Dele Ali, Marcus Rashford, Dimitri Payet and N'Golo Kante are just some of the players who played themselves from near unknowns to stardom in 2015/16. Thomas Woods takes a look at five names who could be the breakout stars of the 16/17 Premier League season.
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Soufiane Feghouli, West Ham
Algeria have a marvellous array of attacking talent in their national team. Islam Slimani, scorer of 27 goals for Sporting Lisbon in 15/16, leads the line, backed up by FC Porto playmaker Yacine Brahimi and a certain Riyad Mahrez. And then you have Feghouli, signed on a free transfer from Valencia.
He’s another in a long line of elegant Algerian midfielders going all the way back to their best side of the 1980s which featured Lakhdar Belloumi.
Feghouli enjoys carrying the ball past players and will give West Ham another dynamic midfield option. He also has the scoring touch, having netted 30 goals in five seasons in Spain.
As a teenager in France, Feghouli, 26, was compared to Zinedine Zidane. Given West Ham’s record of scouting bargain talent – see Cheikhou Kouyate and Dimitri Payet – there’s a good chance Feghouli is a hit this season.
Viktor Fischer, Middlesbrough
Here’s another player who has had to deal with comparisons to a great of the past. The Danish winger, 22, was snapped up at 14 by Ajax and some fine performances in youth tournaments saw him likened to club legend Dennis Bergkamp. The likes of Manchester United and Bayern Munich were supposedly showing interest two seasons ago, just before he snapped a hamstring and was out for more than a year.
That appears to have been the main factor in derailing his Ajax career, though he still managed eight league goals in just 22 starts in the Netherlands last season.
Middlesbrough have done some impressive recruiting this summer. While he might not start the season as a first-choice player, expect the Dane to play himself into contention. His wing play could result in a hatful of goals for Alvaro Negredo and Jordan Rhodes up front.
Giannelli Imbula, Stoke City
In an era when big transfer fees appear to be the norm, Imbula’s £18.3 million (Dh87.4m) move to Stoke from Porto in January seemed to pass under the radar.
But the French youth international, 23, put in some impressive performances in the second half of last season and will get enough regular football to make a serious impression on this campaign.
He has already scored a couple of screamers for Stoke, but it is his power and box-to-box style the gives him so much potential.
We have seen strong, athletic defensive midfielders feature prominently in Premier League sides – think Cheikhou Kouyate at West Ham United or new Tottenham signing Victor Wanyama – as 4-2-3-1 formations become common.
Every team seems to be searching for the new Patrick Vieira or the next Paul Pogba. If Imbula plays well the league’s bigger boys might well come calling for a player with immense potential.
Axel Tuanzebe, Manchester United
Don’t expect the DR Congo-born youngster to start early in the season but he has already caught new manager Jose Mourinho’s eye.
The 18-year-old centre-back had an eight minute run-out in one pre-season friendly against Wigan Athletic – and it was enough for Mourinho. “You can play 90 minutes or one minute. Sometimes one minute is enough,” the Portuguese manager said.
“With Axel, ten minutes is enough! The potential is there, you see it immediately.” Central defence is an area of Mourinho’s starting line-up that is unclear.
Chris Smalling is likely to start but, as the season progresses, Taunzebe may well force himself into the reckoning to partner the England international.
According to a recent Manchester Evening News profile of Tuanzebe, who grew up in Rochdale about 15 miles from Old Trafford, he is a down-to-earth character in the mould of Marcus Rashford, whose successful mid-season elevation to United’s first team was one of the stories of 2015/16. As for the standard comparison to a player of the past – his reading of the game has been compared to Rio Ferdinand.
Isaac Success, Watford
The Nigerian striker first made his mark in Abu Dhabi at the 2013 Under-17 World Cup, as part of a sensational “Golden Eaglets” side that scored 26 goals in seven games to win the title.
He netted in both Nigeria’s opening games, including a 6-1 group-stage thrashing of future finalists Mexico, which included four goals from Manchester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho.
Success missed the rest of the tournament through injury, but moved to Udinese the following January, one of three clubs owned by the Italian Pozzo brothers. He’s made his name at Granada in Spain and now moves to the third team in the group, Watford, for a record £12.5m fee.
Watford suffered for their over-reliance on Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo up front last season and will be looking to Success to become a third contributor in attack.
He has got pace and unpredictability and, at just 20 years old, has plenty of time to improve his goal scoring record – he netted six times for Granada in 30 games last season.