2013.
A decade on, Stones is now a key player for both Manchester City and England on the international stage.
Everton will hope that they can get their hands on another gem from the Championship, and in Adam Wharton from Blackburn, they could well replicate the Stones success story with the 19-year-old if he swaps Ewood Park for Goodison Park.
Branded as an “outstanding talent” by football journalist Josh Bunting, Everton are very much interested in Wharton’s services who continue to excel with Blackburn.
The young midfielder has made 33 appearances for his current employers to date, cementing his spot as a first-teamer this season after breaking through into the starting XI at the end of 2022/23 campaign.
Everton aren’t the only interested party, with a whole host of top-flight teams from England sniffing around for Wharton’s services – TEAMtalk reporting, via Alan Nixon, that Newcastle United, Manchester United, Brighton and four other Premier League clubs are all actively looking at Wharton for a possible January transfer worth around £10m.
But, Sean Dyche’s men could have the upper hand. Nixon is reporting that the Toffees are ‘preparing to launch a January bid’ which proves Everton’s interest is concrete for the young Blackburn star.
Adam Wharton is highly thought of in the Blackburn set-up, the Lancashire-born midfielder featuring in all but two of the Riversiders’ games this season – dropping out of the side recently owing to injury.
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On his first full game for Rovers, Wharton picked up a Man of the Match accolade – the homegrown talent’s presence helping Blackburn get over the line in a narrow 1-0 victory, assisting the only strike of the contest versus the Tangerines.
His overall Sofascore rating for Blackburn sees him come in at a 7.0, his tenacity on the ball a standout attribute – recovering the ball an average of six times a game this season so far from ten matches played.
Everton could well look to Wharton as a useful buy to give the Toffees more energy and doggedness through the centre of the park, a spot freed up in the midfield too after Jean-Phillipe Gbamin was recently released by the Merseysiders.
The Toffees will further hope that they have unearthed a gem to the same level that they managed to obtain when purchasing Stones in 2013, Wharton drawing parallels by coming through at his hometown club and attracting plenty of interest from a whole host of Premier League suitors.