Adam Wharton: The 'Wilpshire Pirlo' who was hiding in plain sight in the Championship

When Crystal Palace signed the teenager Adam Wharton from Blackburn Rovers in January, they did so with little competition for a midfielder who has progressed in five months from Championship prospect to a place in the provisional England squad for Euro 2024.

That Wharton, now 20, has accomplished it in a late-season surge of form for Crystal Palace that propelled them a tenth-place finish in the Premier League, equalling their best-ever season, has been a source of great satisfaction for the club. 

That he is one of four Palace players in the 30-man squad named by Gareth Southgate is another record for Palace. That he fulfils a role on the pitch – the deep-lying playmaker – which English football has so singularly failed to address may be the most remarkable of all.