The late-season Premier League bloomers ready to star next season

• Brighton led the way in bringing through youngsters who impressed this term
• Curtis Jones finally enjoyed a run of games in the Liverpool starting XI 
• Alejandro Garnacho had an exciting cameo after coming on in the FA Cup final

Over the course of a ten-month Premier League season dozens of fresh faces and new names came to the fore. Some made their mark in the season’s early stages and grabbed the headlines during the cold winter slog.

While there are others who timed their ascent to coincide with the climax of the campaign.

A strong end to the season can set a young player up perfectly for a breakthrough follow-up campaign.  

Mail Sport takes you through five starlets who made their mark in the season’s final months that you’d expect to have a big impact in years to come.

And considering the season Brighton had, there’s absolutely no surprise they’ve managed to sneak a few entries in this list.

Curtis Jones

It’s difficult to imagine how Curtis Jones’ debut season with the Liverpool first team could have gone any better. Despite making his first appearance for the club in an FA Cup third round defeat in 2019, Jones became a first team player the following season in a year that saw his hometown club clinched their first Premier League title in 30 years. 

The then-18-year-old starred for the Reds team, largely made up of teenagers, that beat Everton in the FA Cup and scored the winning goal – a curling 20-yard wonder strike – to seal a famous victory. The heady heights of that campaign yielded a Premier League winners’ medal as the teenager featured a total of six times in the league and grabbed his first league goal against Aston Villa.

Injury derailed his 2021-22 season in which he had 24 top-flight outings and five Champions League appearances. Jones missed eight fixtures with an eye issue before struggling to make it off the bench on a matchdays.

The season which has just concluded saw him make a slow start as he again struggled with injuries. However, he finished the campaign strongly – starting each of Liverpool’s final 11 Premier League fixtures.  

The youngster played a key part in the sides’ strong finish to the season and bagged himself a brace against Leicester City as well as the opener against Tottenham at Anfield.

With a summer of midfielder upheaval at the club, Jones’ timely return to form could just have given him a chance of making the grade at his boyhood club.

Levi Colwill

When Brighton fleeced Chelsea for £60m in the Marc Cucurella deal last summer, few noted the season-long swoop for Chelsea youngster Levi Colwill. The only regret for the Seagulls would be their failure to include an option to buy in his short-term contract.

The 20-year-old, who spent the previous season on-loan at Championship side Huddersfield, had a steady start to life at the Amex, making a couple of substitute appearances before enjoying his first run in the team following Roberto De Zerbi’s arrival at the club.

The youngster partnered Lewis Dunk in the centre of Brighton’s defence for a stretch of five games either side of the World Cup that included the 3-0 January dismantling of Liverpool.

But a muscle injury sustained after the tie curtailed his impressive form, leaving Colwill to wait until March to get his next taste of Premier League action. The cultured left-footed defender featured in seven of Brighton’s final ten games as the team secured their highest-ever finish.

Colwill has emerged as one of the best young centre backs in England, with the rare ability of possessing a stronger left foot. As a result his parent-club Chelsea have taken notice and are unlikely to be hoodwinked again.

Mail Sport recently reported that the Seagulls are weighing up a £40m move for Colwill – after Chelsea previously rejected a £30m offer.  

Alejandro Garnacho

Alejandro Garnacho’s 2022/23 feels like three or four years wrapped into one. The talented winger burst onto the scene with a last minute winner at Craven Cottage in November that drew obvious – if unhelpful – comparisons to Cristiano Ronaldo, who was still a couple of weeks from leaving the club.

The 18-year-old had already faced accusations of a poor attitude by this point and was soon to be the subject of an international tussle as both Spain and Argentina vied to secure his allegiance. All this commotion for a winger yet to nail down a regular first team place.

For any doubters, Garnacho’s FA Cup final cameo showed why the teenager demands so much attention. If Erik ten Hag had his time again, he’d probably have brought the winger on at half-time or just started him altogether.

As it turned out, 29 blistering minutes saw Garnacho draw as many more fouls and deliver more crosses than Marcus Rashford and Jaden Sancho. Only Casemiro and Erling Haaland had more attempts on goal.

Fully recovered from the ankle injury that put an end to a four-month run in the team in March, Garnacho reminded everyone of his electrifying talent and might just have put himself on par with Sancho heading into the next campaign.

Evan Ferguson

Brighton centre-forward Evan Ferguson was handed his debut for the Seagulls by Graham Potter in a February defeat to Burnley last season. Fast forward ten-months and the teenager was scoring his first Premier League goal, against the leaders Arsenal, in just his third game.

His second followed in the very next match against Everton ahead of a third against Leicester in January. Ferguson’s startling rise led to a Republic of Ireland call-up, where he netted in his third appearance, and resulted in comparisons to the best forwards in the world.

De Zerbi opted to use the front man somewhat sparingly in the final month of the season, refusing to start him in consecutive games after coming back from an April injury. Still, Ferguson’s remarkable 2022/23 season reads; ten goals and three assists from 25 appearances in all competitions for Brighton.

Those numbers are made all the more impressive considering his age and introduction into the team half-way through the campaign. Ferguson’s brace against Southampton took him to six goals in the league, three clear of any other teenager in the division.

It’s little wonder the Seagulls moved quickly to tie him down to a long-term deal before the season was even done.

Julio Enciso

Brighton’s third player in this list can probably already be described using the old, often derisory, football descriptor ‘not a great goal scorer, but a scorer of great goals.’

The Paraguayan international scored four times in 20 Premier League appearances this campaign, one of which was crowned goal of the season, another that probably could have ranked second. Even his maiden league goal was constructed beautifully and dispatched with ease.

That three of Enciso’s goals have come against Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City make his debut campaign all the more impressive and his talent all the more exciting.

The Seagulls signed the young forward for around £9.5m last summer from Paraguayan club Libertad Asuncion where he had netted 11 times and provided three assists in 14 league appearances that season.

As with his team mates above, it was under De Zerbi that Enciso made his debut in a 4-1 victory against Chelsea but the 19-year-old really made his impact in a run of 14 games to close the season. To go along with his four goals, Enciso also laid on a couple of assists for his team mates as they capped off a historic campaign for the club.