{"id":14256,"date":"2025-04-12T17:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T17:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/14256\/"},"modified":"2025-04-12T17:01:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T17:01:19","slug":"pep-guardiola-raves-about-brilliant-liverpool-target-as-reds-face-100m-manchester-city-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/14256\/","title":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola raves about ‘brilliant’ Liverpool target as Reds face \u00a3100m Manchester City battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Interest is heating up as Liverpool join Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea in pursuit of arguably the most coveted young midfielder anywhere in the Premier League.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, when most managers are asked to comment on the talents of a rival footballer linked with a summer switch to their club, they often tend to bat away the question with a curt \u2018no comment\u2019.<\/p>\n

But not Pep Guardiola<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Manchester City boss can never resist the temptation to wax lyrical about a player he admires from afar. <\/p>\n

And, as the soon-to-be dethroned Premier League champions prepare to host Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium in Saturday\u2019s lunchtime kick-off, the mention of Adam Wharton<\/a> had Guardiola singing the praises of the man who could yet break Declan Rice\u2019s record and become the most expensive English footballer in history.<\/p>\n

TBR Football<\/a> reported a fortnight ago that Crystal Palace feel Wharton is a \u00a3100 million man in the making. <\/p>\n

Liverpool have been tracking the England international<\/a> since his flying start to life at Selhurst Park in early-2024. And while the expectation is that Wharton will stay for another season at Crystal Palace, bids in the region of the fee Arsenal paid West Ham for Declan Rice could yet make the former Blackburn Rovers starlet one of the stories of the summer.<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Richard Sellers\/Sportsphoto\/Allstar via Getty ImagesPep Guardiola hails Adam Wharton as Liverpool and Manchester City eye England ace<\/p>\n

Guardiola, of course, was never going to talk openly about Man City\u2019s interest. <\/p>\n

The 2023 Treble winners have placed Wharton \u2013 an elite deep-lying playmaker who\u2019s ability to dictate proceedings ensures he is tailor-made for Guardiola\u2019s system \u2013 high on their wishlist. <\/p>\n

The number six role is also one their North West rivals may look to strengthen.<\/p>\n

Liverpool missed out on Real Sociedad\u2019s Martin Zubimendi<\/a> while also suffering a similar fate in pursuit of Chelsea duo Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia. While Alexis Mac Allister has thrived at the base of Arne Slot\u2019s midfield, the potential departure of a 32-year-old Wataru Endo does threaten to leave the runaway leaders somewhat light in what has become something of a problem position.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201c[Wharton is] an excellent holding midfielder,\u201d Guardiola says. \u201cHe was in the national team already. The impact has been really good coming from the Championship to the Premier League.<\/p>\n

\u201cA brilliant left foot. A really good player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexis Mac Allister staying at Liverpool amid Wharton interest<\/p>\n

In a week in which Ryan Gravenberch\u2019s agent talked up a switch to Real Madrid<\/a> \u2013 he would love to see the Dutchman at the Santiago Bernabeu \u2013 questions were also asked about the aforementioned Mac Allister.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, while Crystal Palace are determined to hang onto Wharton, Liverpool are under no pressure to let either Gravenberch or Mac Allister go with the duo tied down to long-term contracts.<\/p>\n

Mac Allister has been mentioned in conjunction with Real Madrid too. The Argentine\u2019s father, however, insists that the \u00a335 million signing from Brighton will remain a Liverpool player<\/a> for a long time to come yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now, I don\u2019t think so,\u201d Carlos Mac Allister said when asked if Alexis could depart in the near future. \u201cTime will tell.\u00a0Alexis is very happy where he is.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe lives in Manchester, and on the block where he lives is [Andy] Robertson, [Joe] Gomez, and four blocks away is [Manchester United defender and Argentina teammate] Licha Martinez.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Interest is heating up as Liverpool join Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea in pursuit of arguably the most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[9877,748,393,4884,179,1037,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-14256","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-adam-wharton","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-pep-guardiola","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114326069923339673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}