Blackburn Rovers closing in on club-record agreement with Premier League club for Adam Wharton | OneFootball

Blackburn Rovers look likely to have a busy final few days of the January transfer window, but it is all set to be funded by the sale of prized asset Adam Wharton.

The teenage midfielder was left out of the starting 11 on Monday night by Rovers head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson as they faced Wrexham in the FA Cup, with the Dane claiming he was protecting Wharton due to the intense transfer speculation surrounding his name.

And when reports emerged on Tuesday morning that Blackburn were close to signing Orlando City striker Duncan McGuire in a £2.3 million deal, the money had to be coming from somewhere - and it turns out that Wharton's exit from Ewood Park is closer than ever and is set to fund a new wave of incomings at the Lancashire outfit.

Crystal Palace had a first bid worth £18.5 million turned down last week, according to The Athletic's David Ornstein, but the Eagles have been preparing a fresh offer for the 19-year-old, with The Sun's Alan Nixon claiming that a £22 million package - £18 million in guaranteed money plus £4 million in add-ons - was set to be tabled.

And as first called by BBC Radio Lancashire's Andy Bayes, Rovers and Roy Hodgson's side are now closing in on a complete agreement, with Wharton now travelling down to London on Tuesday to put the finishing touches on a transfer.

It has also been confirmed by the Daily Mail's Craig Hope that the agreed fee is £22 million, which is a transfer record sale for Blackburn, whose current record stands at a total £20.5 million package - including add-ons - for Phil Jones when he was sold to Man United in 2011.

Palace are also set to fend off the advances of their London rivals Chelsea, who reportedly officially joined the race over the weekend after being initially impressed with Wharton during their EFL Cup clash with Blackburn back in November - as per the aforementioned Nixon.

However, the Blues were clearly too slow to react as Palace are now set to tie up an agreement for Wharton's services, and per the Lancashire Telegraph he will go straight into Hodgson's first-team squad with no loan back to Blackburn for the rest of the season.

No club ever wants to lose their best players or biggest prospects, and Wharton is all of that rolled into one for Blackburn.

The club's off-field issues though, with owners the Venky's not being able to move significant money over from India right now to fund the running costs of Rovers, meant that a significant offer simply had to be considered.

Turning down the first offer from Palace was fair enough, but even though the £25 million outright valuation of Wharton was not met, £22 million is a fair deal for a player with a lot of potential.

It's easy to forget that Wharton has played just 51 senior matches of football, so for the money that Palace are sending to Lancashire, it is a very good deal - if there is a sell-on clause which there most likely is.

And whilst there may not be a Wharton-standard replacement coming in by the February 1 deadline, some of the funds will at least be used on strengthening multiple areas of Tomasson's squad - although you'd imagine a lot of it will still go into the bank of Rovers to fund the monthly losses.