It was about 3pm on Monday, November 3, and Adam Wharton stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows of his high-rise apartment in Vauxhall, central London, looking west down the River Thames, considering buildings both near and further afield.
One, close by, is the United States of America's UK embassy. Another, around 3,500 miles (5,600km) away, is MetLife Stadium in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which will host the 2026 World Cup final in eight months' time.
Wharton hoped a door might open for him to reach the latter destination with England next July. But when we met, four days before head coach Thomas Tuchel named a squad to face Serbia and Albania this month, those ambitions were characteristically measured.
Injury forced Wharton to withdraw from an England camp in September and, despite overlooking him for the next get-together the following month, Tuchel did say the Crystal Palace midfielder "deserves to be with us". But Palace failed to win any of their next three outings and then lost Wharton to illness for the next two games. He returned to action as a second-half substitute in Thursday's UEFA Conference League win against Dutch side AZ at Selhurst Park.
"I'm not expecting to be in the squad, if I'm being completely honest," the 21-year-old told The Athletic earlier this week. "I think if I was going to be, between this month and last, it would have been last month if you ask me, based on performances. He (Tuchel) has a lot of players to pick from, a lot of different types of players. I'm not expecting to be picked, but that's football, it's a game of opinions."
It turned out the German's opinion differed. His list, released at 10am on Friday, included Wharton, and an hour later, Tuchel spoke warmly to reporters about finally getting to utilise the Lancastrian, fitness permitting.
"It was good news to wake up to... a little surprise," says Wharton over a video call on Friday afternoon. "I thought I hadn't done enough. I'm delighted and looking forward to it."
Given that Tuchel reached out to Wharton each time he missed the cut, the latter was probably quite relieved that there was no communication on this occasion. Instead, he found out through a text message from a Football Association staff member.
The "happiness, joy" and congratulations of family, team-mates and staff were quickly replaced by focus as Palace prepared for Sunday's meeting with bitter rivals Brighton & Hove Albion.
"I'm not looking too far ahead -- don't get too high when it's going well because it can equally go bad very quickly," Wharton adds, refusing to let the World Cup cross his mind. "That's probably about 30 games away for us, so there's a long way to go. I've got to try and stay fit and healthy. I'm not thinking about that any time soon."
Wharton had admitted on Monday that his scepticism might relate to "me being critical of myself" -- more on that later -- but it also displays a mature and philosophical streak, which belies his age and helps guide his mindset around potential World Cup involvement.
"Obviously you'd love to go, and everyone wants to as a footballer; represent your country... it would be unbelievable," he says. "But at the same time, if you get so fixated, then it can have a big effect if you don't end up going. If you've got an injury, for example, you'd be absolutely gutted, more than usual.
"It's not like I don't want to go, I'd be stupid to say that. But I don't think I'd dwell on it for months. Hopefully I can get on the right side of it, but we'll see."
Wharton was born in February 2004, and his earliest memory of international football was the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. It was not exactly a showing to inspire young England supporters, as Fabio Capello's men finished second in their group, behind the United States, then lost 4-1 to Germany in the first knockout round.
His mother Helen kept various replica shirts, plus photographs of her three sons wearing them, yet Wharton increasingly found that level of the sport difficult to watch.
"When I was younger, I enjoyed watching it," says Wharton, who has represented England at three age-group levels, made his senior debut in March 2024 and went to the European Championship that summer but did not play a minute under Gareth Southgate. "The World Cup and Euros are always exciting, especially when it gets to the back-end of the tournament, but it's about trying to break down (defensive) blocks; definitely not as entertaining as the Premier League.
"It's easier to defend -- just get in a good compact shape and be tough to break down. I feel like that's a lot of what international football is: trying to break down the opposition. There aren't a lot of (national) teams that press and every professional footballer can keep the ball against a block. Then it's whether you've got someone who can beat a man, get in the pockets, turn and be dangerous. They're the players who make a difference at that level."
No finer example springs to mind than Argentina captain Lionel Messi in their run to the trophy at the previous World Cup in 2022. The legendary playmaker is the only name Wharton offers when asked if there are any individuals he views as role models. "I just loved Messi growing up and always wanted to be like him, wear his shoes, stuff like that," he says. "Didn't quite work out!"
That final remark is laced with typical self-deprecation, but I quip that there is less proximity between Wharton and Messi than most people. And there are certain similarities to the Inter Miami forward in his early career. For example, in the questions asked in sections of the media about whether Tuchel possibly harbours reservations over Wharton's physicality and athleticism. The notion clearly arrives as news to him.
"That's the first I've heard of it," he responds. "I don't know it to be the case. If it is, I probably won't be picked. I want to improve it a bit, like I want to improve everything, but you don't want to overdo it. I don't necessarily think that if I don't improve it I can't become a better player or still have an effect on games. It's definitely not going to change the way I pass the ball. I can improve it and want to in certain ways, but it's not top of the list."
Wharton was central to Palace stunning Manchester City in May's FA Cup final to lift their first major trophy, an honour which has raised standards at Selhurst Park. The club sit ninth in the Premier League table after 10 games of the season, are also ninth in the 36-team Conference League's version at the midpoint of its six-match league phase and have a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Arsenal on the horizon next month.
A huge factor in their success is Oliver Glasner, with Wharton describing the Austrian as a "top manager" capable of guiding the leading lights in world football.
"I don't see why not," Wharton says. "He's facing some of the top managers week in, week out, and I don't think there's a game we've played that he hasn't given us a solution to beat one of the top teams... or any team.
"The way he handles situations in games, in training, the analysis we do on opponents, recovery, everything, all the little details. That makes it so much easier for us as players. He'll stop sessions just for body positioning and explain it to the whole group so everyone knows.
"Also, his enthusiasm... he just loves football, the adrenaline when he's watching games and training. Sometimes he goes over the top in training, and he'll own up to that; he's not afraid to say he went over the top. But that's just him and football, how he enjoys coaching it, watching it, getting involved. It all adds up and is what makes him so good."
Wharton cites a "very tight-knit group" at Palace, with "no big egos". He points to striker Eddie Nketiah. Nketiah came on from the bench to score a dramatic last-minute winner in their league meeting with Liverpool -- despite the fact he was a major summer signing from Arsenal just over a year ago and wants to start -- and celebrates the contributions of first-choice front man Jean-Philippe Mateta, like Mateta does for Nketiah: "The manager created that bond. Nobody is getting in a strop."
Wharton also outlines Glasner's firm ambition to win each competition the club enter.
"He'll ask us before a Carabao Cup game if we want to just rest and go for it in the Premier League or Conference League," he says. "That's not what we want to do (rest). Nobody thought we would win anything last year, but we did, and there's even more confidence now."
This collective hunger resonates with the perfectionist within Wharton. "I'm not satisfied," he says of his season so far. "I'm never going to be happy, that's just how I look at my performances. If we've won a trophy, I might be happy, but I'm just very critical of myself."
It leads him to place significant emphasis on pre- and post-match analysis, whether during sessions at the club or via an app players and staff are able to access.
Wharton's eagerness to improve is beginning to earn internal notoriety. Glasner recently imposed a light-hearted ban on him: "I answer quite a lot of the questions (in team meetings), so sometimes he'll say, 'Adam, don't answer!'. Sometimes after the meetings, people are like, 'F***ing hell, Adam, why are you answering so much?!' and I just say, 'If I don't answer them, we'll be in there for about an hour, so it's better me answering and us carrying on with analysis than not answering and just sitting there silent!' I just want to get better."
Contrary to the view in certain quarters, contributing a greater volume of goals and assists is not something Wharton -- who has yet to score for Palace and has made five assists in 44 Premier League appearances -- is concerned about.
"Our system impacts that," he says. "I'm not really going to be making runs forward within the system we play.
"It would help if I could chip in with a couple of goals here and there, maybe a few more assists. But at the same time, Manchester City's midfielders probably don't need to look for goals because of Erling Haaland... their second top scorer is own goals (City opponents have two of those, and none of Pep Guardiola's players other than Haaland has scored more than once in the Premier League this season).
"So I don't think it's at the top of my list. If I can pass it to someone and they score, or if I can pass it to someone who then puts it across goal, I've got no assist, but I might have helped make the goal. If I don't get assists and goals but know I've played well, then I'm not too fussed -- but I might score and have a terrible game, so it doesn't mean anything.
"It doesn't really affect me what people say. Based on my performances, I like to think I know how football works, if I've had a good game and if I've not. If the manager tells me something, I'll probably listen to it. But if Jeff on Twitter says something, I probably won't."
Evidently, Wharton is not the type to follow a crowd. That extends to the trend of criticising teams who seek to utilise set pieces and long throw-ins.
Premier League pace-setters Arsenal are its most prolific exponents in this area at the moment, and others, including Palace, have also employed such techniques to their advantage of late.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with it," Wharton says. "Long throws have definitely come in this season. Set pieces were quite big last year, too, but people probably spend more time on that this year because they've seen how big an impact it can have. If you want to throw it in the box and cause chaos, do it. It's up to teams to deal with that.
"Staff are obviously realising how important it is, and you can see how teams are using it as an attacking opportunity, so we've got to spend more time focusing on defending it."
If this trajectory continues, could the game's more technical players begin to lose their potency?
"No, there will always be space," Wharton says. "You can't just have big players. Then someone would come with a team of small, technical players and play them off the park. Barcelona... you can't go up to them and say, 'Oh, you're not big enough'. They'll just run rings around you."
It is technical brilliance that is earning Wharton so much acclaim. 'Born in Blackburn, plays like he's from Barcelona' is the common refrain. Palace team-mate Yeremy Pino regards him as being sufficiently gifted to turn out alongside him for Spain's national team, the reigning European champions and likely to be among the favourites to win the World Cup next year, too.
"It's great to receive those sorts of compliments," says Wharton. "But I've got really high standards of myself and don't want to settle for being good or just doing well, I want to be doing even better than that. I'm always critical of myself, it's how I think, and even if people say these things, there's always somewhere else you can improve. And I'm not born in Barcelona, I'm born in Blackburn!"
Wharton was targeted by even bigger clubs than Palace before electing to join them from Blackburn Rovers of the second-tier Championship for approximately £22million ($29m at the current rate) in February 2024. Links to the likes of Real Madrid, Liverpool and Manchester United have merely intensified in the interim.
His contract runs until summer 2029, and to date, he has shown no indication of agitating for a move.
"I don't really look into it or think too much about it," Wharton says of the heavy speculation over his future. "There are always rumours floating about on social media. Is it true? Is it not? You tell me. My friends, my family, my brothers, everyone will message me and be like, 'Is it true this club's interested?'. I'm like, 'Thanks for telling me because I didn't know.'
"If something's going to be serious, I can think about it, but if not... if there's interest, I'm not interested in knowing. You can be interested in anything and nothing could come of it. You must be doing something right for those sorts of clubs to be interested or wanting you, but until there's something concrete and direct communication, I wouldn't stress about it."
What does Wharton make of the particularly frenzied discourse regarding him and United, though?
"I don't know who's spreading it or who at United is looking at it. I see it and I'm like, 'OK', and then I carry on with my day. United, the big teams, they're all linked to 10, 20 different players. If I'm one of 20, then it's nothing special, so it doesn't really mean too much. I speak with my agent about planning ahead and possibilities.
"But at the end of the day, it is who's interested and who's willing to try and get you if that becomes the case? You can speak about it, but you've got to represent that on the pitch and prove that you deserve it."
Their discussions include consideration for how effectively different clubs and systems may suit Wharton's style. The familiarity of a back five, as used by Glasner at Palace, means that's what's currently deemed the best fit for him, though Wharton says: "I can adapt to any formation."
Similarly, while competing in the Champions League has long been a stated aim, Wharton insists he is not placing a deadline on that: "I'm still 21, I've got plenty of time."
The more immediate priority for Palace is what is going to happen with Glasner and their captain, England centre-back Marc Guehi.
They are both on course to be out of contract in June, and Wharton thinks it would be a "massive" setback if the pair were to leave. He accepts "it would be difficult for the club" to replace Glasner, and says of Guehi: "It's probably just where he goes and when, January or the summer", adding that the defender, who has also cemented an England place, "could literally go to any club in the world and be starting comfortably".
Wharton recalls the squad being "shocked that he didn't go" when Guehi's proposed transfer to Liverpool collapsed late on deadline day in September, but praises a colleague affectionately known as 'Skipps' for his response to the situation: "You couldn't tell that he just had a move taken away."
When not relaxing in his London apartment -- which tends to involve gaming or building his collection of TOPPS trading cards -- he often hops on a hired Lime bike to visit the city's Hyde Park or strolls through the nearby shopping mall built within the shell of the famous Battersea Power Station. Cooking is a work in progress; ordering meals online has been mastered.
After travelling with Palace to last month's Carabao Cup tie against Liverpool at Anfield (they beat them once again, to set up that pre-Christmas last-eight meeting with Arsenal), only to succumb to illness, Wharton returned to London alone by train in a full team tracksuit and managed to avoid being spotted.
"I take the Tube all the time," he concludes. "I might get noticed a couple of times. Someone will maybe do a double-take and ask if I'm Adam Wharton. I'll say, 'Yeah', and carry on with my day."
Make it to MetLife Stadium with England on July 19, and perhaps such relative anonymity will not be so easy.