Teenagers Rising: The Next Wave in English Football
The next wave is here. Across England’s elite, teenagers are packing their bags for pre-season tours, stepping into dressing rooms they’ve grown up watching on TV. Some are already being whispered about as the next big thing. Others are fighting just to be noticed.
What unites them is simple: this summer, the door is open.
Liverpool: Abe steps into the Salah void
Liverpool know what it looks like when a teenager rips up pre-season. Trey Nyoni and Ben Doak have set the tone in recent summers; Ngumoha raised it again. Now, quietly but confidently, the club believe Josh Abe might be next.
Abe will get his first prolonged spell with the senior group on Liverpool’s tour of the United States. He’s not walking in cold. At 15, he had already joined some of Arne Slot’s sessions, rewarded for a ruthless streak with the Under-18s: eight goals and three assists in just 10 league games.
Then came the setback. Injury cut his season short and opened the door for predators. Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City all circled, sensing an opportunity. Liverpool dug in and kept him on Merseyside. Earlier this month, he turned 16. The fight to keep him suddenly looks very wise.
A left-footed winger who loves to come in off the right, Abe finds himself staring at a rare opportunity. Mohamed Salah has gone. New signing Victor Munoz will report late after Spain’s World Cup triumph. The right flank is lighter than it has been in a decade. If Abe is as special as those inside Kirkby insist, the next few weeks will show it.
Chelsea: Emenalo’s son steps into a familiar corridor
On the other side of the talent arms race, Chelsea are reshaping a left flank that has lost Marc Cucurella to Real Madrid. Whatever Xabi Alonso decides tactically – back three or back four – there is a gap to fill.
Jorrel Hato and Levi Colwill can both operate there. New faces Valentin Barco and Geovany Quenda offer wing-back options, with Quenda more at home on the right. But behind them, Landon Emenalo is edging into the conversation.
The surname is impossible to ignore. Landon is the son of former Chelsea director of football Michael Emenalo, yet he is building his own reputation. A regular standout for both Chelsea and England at age-group level, he brings a calmness in possession that jumps off the pitch.
Nominally a midfielder, he can also slot in at left-back, a versatility Alonso will value on the club’s tour of Australia and Asia. He is expected to travel alongside Reggie Walsh, Shim Mheuka and Ryan Kavuma-McQueen – a cluster of academy prospects tipped for big futures in west London.
This is the new Chelsea: heavy spending, yes, but with a clear line of youngsters pushing at the first-team door.
Manchester United: ‘Little Messi’ finally steps into the light
Every academy has its myths. At Manchester United, one of them has a name: JJ Gabriel.
The nickname came first. “Little Messi.” It stuck around long enough for people to start asking if the talent matched the tag. Last season, the answer arrived in numbers. Gabriel, who only turned 15 in October, scored 23 goals in 23 league games for the U18s and walked away with the U18 Premier League Player of the Season award. He also drove United to the FA Youth Cup final.
Now, the stage is changing. United’s pre-season will be a rapid-fire tour across Europe, with stops in Dublin, Gothenburg and Wroclaw. Gabriel did not appear in the first friendly against Wrexham, but the expectation is clear: Michael Carrick will give him chances before the Premier League season begins.
Already capped by England at U17 level, Gabriel can play through the middle or off the flank. Inside Carrington, he is regarded as one of the highest-upside prospects the club have produced in decades. The hype is real. The question is whether he can make the jump as quickly as his numbers suggest.
This summer, we start to find out.
Everton: Graham hunting goals and a breakthrough
Everton’s need is obvious. Beto and Thierno Barry improved as last season dragged on, yet the squad still looks short of guaranteed goals. Braiden Graham might not solve that overnight, but he offers something Everton have lacked: a young, natural finisher on the rise.
The 18-year-old hit 25 goals in 34 games for the club’s youth sides last season. That return earned him a first call-up to the senior Northern Ireland squad for their June friendlies, a significant marker for a player still waiting for his club debut.
Now he joins David Moyes’ squad for pre-season, on the brink of senior football. Once a central striker, his slight frame has nudged him towards the flanks over the past year. Off the left, he has found rhythm and space, drifting inside to continue doing what he does best – scoring.
Everton want Europe back on the agenda for the first time since 2017-18. To get there, they need more goals from everywhere. Graham knows exactly how to sell himself.
Aston Villa: Madjo’s strange limbo
Brian Madjo’s story should be simple. A 16-year-old English striker breaks into Ligue 1 with Metz, starts games, shows promise. Aston Villa spot the opportunity, pay £10 million in January and bring him to Villa Park. A classic modern recruitment win.
Instead, it has turned into a legal tangle.
Madjo, who turned 17 shortly before his move, had already earned three senior caps for Luxembourg before switching allegiance to England, the country of his birth. In FIFA’s eyes, those caps classify him as a foreign player who cannot be transferred outside his “home nation” before turning 18. The result: his registration is blocked.
Villa have taken the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, seeking to overturn the ruling. While the lawyers argue, Madjo can play only in friendlies. On the pitch, he has wasted no time reminding people what the fuss is about, scoring twice against Walsall in Villa’s first pre-season outing.
At 6'4", with a powerful frame and direct running style, he has already drawn comparisons to Romelu Lukaku. Inside English youth circles, he is viewed as one of the standout striker prospects of his age group.
No one yet knows if he will be eligible for the first half of Villa’s season. Unai Emery, though, can still use this summer to assess him closely. Whenever the green light comes, Villa want him ready.
Manchester City: Mfuni, the defender everyone wants to borrow
Enzo Maresca’s first pre-season as Manchester City manager comes with a catch. Many of his senior players have just gone deep into a World Cup and will return late. The upside? Space for teenagers.
Jeremy Monga, signed from Leicester City after City beat Arsenal to his signature, will draw headlines. But the one to watch might be at the other end of the pitch: Stephen Mfuni.
The 18-year-old centre-back made his City debut in January before heading out on loan to Watford. There, in the Championship, he impressed with a maturity beyond his years, only for injury to cut his spell short.
Now he is fit again and back in sky blue, with a queue of Premier League clubs monitoring him for a potential loan. Left-footed, composed in possession and sharp in reading the game, Mfuni looks built for the modern top-level defence. Inside City, there is a quiet belief he can become a future England international.
If Maresca gives him minutes on the Asia tour, City fans will get a first proper look at why he is so highly regarded – and why so many rivals are ready to pick up the phone.
Arsenal: Salmon ready for more than a cameo
Arsenal’s academy conversation has been dominated by one name: Dowman. Fair enough. But Hale End has not stopped at one jewel.
Marli Salmon, another 16-year-old defender, is pushing hard in the background. He made four first-team appearances last season and could see that number rise quickly in the coming weeks.
Circumstances help. William Saliba is unavailable, while Ben White and Jurrien Timber are still working their way back from injuries. When the Premier League champions begin their pre-season friendlies in early August, Mikel Arteta will need reliable cover in defence.
Salmon can play at right-back but prefers centre-back. Coaches in north London rave about his composure on the ball and his maturity without it. He does not play like a teenager. Arsenal’s title defence will demand depth; Salmon is positioning himself as more than just a body to fill the bench.
Newcastle: Steur, the passer to steady a shaken midfield
Newcastle’s summer has been chaotic. Big names out, pressure in, and a squad that suddenly looks thinner than Eddie Howe would like. Amid the noise, the club have quietly landed one of the most intriguing teenage midfielders in Europe.
Sean Steur arrives from Ajax for £23m after breaking into the Dutch club’s first team and impressing in the Eredivisie with his passing range and vision. Only 18, he had been tracked by several top Premier League sides before choosing Tyneside.
Newcastle need him. With Sandro Tonali out and Bruno Guimaraes’ future always a talking point, there is a clear gap in the middle of the pitch. Steur will not fix everything, but his ability to dictate play and move the ball crisply between the lines gives Howe a different profile to work with.
With other midfielders still on extended post-World Cup breaks, he should see plenty of action as Newcastle keep most of their pre-season schedule in the UK. For a fanbase desperate for reassurance, a teenager from Amsterdam might just offer it.
Tottenham: Williams-Barnett knocking louder
Tottenham’s recent years have been turbulent, but beneath the surface the academy is humming. Roberto De Zerbi inherits not only a talented senior group but a cluster of homegrown players ready to contribute. Among them, Luca Williams-Barnett stands out.
The 18-year-old made his first-team debut last September, then had to wait. Minutes were scarce, competition fierce. That might now be changing. In Wednesday’s win over MK Dons, Williams-Barnett caught the eye again, earning his spot on the plane as Spurs head to Australia and New Zealand for the next phase of pre-season.
An attacking midfielder who can drift wide, he plays with a confidence that fits De Zerbi’s aggressive, front-foot football. With fellow academy talent Mikey Moore likely to leave on loan again, Williams-Barnett has a clear opening to fight for real minutes this season.
Pre-season can flatter to deceive. But if he keeps impacting games, it becomes very hard to ignore him.
Brighton: Yohanna, the winger they paid big for
Brighton have built a reputation on finding rough diamonds on the cheap. This summer, the model has evolved. The Seagulls are still targeting teenagers, but they are paying serious money for them.
Luka Vuskovic has arrived from Tottenham in a deal worth £46m. On the wing, Brighton have spent £21.5m to prise Zadok Yohanna from AIK. That fee alone tells you how highly they rate him.
Yohanna, 19, hit five goals and four assists in just 11 club appearances since the turn of the year in Sweden. Chelsea had him on their radar, but Brighton moved quickly and decisively. He brings pace, a box of tricks and the kind of direct running that gives full-backs sleepless nights.
As Brighton head to France for the opening leg of their pre-season, Yohanna will be desperate to show why the club broke their usual financial pattern to get him. For a side that thrives on developing and selling wide players at a premium, he looks like the next big project.
Across the league, the pattern is clear. Established stars are still on holiday or resting battered bodies. Managers need legs, energy, ideas. The teenagers are coming – and some of them will not be going back quietly.
