Every Premier League club’s next England man

So much has changed in six months since we did this last time. As ever, we are talking call-ups and not caps. Step forward, Rhian Brewster…

 

ARSENAL: Bukayo Saka
There was low-level uproar when Gareth Southgate announced an England squad with no left-backs, with many citing 18-year-old Saka as a potential pick in that position. But the truth is that he sat on the bench as Manchester City and Chelsea were vanquished in the FA Cup and was stationed on the right wing when Arsenal beat Liverpool in the Community Shield, so left-wing-back Ainsley Maitland-Niles was a less sexy but certainly more sensible choice from Southgate. Eddie Nketiah? He needs to score more than a handful of actual Premier League goals.

 

ASTON VILLA: Matt Targett
Thanks to a handful of withdrawals, Jack Grealish finally got the England call after an initial decision that he really should have seen coming. Next? New signing Matty Cash might have aspirations but England are not short of right-backs. They are very, very short of left-backs mind, which might mean that the forgettable but solid Matt Targett – given his Under-21 bow by Southgate – is not too far down any list. If Aaron Cresswell can get three England caps…

 

BRIGHTON: Ben White
Brighton have a whole load of English defenders but none other than Ben White is a) uncapped and b) apparently worth about £50m. It’s amazing what one season under Marcelo Bielsa can do.

 

BURNLEY: Charlie Taylor
Yes, Dwight McNeil is a better prospect. But he is living in an era when England have a plethora of left-wingers (in the age of Steve Guppy, he would be king) and an absolute dearth of left-backs. So Charlie Taylor – who last donned an England shirt in 2011 in an England Under-19 side alongside Jamaal Lascelles – probably has a greater chance of a call-up. If Aaron Cresswell can get three England caps…

 

CHELSEA: Reece James
With your Callum Hudson-Odois, Mason Mounts and the Fikayo Tomoris of this world all now officially involved, the Reece James’ take this spot pretty much by definition of being English, uncapped and playing quite a lot of first-team football for Chelsea. But you have to say it’s pretty foolish of him to be a right-back; England have quite literally hundreds of the things.

 

CRYSTAL PALACE: Eberechi Eze
No longer blighted by a N/A are Palace, who have signed not one but two England youth internationals this summer. It’s some kind of miracle. Palace fans are genuinely giddy about Eze and with excellent reason; he gives opposition defenders something to think about that does not have the initials WZ. An England call might still be far, far away, but we would back him in a foot race with James Tomkins. To be fair, we would back ourselves in a foot race with James Tomkins.

 

EVERTON: Mason Holgate
No goals in Project Restart scuppered Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s hopes of usurping Tammy Abraham in the role of ‘comes on for seven minutes at the end of England friendlies to give Harry Kane a chance to wave’, so we suspect that centre-half Holgate is closer to a call. In January it seemed even closer, but missing much of the mini-season with a shin injury means that teammate Michael Keane has somehow retained his place.

 

FULHAM: Harrison Reed
If you play 14 England U-20 friendlies without ever being promoted to the U-21s then you might quite reasonably think that your international career has stalled. But Reed plays in a position where England are desperate for any semblance of talent and a whole season in the Premier League with Fulham might just engender a miracle. He just needs to channel some serious Conor Coady vibes.

 

LEEDS UNITED: Jack Harrison
Played a whole 70 minutes of a 1-0 win over Andorra that highlights the problems of having an England Under-21 team managed by Aidy Boothroyd, so he has some considerable international pedigree. Can he play left-back?

 

LEICESTER CITY: Harvey Barnes
He might have done enough for a call-up in March but he suffered as much as any Leicester player as the Champions League dream disappeared in June and July. Barnes failed to add to his six Premier League goals and started less than half the Foxes’ games. “You’re not going to get called up to the England team unless you’re playing for your club,” he said last August. By those rules, the jury is out and considering whether he has been leapfrogged by James Justin.

 

LIVERPOOL: Rhian Brewster
Harvey Elliott was our pick in March, but Rhian Brewster’s excellent end to the season with Swansea (10 in 20 in the Championship) and confident pre-season with Liverpool makes a convincing case for his inclusion. A loan to a mid-table Premier League club would undoubtedly propel him into that Abraham/Calvert-Lewin back-up bracket; double figures could propel him past. The boy is a finisher.

 

MANCHESTER CITY: Tommy Doyle
Manchester City captain in the UEFA Youth League. England captain at Under-19 level. There is no doubt that Doyle has pedigree (he is the grandson of City greats Mike Doyle and Glyn Pardoe), nor that Pep Guardiola rates him. Now it’s just whether midfielder Doyle wants to play the waiting game like Phil Foden or lose patience and flit like Jadon Sancho. Decisions, decisions.

 

MANCHESTER UNITED: Brandon Williams
Mason Greenwood got the expected call, leaving Brandon Williams as the only Englishman in the Manchester United first-team picture not to have received one of those ‘is it a wind-up?’ phone calls from Southgate. The left-back (this is crucial) did get a less exciting call from Boothroyd but had to withdraw through injury. The suspicion abounds that he might not actually be any good, but that seems relatively unimportant right now.

 

NEWCASTLE UNITED: Sean Longstaff
If he really wanted to play for England, he’d have joined Manchester United last summer. Newcastle is just too far away from London-centric Gareth Southgate, who lives in, er, Harrogate. Also working against Longstaff in these days of The England Pathway is a complete lack of youth international history. And the small matter of not actually playing much for Newcastle.

 

SHEFFIELD UNITED: Aaron Ramsdale
England’s current England Under-21 goalkeeper is presumably just one injury away from the full England squad. We tried to pretend in March that John Lundstram might get a call but we knew all along that it was bollocks; this Blades side is brilliant but there is nary a chance of any real individual credit, whether that be international recognition or awards.

 

SOUTHAMPTON: Kyle Walker-Peters
The majority of his 11 England Under-21 caps were won at left-back so there is at least a sliver of a chance that KWP could follow Danny Ings and James Ward-Prowse into the senior team. Certainly more chance than Che Adams scoring enough goals, you would think. Mind you, his name is shorter so…

 

TOTTENHAM: Ryan Sessegnon
Ah, we are back at Ryan Sessegnon again after Tottenham apparently turned down loan bids this summer from the likes of Barcelona. Those are the kind of phone calls (or faxes) that might make a club wonder whether they should be making more effort to integrate a player. Sessegnon has since been heavily involved in pre-season and Spurs are ‘not thought to be entertaining the thought of letting him leave’. If he plays regularly at left wing-back for Spurs, he will play for England. About two years after we originally thought it might happen.

 

WEST BROM: Grady Diangana
He is not confirmed as a permanent West Brom signing yet but a deal has been agreed after a season which reaped eight goals and six assists for the Baggies as well as a call-up to the England Under-21 squad. Caveat: He might be behind about 427 other wingers for an actual England call.

 

WEST HAM: Jarrod Bowen
Missed out on the England Pathway because he was at Hull and nobody goes to Hull unless they have absolutely no choice. Bowen is one of the reasons why the Hammers were willing to sell Diangana; that and the fact that nobody has shown the slightest interest in signing any of the other players who could be deemed surplus to requirements. Bowen has a chance if he starts the season at a canter, though he might be well advised to start transitioning to left-back.

 

WOLVES: Morgan Gibbs-White
We were wrong about Conor Coady; we simply did not predict that an England defender would be found guilty of assaulting Greek police officers at a time when all of the other English centre-halves were really quite terrible. Apologies. Now Gibbs-White must go and get some football at Swansea and strengthen his pretty poor case.

Sarah Winterburn