The Women’s Super League season is once again upon us and with more eyes than ever before set to be tuning into the new campaign, a run-down of where to find all the England players who made themselves household names over the Euros seemed like a logical approach for interested fans.
You can expect to see Manchester City mentioned multiple times — the third-place finishers in 2021-22 had 10 representatives in the England squad at the Euros — although at the time of writing, two players have left for Europe and two have retired. The bulk of the home-based England squad comes from the top four teams (by last season’s standings) in WSL, with just two (Hannah Hampton and Rachel Daly) coming from Aston Villa.
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The two oldest members of the Euros winning squad, Jill Scott (35) and Ellen White (33) are the two former Citizens who’ve hung their boots up over the summer in what has been a window of considerable upheaval for City, but that’s a discussion for another day. So, where can you find the individual European champions this season as they ramp up preparations for the 2023 Women’s World Cup?
Age: 24
Position: Centre-back/full-back
Euros minutes: 16
A promising young defender at Birmingham City, Jess Carter struggled to make her mark with Chelsea when she first moved down to London in 2018. Dealing with injuries and a loaded squad the versatile defender didn’t tap back into her better form until several weeks into the 2021-22 season but once she found her rhythm, she was immovable from the Blues’ backline. Yet despite the rich vein of form she worked herself into, the Warwick native struggled for minutes during the Euros and will need to put in some meaningful performances for England when she gets the chance over the next year, even with her club form speaking for itself.
Age: 28
Position: Striker/left-wing
Euros minutes: 3
Nikita Parris is another of the small number of Lionesses who moved clubs this summer, after a season of failing to make an impact at Arsenal with question of right club/wrong time asked, the former Evertonian has headed back north, this time to join up with Manchester City.
On paper, the move makes sense for Parris and there is a hope that she will be able to regain some of her better form — like the type fans will remember from her time with United’s cross-town rivals, City. Having already amassed more minutes for England in one post-Euros match vs. Austria than at the entire Euros combined, the speedy attacker looks set to grab the new season with both hands.
Age: 28
Position: Striker
Euros minutes: 0
Bethany England remains one of England’s biggest “right player, wrong time” players. Whenever the striker is in form, she usually finds herself pushed to the back of the queue, vying for minutes off of the bench, yet when given a start, she has often found it hard to stake a firm case — a phenomena she suffers for both club and country. A player who has had to battle for her starts amongst long stretches of bench-warming, there is a strong argument that England needs to move to a club that can afford her regular starts, not least if she is to be a reliable option for England.
Age: 21
Position: Goalkeeper
Euros minutes: 0
As a third-choice goalkeeper, there is little Hannah Hampton can do beyond putting in the hard yards over the course of the season but at an Aston Villa team that has finished 10th and ninth over the first two seasons in the WSL, the young goalkeeper is likely to remain an understudy to an understudy.
Age: 22
Position: Goalkeeper
Euros minutes: 0
Manchester City’s number one since 2018, Ellie Roebuck somewhat fell off of the pace thanks to an injury that kept her out of the squad at the start of last season, yet City’s uptick in form when she returned was palpable. The starting goalkeeper for Team GB at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the 22-year-old can already boast a wealth of experience for club and country, yet for the time being, is very much the second choice behind Mary Earps.
Age: 30
Position: Left-back
Euros minutes: 0
A reliable left-back when fit, Demi Stokes is entering her eighth season with Manchester City and is likely to see out another solid season at the CFA, yet Stokes has found herself somewhat out of favour with Wiegman. Despite playing for England seven times in the build-up to the Euros, the defender failed to get onto the pitch this summer with both Daly and Greenwood preferred ahead of her and faces the simple problem of having fallen down one too many rungs in the pecking order.
Likely to continue to feature for England over the course of the next year, Stokes’ involvement at the next World Cup seems far more balanced on the fitness of those ahead of her rather than the strength of her 2022-23 season.
Age: 23
Position: Centre-back
Euros minutes: 0
The final Lioness on this list also happens to be the last of the five who didn’t manage to get onto the pitch for England this summer, raising the question of what can Lotte Wubben-Moy do to change that. But, indeed like an Ellie Roebuck or Demi Stokes, Wubben-Moy finds herself down the pecking order not necessarily because of her own ability but of the fierce competition she faces ahead of her. Worse still for the defender, she finds herself at an Arsenal team who have added depth in her favoured position at the back, leaving her as an option off of the bench for Jonas Eidevall, more than as a starter which could see her far further down the ranks for England.
