One per club: the best uncapped player at every Premier League team
Rico Lewis has now come off this list but this lot have a big old 0 (0) next to their name.
Simple qualification rules. Zero full international caps. Can have played as much age-group football as they like – indeed, it’s encouraged – been called up to the national squad and even spent a decade warming the bench in one case. Only caps count…
Arsenal – Fabio Vieira
We have a feeling that Eddie Nketiah might stall at one England cap but Vieira is yet to get out of the blocks for Portugal despite appearing in the top 10 players with Portugal Under-21 caps (heading by former Everton loanee Manuel Fernandes) after breaking through at Porto. Not being close to first choice at Arsenal is not helping his case.
Aston Villa – Ezri Konsa
As Aston Villa have established himself in the top five, Konsa has formed a phenomenal partnership with the brilliant Pau Torres. He owes Unai Emery a massive debt of gratitude. An England call-up came but the wait for a debut continues.
Bournemouth – Lloyd Kelly
A target for Liverpool and Spurs in January, any such move would undoubtedly bring an England call. Kelly has 10 England Under-21 caps and the massive tick against his name that is being able to play at left-back.
Brentford – Rico Henry
One thing being an England right-back on this list, but you do need to have a look at yourself if you’re a left-back and haven’t snaffled a cap somewhere along the way. In fairness to your Rico Henrys, that’s because when faced with injury-related left-back shortages, Gareth does like to redeploy one of his great many right-backs rather than go for another left-back. Sometimes he’ll even use a right-sided forward, such is his reluctance to look beyond the Chilwell-Shaw duopoly among actual left-backs.
Bit harsh on Henry, who is well into a third season as a solid Premier League citizen with Brentford and was one of the left-backs Manchester United had a little desperate late look at in the transfer window. In fairness, that list does comprise all of the left-backs.
Currently injured so absolutely not considered for this international break.
Brighton – Solly March
Joao Pedro got himself a Brazil cap so March steps in here…perhaps forever to remain uncapped and just be one of those solid Premier League sorts who could have had 97 caps for Wales if only he had a grandma from Conwy.
Burnley – James Trafford
England Under-21s’ Euros final hero has shipped 30 goals in his first 12 Premier League games as Burnley goalkeeper. He’s not getting a call-up any time soon; even if Aaron Ramsdale loses his place, Nick Pope is poised. And then there’s Wes Foderingham. And Jason Steele.
Chelsea – Noni Madueke
Even Malo Gusto has one cap. Even Marc Cucurella has one cap. But not in the club is Noni Madueke, who was the first man off the bench as England won the European Under-21 championship this summer. Sooner or later, Madueke could have his head turned by Nigeria. Starting one Premier League game for Chelsea will not shift him into Gareth Southgate’s plans any time soon.
Crystal Palace – Michael Olise
For as long as he remains uncapped by France there remains the tantalising possibility of his England eligibility. But he turned down England Under-21 boss Lee Carsley and could also represent Algeria or Nigeria but appears to have eyes only for Les Bleus having represented them exclusively at youth levels. Fair enough too, but that squad is a tough nut to crack. Moving to Chelsea might have helped but it also very much might not have. We’re pretty glad he stayed with Palace.
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Everton – Jarrad Branthwaite
We did wonder whether Branthwaite would be the next central defensive cab off the rank after Levi Colwill but Gareth Southgate turned to Ezri Konsa instead of the 21-year-old who enjoyed a very lovely loan with PSV before returning to Everton to make their defence quite a lot better.
Fulham – Issa Diop
Surprising number of capped players at Fulham, it turns out. We won’t lie, Andreas Pereira’s one cap for Brazil in 2018 is a bit inconvenient for us here. Proud moment for him, sure, but inconvenient for us. So we opt for Diop, who has represented France at U-16, U-17, U-18, U-19, U-20 and U-21 level but crucially never for the full national team. “It has always been a dream to play for France. If it happens, it happens, otherwise too bad!” he said when turning down both Morocco and Senegal. We guess it’s ‘too bad’ then.
Liverpool – Harvey Elliott
Couple of England midfield likely lads available here, with Harvey Elliott perhaps a touch more likely to graduate to full honours than Curtis Jones, a man who appears destined to turn up for two months a year in an injury crisis and do brilliantly before disappearing again. Elliott and Jones have 36 caps between them for the Under-21s.
Luton – Thomas Kaminski
Ah, Luton. Lovely story and all the rest of it, but there’s no point pretending they’re going to be anything other than a burden when it comes to one-per-clubs. Thank the very heavens, then, for the fact goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski has made it as far as Belgium’s bench on 19 occasions across the last decade but never made it as far as the pitch. Might piss him off a bit, like, but we’re grateful.
Manchester City – Stefan Ortega
Even Oscar Bobb has played for Norway and Rico Lewis has now played for England so we are now looking at the reserve goalkeeper. Confession time: We had no idea he was German. But we’re now grateful that he is, and also grateful that he was on the reserve list for Euro 2020 in 2021 when he was at Arminia Bielefeld. We think we are probably safe in this choice for the next two years.
Manchester United – Aaron Wan-Bissaka
Right-backs, right-backs everywhere, and not a drop to drink. In fairness to Wan-Bissaka, he has pretty successfully turned around a Manchester United career in serious danger of stalling completely, but it’s got him nowhere nearer an England call-up. Which is pretty wild when you think about it: a fella who cost Manchester United £50m and has played for them over 160 times cannot get a sniff with England.
Newcastle – Sven Botman
Plenty of contenders in Newcastle’s over-achieving squad, with Joe Willock, Sean Longstaff and Anthony Gordon all uncapped. Hard to look past the brilliant Botman, though, who has made it as far as the Netherlands bench a few times but got no further. They are pretty stacked at centre-back, mind, with Virgil van Dijk, Nathan Ake, Matthijs de Ligt, Stefan de Vrij and Spurs new boy Micky van de Ven all worthy adversaries.
Nottingham Forest – Morgan Gibbs-White
Forest’s squad manages to contain a vast number of caps – thanks chiefly to Wayne Hennessey, Cheikhou Kouyate, Serge Aurier and Chris Wood – but also some eye-catching uncapped members. None better, though, than Morgan Gibbs-White. He’s a player who has about him a distinct if hard to define internationally kind of vibe. We’re almost certain that if he did get a chance with England, he would do really well. His error is to play in positions where England are absolutely stacked with absurdly good options.
Sheffield United – Cameron Archer
We fear he’s going to be really quite good. Don’t get us wrong, we’ve nothing against him or Sheffield United. We hope he does well, genuinely. We’re just worried about all the puns.
Tottenham – Guglielmo Vicario
The goalkeeper of the season so far is an Italian who has sat on the bench nine times for his country and watched Gianluigi Donnarumma and Alex Meret start in his stead. But a phenomenal start to this campaign since joining Spurs might just earn him a chance.
West Ham – Ben Johnson
Wholly unsatisfactory, really, that what could be called the Mark Noble Memorial Feature currently contains such a poor offering from West Ham. This would have been much easier in the days when Jarrod Bowen, for instance, was patiently awaiting a call-up. Even Danny Ings has got a few caps. Even Aaron Cresswell has got a few caps. Kurt Zouma has played for France, for crying out loud. All 20 West Ham players who have featured in the Premier League this season are full internationals.
It’s the slimmest of pickings and when that happens we do what we always do for this feature: we look for a right-back. There’s always an uncapped English right-back knocking around in every squad if you look hard enough. And you really do have to look hard for a player who has only featured in the Carabao Cup and the EFL Trophy.
Wolves – Max Kilman
Cannot play for Ukraine because he played for England at futsal. Seems reasonable.