Liverpool's Summer Rebuild: Sign Adam Wharton and Let Mac Allister Go

Liverpool’s summer rebuild has been clear in its priorities so far: reinforce the back line, add a winger, keep the core intact. Yet with three weeks left in the window, one lifelong Red is adamant they’re missing the most important piece.

And he wants them to spend nine figures to fix it.

“Sign Wharton. Let Mac Allister go.”

Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony, never shy with an opinion and a self-confessed Liverpool fan since childhood, used his appearance on talkSPORT’s White and Jordan show to fire a shot straight at Anfield’s recruitment strategy.

“I’d love them to sign Adam Wharton,” he said, before turning the spotlight on Alexis Mac Allister’s role. “I think Mac Allister, for me, his legs were gone last year. It was only when he put an Argentina shirt on that his legs reappeared.

“If you could do business there with him going, I think you bring [Wharton] in and you’ve got a player for the next seven, eight years that will be a starter. He’s got so much upside and potential in him. Even if he costs £85m-£100m or whatever else, you’re getting the player for the long-term.”

It was a bold suggestion. Move on a World Cup winner. Break the bank for a 22-year-old with one full Premier League season behind him. But it tapped into a wider unease around Liverpool’s midfield balance that refuses to go away.

A busy window, but the same old question

Liverpool have not been idle. Jeremy Jacquet has arrived to bolster the defence. Ronald Araujo has come in on loan. Victor Munoz has been added out wide. Harvey Elliott is back from his ill-fated spell at Aston Villa.

The midfield, though, is virtually untouched.

On paper, the numbers look fine. In reality, Sunday’s defeat to Monaco dragged an old problem back into the spotlight. Once Liverpool went 2-0 up, they lost control of the middle of the pitch. Again.

The Liverpool Echo’s Ian Doyle noted how the side “became disjointed and far too easy to play through” after establishing that early lead. James Pearce, writing in The Athletic, highlighted the issue even more bluntly: the lack of a “specialist holding midfielder to ease the burden on Ryan Gravenberch” remains a concern.

The pattern is familiar. When the game becomes stretched, Liverpool lack a natural, elite No.6 to put a foot on the ball, break up play, and reset the tempo. That’s the void MacAnthony wants Wharton to fill.

Wharton’s numbers back the hype

Adam Wharton isn’t a classic destroyer. He doesn’t thunder into tackles in the way some old-school holding midfielders used to. But he reads the game, wins the ball, and turns defence into attack with an assurance that has caught the eye across the division.

His Premier League output last season underlines why he’s being talked about in such glowing terms. Per 90 minutes in the 2025/26 campaign, Wharton ranked in the 95th percentile for “big chances” created (0.49) and the 84th percentile for chances created overall (1.55) among positional peers. Those are playmaker numbers from deep.

Out of possession, he more than holds his own. He averaged 5.8 recoveries per 90 (85th percentile), with 0.6 possession wins in the final third (75th percentile). Tackles (2.46, 64th percentile) and duels won (4.92, 51st percentile) show a player who competes consistently, even if his game is built more on anticipation than aggression.

Declan Rice has already labelled him a “top-level” player. Seventy Premier League appearances for Crystal Palace have given him the stage to prove it.

This is not a prospect in need of protection. It’s a midfielder ready to take on a bigger shirt.

Can Liverpool really go there now?

Here’s the complication. Liverpool are already deep into another expensive pursuit. They are chasing a big-money move for Paris Saint-Germain winger Bradley Barcola, a deal that would eat up a major chunk of any remaining budget.

With the clock ticking towards deadline day, it’s hard to see them suddenly pivoting from a marquee wide forward to another blockbuster outlay on a central midfielder. Earlier in the summer, Wharton’s name did flicker around Anfield in the rumour mill, but those links have cooled. There are no active, credible signs of a move at this stage.

That’s the tension at the heart of MacAnthony’s plea. The need is obvious. The timing is awkward. The price would be huge.

Yet the argument refuses to die. Liverpool might not be short of midfielders in pure headcount, especially compared to other areas of the squad, but they are still light in one specific profile: a long-term, top-level controller at the base of midfield who can both win the ball and launch attacks.

Wharton, on current evidence, fits that description as well as anyone of his age in the league.

A £100m question for Anfield

The reality is simple: nobody inside Liverpool expects Adam Wharton to walk through the Shankly Gates before this window closes. The focus, for now, is elsewhere.

But MacAnthony’s challenge lingers. If Liverpool want a midfielder who can anchor their next seven or eight years, who already produces elite numbers and carries the endorsement of his peers, how many better options are they going to find?

At some point, FSG will have to decide whether the cost of a true No.6 is greater than the cost of going without one.