With EURO 2024 ongoing and England just about scraping into the last eight, it got me wondering how good this current set of players are and how they’d fare as a club side. To put that to test, what better way than to put the current England squad into the Premier League?
That’s exactly what we did as we took to the FM24 Editor, created a new club called England and moved all the current 26-man squad and the real-life coaching staff – including Gareth Southgate as Manager – to the club. The new-look England play at Wembley, train at St. George’s Park, and have a five-year transfer ban, so they can only use the current England squad. We tried to create a 21-team league, but the game refused to allow it and put England into the Premier League at the expense of Luton Town – who it harshly kicked back into non-league in the Isthmian League North Division (sorry Luton fans!).
In this experiment, we’ll sim through five years to see how England fares in the Premier League, stopping in every few months to check in on how they’re progressing. Will Gareth Southgate see out his five-year contract? And will he lead England to become Champions of England?
You can test this experiment out for yourself by downloading the database from the Steam Workshop.
England In The Premier League – Season 1
England are 3rd favourites to win the Premier League with their 6/1 title odds only bettered by Man City and Liverpool (9/5 and 7/2). While Kyle Walker, Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice and Harry Kane make the media’s dream 11.
By December, the media looked to be bang on with their prediction, with England sitting in 3rd place after 13 games. They’d only lost once, 2-1 away to Fulham, but drawn four times and only leaders Man City (32) had scored more than England’s 27. Bukayo Saka was the best player in the league with an 8.05 average rating while Bellingham’s 7 goals had only been bettered by Haaland’s 9. Fast forward a few months to March, and England had slipped to 4th after 27 games after losing 3 more games and drawing 4 more. They still had the second-best attack (49) and second-best defence (18 conceded) but were 16 points behind leaders Man City. However, England did beat Man City 2-1 away at the end of January and were 1 point behind 3rd-place Aston Villa and 1 point clear of Arsenal in 5th.
Southgate seems to be favouring a 4-2-3-1 approach with Rice and John Stones in the holding roles, although Trent Alexander-Arnold has been playing there when fit, Aaron Ramsdale preferred to Jordan Pickford, and Bellingham playing off the right wing.
Come the end of the season, England stayed in 4th position on 74 points, finishing just 1 point behind Arsenal, 14 back from Liverpool and a huge 22 behind champions Man City. Kane finished as the golden boot runner-up with his 19 goals only bettered by Haaland’s 22, Alexander-Arnold got the third-most assists with his 9 bettered by Odegaard and McGinn (15 and 10), and Saka’s 13 MOTM awards was only bettered by Salah’s 14. Saka also had the second-best average rating with his 7.81 and Bellingham’s 7.65 only bettered by Salah’s 7.86.
In other competitions, England lost 3-2 on aggregate to Brighton in the Carabao Cup semi finals and 2-1 to Liverpool in the FA Cup 5th round. Southgate finished the season with his job Insecure but managed to stabilise his position over the summer.
Of course, the end of the first season also coincided with EURO 2024, which Southgate remained in charge for. Amusingly, the England EUROs squad only contained 15 players from the England club team, and they topped a group alongside France, Turkey and Romania. However, England were eliminated in the second round with a 3-1 defeat to Serbia, who were knocked out in the semis by Turkey, who then lost the Final 4-1 to Portugal. As a result, Southgate was sacked by the England national team!
England In The Premier League – Season 2
Heading into season 2, we got a clearer view of Southgate’s tactical approach. Trent was playing as a holding midfielder alongside Rice, Kieran Trippier was preferred at right back ahead of Walker and, yes, Bellingham was being deployed as a right winger. But the bookies seemed to love it, making England second favourites for the title at 6/1 behind Man City’s 7/4.
England made a good start to the second season, only losing once in their first 14 games through to December, but trailed City by 3 points and Spurs by 2 points. By March, England had really kicked on, sitting 2nd in the league on 57 points, only trailing Arsenal on goal difference. They’d only lost 3 times through 28 games and were right in the mix of an exciting title race as Liverpool and Spurs were 2 points back and City were a further 3 behind with a game in hand.
England continued that good form but missed out on the title by 1 point to Liverpool, who beat England 3-1 in a title decider at Anfield on 3 May. They finished on 79 points after 23 wins, 10 draws and 5 defeats, scoring a league-high 70 goals. Bellingham was the second-best player in the league with a 7.63 average rating only bettered by Salah’s 7.79 and the third-top scorer with his 16 goals in 33 games behind Solanke and Haaland’s 18 apiece. City finished 4th and sacked Guardiola to replace him with Ancelotti, while Man UFC sacked Ten Hag and replaced him with Zidane.
England also had Champions League football to contend with and flourished, winning the league phase with 6 wins and 2 draws. They carried that on by beating Bayern on penalties, Atlético 5-2 in the quarters and Real Madrid 3-2 in the semis. That set up a CL Final against PSG, which they lost 2-0 to goals by Osimhen and Mbappé with Ramsdale having a stinker. In other competitions, they again lost in the Carabao Cup semis, this time 4-2 to Chelsea, and lost 2-1 to Man UFC in the FA Cup 4th round.
England In The Premier League – Season 3
Southgate’s 3rd season managing England in the Premier League started very nicely as they topped the league heading into December. They led the way with 30 points from 13 games, again only losing once, with a 3-point lead over Chelsea, but the top 7 were split by just 5 points. By the start of March, England had dropped to 2nd with 59 points from 28 games, only trailing leaders Spurs by 1 point. But it looked like another exciting title race as the top 5 remained split by 6 points.
And an exciting title race was exactly what occurred as the top four finished the season split by 5 points. And this time, England came out on top to win the Premier League with 80 points. They lost 6 games and scored a league-high 80 to finish 1 point clear of Spurs and 2 ahead of Liverpool, who threw the title away by losing 2-1 at Arsenal on the final day while England beat Newcastle 3-2 at Wembley. Bellingham and Kane (20 and 19) came second and third to Haaland’s 22 goals but Bellingham was the best player in the league with a 7.93 average rating and 12 MOTM awards in 34 games. City sacked Ancelotti after a year and replaced him with… Conte.
In other competitions, Southgate claimed a domestic double as he led England to the Carabao Cup, beating City 2-1 in the Final. Pickford was the hero as he replaced the injured Ramsdale after 17 minutes and then played a 7.7 alongside goals by Saka and Marc Guéhi. However, they exited the Champions League at the quarter finals with a 4-3 aggregate defeat to Bayern and lost 2-1 to City in the FA Cup quarter finals.
This feels like a good time to check in on the England squad as they’ve started selling players even though they can’t buy anyone. Ezri Konsa went to Atlético for £20m in the first season, Joe Gomez has joined PSG for £45m this season, Anthony Gordon was loaned out to Porto this season, Trippier is signing for Chelsea at the end of the season, Conor Gallagher is transfer listed, and Ebere Eze left at the end of his contract.
The end of season 3 saw the England national team, now managed by Maurizio Sarri, go to World Cup 2026 in Canada, USA and Mexico with 15 of the England club side in the squad. And those players performed very well indeed, cruising through a group of Chile, Morocco and Suriname, then beating Scotland 3-1, Portugal 2-1, Belgium 2-0 and Switzerland 2-1 after extra time to reach the World Cup Final. They faced Brazil in the Final and spanked them 5-1 with goals by Kane, Rice, Saka and a Grealish brace. And Sarri immediately retired from football management as a legend.
England In The Premier League – Season 4
England’s Premier League title defence started pretty well as they were 2nd, just 1 point behind Liverpool, with 2 defeats in 13 games. Four months later, England remained 2nd still just 1 point behind Liverpool after 29 games. It looked like being a three-horse race as a rejuvenated City, who spent £276m on Musiala and Kvaratskhelia in the summer, were a further 1 point behind England.
However, England fell apart in the title run-in, only winning 3 of their final 9 games to drop to 4th, a huge 11 points back from City, who won the league with Conte’s disgusting 7 at the back formation. None of England’s players appeared in the top performers, other than Saka getting a league-high 9 MOTM. And the squad is set to be more depleted in the final year as Walker is retiring at the end of the season.
In other competitions, England lost 2-0 to Stoke in the Carabao quarters and 2-1 to Liverpool in the FA Cup semis. But they defeated Bayern 4-2, Liverpool on penalties and Arsenal 4-2 to face City in their second Champions League Final. And this time they went one better, as Southgate claimed the Champions League trophy following a fairly lucky 2-0 victory with goals by Bellingham and Saka.
England In The Premier League – Season 5
England started the final season of this experiment pretty well, again sitting 2nd after 14 games heading into December. They’ve only lost once but trail Chelsea by 2 points with City another 2 points back. Moving into March, England had lost ground to sit 6 points behind City after 29 games.
However, they enjoyed a strong conclusion to the campaign, winning 7 of their final 9 games to storm to a second Premier League title. That saw England win the league by 4 points from Liverpool, finishing on 83 points after 25 wins, 8 draws and 5 defeats, scoring 86 and conceding 33. Saka was the third-best player in the league with a 7.59 average rating behind Musiala and Odegaard (7.65 and 7.64) and Foden’s 9 assists was only bettered by Norwich’s Facundo Torres.
Southgate couldn’t add any additional trophies though, as they lost 3-1 to Spurs in the Carabao 3rd round, 2-1 to Southampton in the FA Cup 5th round and 4-1 to PSG in the Champions League quarters. The England national team, now led by Paulo Fonseca, headed to Euro 2028 with 14 of the England club side among their ranks, one of which was a wonderkid newgen called Yashwa Wallbridge. They won a group alongside Netherlands, Norway and Slovakia then beat Greece 3-1, Sweden 5-2 and Italy 2-1 to reach the Final. They fell short with a 3-1 defeat to France, but Bellingham won the Golden Boot with 8 goals, which was 3 more than Goncalo Ramos and Mbappé.
After five years of this experiment, Bellingham was unsurprisingly the star man with 100 goals and a 7.64 average rating in 230 games in all competitions. Kane scored a slightly disappointing 97 in 231, Saka got 91 in 237, Foden probably disappointed with 84 in 234 and a 7.19 average rating, and Bowen chipped in with 52 goals in 199 games. But Southgate was heavily reliant on his first 11 – including Pickford playing 10 games in 5 years despite a 7.41 average rating!
England After The Embargo
I’ll admit I didn’t expect Southgate to still be in charge of the England club team after five years of this experiment. But he did a good job to win 2 Premier Leagues, a Champions League and a Carabao Cup.
I was intrigued to see what Southgate would do when the five-year transfer embargo lifted. The club has wasted £200m over the last five seasons but has amassed £209m of transfer budget and Southgate wasted no time blowing through it, spending £252m in the summer. He signed the likes of Riccardo Calafiori, Rasmus Hojlund, Francisco Conceicao and Amar Dedic to strengthen the England squad, which made them the bookies’ favourites for the 2028/29 campaign.
But we don’t need to worry about that, as this experiment was all about how the current England team would fare in the Premier League. And I think 2 titles is a pretty decent return! And remember, you can have a go yourself using this database on the Steam Workshop.
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