{"id":596802,"date":"2026-08-18T07:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T07:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596802\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T07:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T07:40:09","slug":"premier-league-2026-27-players-to-watch-in-the-new-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596802\/","title":{"rendered":"Premier League 2026-27: Players to watch in the new season"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Murray: Madjo is a teenage striker Aston Villa<\/a> fans will know all about already after the goals he has scored for them in pre-season.<\/p>\n

Born in London to parents from Cameroon, Madjo grew up in Luxembourg and made his senior international debut for them last year. <\/p>\n

But he has now switched his international allegiance to England and played for the Under-17 team. <\/p>\n

After a wrangle over that, he was finally cleared<\/a> to play in competitive matches for Villa, making his competitive debut last week with a goal in the Super Cup against Paris St-Germain. <\/p>\n

He looks like a big man with a big future.<\/p>\n

Guy Mowbray: There’s been talk of a loan move for Madjo, but his flurry of pre-season goals and a massive impact against PSG should keep him around at least until the next transfer window. <\/p>\n

If that’s the case – you won’t fail to notice him! He is a powerful striker who has most of the tools to be a success.<\/p>\n

Steve Bower: I was going to choose Johan Manzambi, who I included when we did a similar article about new players to watch at the World Cup.<\/a> Manzambi had an excellent tournament, and Villa pipped Newcastle<\/a> to sign him.<\/p>\n

But I didn’t want to include two players from one club, and I was told about Madjo when Villa signed him for just over \u00a310m back in January, before they had well-documented issues registering him.<\/p>\n

Obviously we know he has been available in pre-season, when he has made his mark with four goals against Walsall, Real Sociedad and Indonesia All-Stars. Then of course Unai Emery gave him his opportunity against PSG, when he scored again.<\/p>\n

He has got a huge frame and figure for his age, bringing very early comparisons to Erling Haaland, which is a big tag to carry.<\/p>\n

But, without putting too much pressure on a 17-year-old’s shoulders, with Villa being in the Champions League this season and the extra games that brings, Madjo is going to get some minutes.<\/p>\n

It feels like the perfect scenario for Madjo, because with strikers like Ollie Watkins and Tammy Abraham at the club, Villa can introduce a young player like him to the first team without having to rely on him.<\/p>\n

In Emery, Madjo has got the perfect manager to nurture his development too, and I think he could make his mark across all competitions this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Murray: Madjo is a teenage striker Aston Villa fans will know all about already after the goals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-596802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}