Crystal Palace

Image source, PA Media

Joe Bradshaw, BBC Sport

Crystal Palace have had some successful raids on the prodigious talents of the Championship in recent years. Just witness the contributions of Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze against Sheffield United.

Add Adam Wharton to that list.

It was only a matter of time before the Blackburn Rovers midfielder made his way to the Premier League and, once again, it is the Eagles who have proven the early birds to catch the worm.

Here is a player who loves possession and has the composure, maturity and game awareness to resist opposition pressure. He seems to have more time on the ball than others and genuinely glides through games.

Last season when runaway Championship winners Burnley came to Ewood Park for a promotion party, Wharton was the best player on the pitch, leaving seasoned pros in his wake and dominating midfield. Indeed, at Chelsea in the Carabao Cup earlier this season, he drew rave reviews against £100m Enzo Fernandez despite the Blues' superior quality ultimately triumphing.

Wharton turns 20 next week and will bring mobility, poise and an eye-of-the-needle pass to Palace's play.

However, while he is a player of huge promise, he is far from the finished product. Last season, boss Jon Dahl Tomasson limited Wharton's game time while he adjusted to the physicality of men's football, and his frame is still more willow than oak.

He has added some goalscoring to his game, his football brain allowing him to nip in against Huddersfield most recently and curl home a left-footed strike but, with his technical ability, one would expect more end product than he has displayed so far.

In the Premier League, he will get even fewer chances to add to that.

Victory last night gives the Eagles some breathing space over the bottom three but is the heat of a relegation battle the best place to blood a youngster who has never played Premier League football?

Time will tell - but there is no doubt yet another supremely talented footballer is joining the Palace set-up.

How Roy Hodgson chooses to deploy him, alongside the rest of their freewheeling talent, is an intriguing conundrum for the final half of the season.

Image source, Getty Images

Former Chelsea and Everton winger Pat Nevin, writing for the BBC Football Extra newsletter:

This feels like it has been the quietest Premier League transfer window ever. There is still a day to go and, in the past, huge deals have been done right up to the deadline, but it will not suddenly become a free-for-all this time. The question is: why?

Are all the clubs and their managers deeply satisfied with their well-balanced and over-performing squads? I hardly think so. Have all the coaches suddenly decided that they really want to work more with the youngsters coming through, rather than get a ready-made striker in the morning? Probably not.

Have the big clubs suddenly got sensible and concluded that it is silly spending hundreds of millions of pounds on players, destroying any possible company profits and yet still having no certainty of success at the end of it? This thought might have crossed a few minds.

There is always the possibility that some clubs got the fright of their lives after Everton’s 10-point deduction. Have they finally realised that some of the very complicated and fancy financial and accountancy sleights of hand might not bamboozle the Premier League after all?

Some clubs have spent huge sums and are now quietly trying to sell players to make the books balance.

Does it not smack of just the vaguest possibility of a chance that there might have just been a bit of blustering, self-indulgent financial mismanagement by the owners of some of the top clubs? Surely not - these Masters of the Universe always know what they are doing and understand finance so much better than the rest of us.

I remember listening to a hugely successful banker once braying on to me about how they knew best. I think he was from an organisation called Lehman Brothers.

As deadline day looms, we want to know what your ideal final day of transfer business would look like for Crystal Palace.

Do the Eagles need to make any signings? If so, who should they look to bring in? And does anyone need to be offloaded?

Let us know your views here

We asked you for your thoughts on Tuesday's match between Crystal Palace and Sheffield United.

Here are some of your comments:

Palace fans

Sam: Bizarre game really. Palace were totally reliant on the class of Eze and Olise. There was not a lot of overall team structure, especially without the ball. Great to see Ozoh getting more game time, he looks a real talent. Sheffield United showed heart but were defensively very poor. We won't win many games defending like we did in this one.

Lee: Olise and Eze were a different class. Both are worth £80m each to us. Why did Roy put Schlupp on when Franca was a like-for-like substitute? I don't know. It just proves how stubborn and stuck in his ways he is.

Simon: We won, but once again it was a struggle. This doesn't bode well for Roy. Only a dominant win would ease the pressure and I don't think this performance alone will do that. Better teams will pick us off. Now we've got some key matches against Burnley, Everton and Brighton. A minimum of seven points are needed. We are a two-man team which, after 10 years and heavy investment, isn't good enough.

Daniel: It's great to get the win but, the way the game ended, I felt like Palace drew. I love Roy, I will always love Roy, but those substitutes just killed everything going for us. If Olise had to go off, bring on Franca. If Eze had to go off, bring on Edouard. Richards is a decent centre-back, a good central-midfielder, but is exposed badly as a right-back.

Sheffield United fans

Tom: Glimmers of hope but it’s hope for next season in the Championship. This is progress, we looked like we were a League One side earlier in the season. I'm still astonished by how little we get from the referees though. We get yellows for the slightest touch and no fouls the other way. It’s not like opponents need help to beat us.

Andrew: Palace were far superior. We got lucky with the second goal. Chris Wilder is the wrong choice for us, he should never have been asked back.

Image source, Getty Images

Alex Howell, BBC Sport

If Crystal Palace had not been able to win against bottom of the table Sheffield United, questions would have been asked about Roy Hodgson's future.

The manager was under a lot of pressure heading into the match with the Eagles having only picked up one win in ten Premier League matches.

However, those questions did not have to be answered thanks to Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze.

In his post match press conference, Hodgson said that he had only had the pair on the pitch at the same time for three and a half games during the season and any side would miss their quality.

Olise's dribbling ability and quality crosses caused Sheffield United problems all night. His winning goal - his third in as many matches - was an excellent finish.

Eze, who has also had his fitness issues this season like Olise, scored both goals and looked a lot more free with another player able to carry the ball.

His second goal was a superb strike and may remind Gareth Southgate of his ability ahead of England internationals in March.

West Ham United will rebuff interest from Crystal Palace and Wolves for 31-year-old forward Danny Ings. (Mirror), external

Crystal Palace, Fulham and Nottingham Forest have been put off a move for former England Under-21s defender Trevoh Chalobah because of Chelsea's £25m price tag. (Teamtalk), external

Meanwhile, West Ham have turned down an enquiry from Crystal Palace about signing English full-back Ben Johnson, with the 24-year-old out of contract in the summer. (The Athletic - subscription required), external

Want more transfer news? Read Wednesday's full gossip column