Real Madrid have spent this summer being linked with almost every young controller in European football, and one name kept resurfacing: Adam Wharton. On Thursday night the answer arrived from south London, and it was not the one Valdebebas wanted to hear. Crystal Palace are not selling — not to Manchester City, not to Real Madrid, not in this window.
According to Bernabéu Digital, Wharton will not move at all before the deadline: the 22-year-old’s immediate future is settled, Palace do not contemplate parting with one of their biggest stars, and any attempt to sign him now would run into a flat refusal from his club. For José Mourinho, that is one fewer door to knock on with ten days of the window left.
- What Crystal Palace told Manchester City — and why it settles Adam Wharton’s summer
- Why Real Madrid rated him, and where the file goes now
- Kees Smit’s decision, and why Jorge Mendes is pointing at 2027
- The loan formula Madrid have quietly opened for one last midfielder
- ‘Phase D’: the exits that have to happen before anybody arrives
Background: why Real Madrid still want a midfielder
Everything else about this squad looks finished. Ibrahima Konaté, Marc Cucurella, Denzel Dumfries and Bernardo Silva have all arrived, Yan Diomande is the summer’s headline attacking signing, and Endrick is back from his loan. The one job Real Madrid have not closed is the one Mourinho asked for first: a midfielder to run games from deep.
The pursuit of Rodri collapsed, and we set out why Madrid were never fully convinced by that deal when it fell apart. Martín Zubimendi has been the recurring answer ever since — the midfielder-or-nothing position we reported earlier this month — with Nico González emerging as a further name after the Rodri fallout. None of it has produced a signing, because none of it has produced an exit first.
Wharton belonged to a different category: not the ready-made solution, but the long-term one. Bernabéu Digital report that Madrid like him a great deal at Valdebebas for his youth, his organising ability and an enormous margin for growth — the kind of signing sporting directors call inevitable rather than urgent.
What Crystal Palace told Manchester City about Adam Wharton
A direct question, and a direct answer
Palace’s position hardened in public after Manchester City moved. As The Athletic report, relayed by Bernabéu Digital, City asked Palace directly about Wharton’s situation and were told the England international is not available this summer. He is among the candidates City are weighing up, but nobody at Selhurst Park intends to open a negotiation in this window.
That is a more useful data point than another round of speculation, because it is the market’s strongest club being told no. If Manchester City cannot buy Adam Wharton this month, neither can Real Madrid — and the Spanish reporting draws exactly that conclusion: the name is parked until future windows, at the very minimum.
Why the file is not being closed, only shelved
Bernabéu Digital frame the same story from the other end — Wharton opening the door for 2027 rather than shutting it for good. A 22-year-old organiser of that profile will not stay at Palace forever, and Madrid will simply have to wait for a summer when the answer is different.
The immediate cost is real, though. With the Englishman out of reach, Real Madrid have to concentrate their efforts on other alternatives if they intend to close that last holding-midfield slot before the end of the summer. The shortlist has been shortened for them, and not by choice.
Kees Smit, and the second name going into the 2027 file
The other young midfielder on Madrid’s radar has reached a similar conclusion on the same night. Bernabéu Digital report that Kees Smit intends to spend another season at AZ Alkmaar despite enormous interest from some of Europe’s leading clubs — a road map his agent, Jorge Mendes, is said to already know and to be handling with unusual care.
The thinking, per the same report, is to avoid a rushed departure, let the Dutch midfielder complete another campaign as a protagonist in the Netherlands, and keep listening to the projects on the table. Real Madrid are among the clubs who most value his profile, but the competition is fierce and his price has already climbed into serious figures. Everything points to the big move arriving in 2027, and Madrid are studying him with that window in mind.
Two of the most interesting young midfielders in Europe, then, both filed under next year on the same night. Which leaves the small matter of this one.
The loan formula — and the problem it does not solve
Here is where Thursday night’s reporting became genuinely new. Bernabéu Digital say Real Madrid have kept open an unexpected route to reinforcing the midfield before the window shuts: the last incorporation of the summer could arrive on loan, or on loan with an option to buy. It is not the preferred option, and it is not being ruled out either.
The logic is financial. An operation like Zubimendi’s would demand considerable investment, so a loan becomes a solution if the big targets prove unviable — a way of widening Mourinho’s options without a major outlay now. The club insist they will not sign somebody simply to fill a squad slot, but they would take an opportunity if the profile fits and the economics are favourable. Nico González, of Manchester City, is one name that has begun to appear in that scenario, although for now it is a possibility rather than a plan, as we explained when his name first surfaced in the Rodri fallout.
The counter-argument deserves a hearing. A loan is a hedge, not a solution. Mourinho’s stated need is a midfielder who improves this squad immediately and takes the ball in the hardest moments of a match. Borrowing one for ten months, with the option to decide later, buys time rather than control, and hands the selling club the leverage next summer.
There is a decent reply, mind. Madrid’s alternative to a loan is not Zubimendi — it is nothing at all, and a title race begun with the midfield Mourinho has said needs improving. Given that choice, a good footballer on a temporary deal is a repair, not a compromise.
Future outlook: ‘Phase D’ and the ten days that decide it
Bernabéu Digital describe Real Madrid as entering their ‘phase D’ — the stretch of definitive decisions. Between this weekend and the early part of next week the club want to accelerate everything still outstanding, on both the ‘Operación Salida’ and the possible arrivals. Mourinho’s squad is well advanced, but several fronts remain capable of producing significant movement before the deadline on 31 August.
Departures are the mechanism. The club are still waiting to resolve the Raúl Asencio situation, with Jorge Mendes working to find the centre-back a new home, and Eduardo Camavinga’s future remains the other lever. Freeing space and generating income would let Madrid attempt one last effort to complete the squad; without it, the market stays blocked exactly as it has been all month.
Two names sit at the end of that chain: Alessandro Bastoni for the defence, Zubimendi for the midfield. Bernabéu Digital report the Bastoni deal has been completely paralysed while Asencio stays put, even though the Italian was open to the move and Inter had already signed his replacement.
The mood among the reporters closest to the club is that something will still happen. The journalist José Félix Díaz, quoted by Bernabéu Digital, put it plainly:
Real Madrid are keeping the door open for a last-minute move in the transfer market. It’s not just Sergio Martínez. I think there’ll be a final push!
José Félix Díaz, via Bernabéu Digital
On the smaller deal in that sentence, the same outlet reports that Friday is expected to be a key day for Sergio Martínez’s move. On the bigger one, the honest projection for the next ten days is a single arrival at most, conditional on a single exit, with a loan as the fallback if the fee proves too steep.
The verdict on Real Madrid’s midfield endgame
Adam Wharton was never going to be this summer’s signing, and now he is officially not next week’s either. What Thursday night clarified is subtler than a rejection: two of Real Madrid’s most exciting midfield targets have both moved into the 2027 column, leaving Mourinho’s last ten days resting on Zubimendi’s price, Asencio’s suitors and a loan market nobody at the Bernabéu wanted to shop in.
There is comfort in the discipline. Madrid have already spent heavily and well this summer, and refusing to panic-buy in the final fortnight is usually the right instinct. Keep an eye on Asencio: the moment he goes, everything else here starts moving. We will have the deal, the fee and the fallout on our Real Madrid transfer news page as it happens.
