With an utterly embarrassing exit to the 2014 World Cup, the FA finally decides to get off its ass and work on improving the national team. As is usual with these things, a committee is formed, things are discussed and generic documentation is made. But after a little time the FA announce they’ve cracked the code and worked out exactly what is needed to fix the rut. They will… completely ban transfers. The top clubs look on helplessly, but the deed has already been put through, and from 2014/15 all clubs will be under embargo.
Ok so I get this is unrealistic and the odds of the FA doing anything, let alone something of that scale are incredibly slim. But this was the best narrative I could come up with for testing an country-wide embargo. So suck it up. But essentially that is what I’ll be doing, putting every single club in the English pyramid (down to tier 6) under transfer embargo, including banning free transfers and loans in, in Football Manager 2015. You may think it’s a little harsh on lowly minnows like Eastleigh and Arsenal, but to protect against someone getting promoted and dominating, I’ve gone the safe route and covered everyone.
So now begins the true test, can the English league maintain its standing in the world, despite being able to only use home grown players? Will the national team profit from the abundance of local talent? Or will England crash and burn away from the world’s footballing scene?
2014/15
League Winners: Man United
Cup Winners: FA – Liverpool, League – QPR
League Ranking: 2nd
World Ranking: 15th
Unsurprisingly, the effects are immediate on the transfer front. With no-one coming in, teams are reluctant to sell. Olivier Kemen is the only person to leave for any cash whatsoever, heading for Auxerre. United take the first title, whilst Arsenal are the first team in the big 6 to be pushed out, finishing a lowly 11th. Get in. An all English champions league final highlights that this one is going to be a long term test, so I’m afraid you’re going to have to strap in for a while to see any effect.
(In an earlier failed attempt, Inter got relegated in the first season. I was absolutely gutted it ended up not working, that would have at least made something interesting)
2015/16
League Winners: Chelsea
Cup Winners: FA – Liverpool, League – Chelsea
League Ranking: 2nd
World Ranking: 8th
This season actually sees some transfers in. Loans from last season with buy clauses have mysteriously slipped through the net, with the biggest buy being Falcao to United. This coincidences perfectly with United not winning the title. Instead that crown goes to City, who pull out the League/Cup Double and almost win their second Champions League in a row. Arsenal finish 10th, truly committing to the middle table role, whilst Newcastle take the opportunity to fill the void and grab a champions league slot. For the most part though, very little has changed, and almost every transfer out is teams stripping spare parts, like Negredo. Espanyol steal a cracking third place in La Liga.
In Euro 2016 England perform exactly the same as they did in real life, albeit against different teams. This time Ukraine pull of the upset, which is way less interesting than Iceland doing so. Portugal almost duplicate their real life miracle, but get stopped short by an Eriksen led Denmark.
2016/17
League Winners: Chelsea
Cup Winners: FA – Man United, League – Chelsea
League Ranking: 2nd
World Ranking: 7th
Chelsea take control of the league once again, and are actually the only English team to turn up in the Champions League. Everyone else lets the side down majorly. Villa and Liverpool both make transfers they may later regret, with Benteke, Origi and Borini head abroad. Villa may well have ruined themselves with that move, and for a lowly £20M too. Young talent is beginning to creep in with James Wilson getting regular starts at Man United, and many teams opting for a young English reserve keeper.
2017/18
League Winners: Chelsea
Cup Winners: FA – Chelsea, League – Newcastle
League Ranking: 2nd
World Ranking: 9th
Chelsea outshine everyone yet again, being the only team to actually do anything of note. Genuinely, the second best team in the Champions League only makes it to the Quarter Finals. The embargo has seen a rise in bizarre free transfers, with Soldado going to Almeria, Jovetic to Nantes and Glen Johnson to Hearts. Over in Scotland everyone but the green half of Glasgow rejoices as the Bhoys finish a miserable 5th, letting Motherwell in to take the title. Ronny Delia is a legend, right?
England overcome an early stumble with a 3-3 draw to South Africa and escape their World Cup group as winners. Things looked good with a 5-1 win over Paraguay in the next round, but it was not to last as Spain proved a step too far. At least it was beyond the utter embarrassement that’s usually expected. France walk away from Russia as winners thanks to a penalty win over the England-slayers (That’s Spain).
2018/19
League Winners: Chelsea
Cup Winners: FA – Chelsea, League – Liverpool
League Ranking: 1st
World Ranking: 8th
This year in Chelsea world, the team manage to make it to every single final they’re able to, only losing out to Liverpool in the League cup. But that’s the League cup so they probably weren’t upset. Cauley Woodrow of Fulham wins the Top Scorer Except Chelsea award, as more English players creep in. Over on the continent, Creteil-Lusitanos of Ligue 2 build a team of free transfer “stars” containing Angelo Henriquez, Tiago Ilori and Pogbrenyak. They then proceed to sell Ilori and Henriquez for £5M profit, and buy 1 Marouane Chamakh. Madness. Meanwhile Dusseldorf finish 2nd in the Bundesliga. More Madness.
England manage to get relegated from the top tier of the first ever Nations Cup. Once again it’s Ukraine who cement their misery. Turkey run out eventual winners, beating Germany.
2019/20
League Winners: Chelsea
Cup Winners: FA – Everton, League – Chelsea
League Ranking: 1st
World Ranking: 8th
I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry at the season’s result. Huddersfield claim a historic 7th places and European slot, but resort to knocking Tottenham to 8th to do it. So i’ll craugh. Chelsea win with Diego Costa scoring 35, but it’s Man United who make some moves in Europe. Having released Rooney and Falcao to Hearts and Sevilla respectively, striking duties get handed to Karl Greeno, a 21 year old regen, who manages to fire them into the Champions League Semi-Finals. Motherwell seem to be a curse for Celtic, as them winning the league again sees Celtic down in 6th. SC Cambuur and Arsenal Tula win their respective leagues. England is the tamest place right now, with John Terry only just retiring from the game, probably in a coffin he’s so old.
Over in the Euros, despite finish second in their group, England decide the trophy won’t be leaving Wembley. They ride all the way to the final, including beating Spain, and then finish the job of with a 1-0 win against Belgium. I’m going to claim credit for this momentous victory.
2020/21
League Winners: Chelsea
Cup Winners: FA – Chelsea, League – Liverpool
League Ranking: 1st
World Ranking: 3rd
Nothing particularly special happens this year. Genuinely, the whole world takes a break, perhaps hungover from the undoubtedly massive party England hosted after their Euro win. Arsenal do make it to the Champions League Final, only to fall at the hands of Real Madrid, and then sack their manager Klopp 24 hours later. Finishing 5th is clearly one place below the requirement. In terms on English talent, the number is most certainly on the up. Most teams are slowly losing foreigners as they retire, with 57% of the league players now being English, a vast improvement on the 32% in 2014/15. A side effect of the embargo hits Yeovil hard, with the Glovers have no youth recruitment whatsoever and see themselves fall dramatically to the Conference. There they achieve 9 points, conceding 109 goals, to sink even further into the Vanamara South. Wycombe are also suffering from the same dire problem.
2021/22
League Winners: Chelsea
Cup Winners: FA – Tottenham, League – Man City
League Ranking: 1st
World Ranking: 4th
Another quiet year in the United Kingdom, the fact that the highlight is Jem Karacan setting the record for Premier League assists says something. Then again, he is a legend so… Even the transfers are quiet, with a 32 Joe Allen choosing to collect his retirement in Palermo being the biggest sale. The first regen wins young player of the year, obviously for Chelsea, whilst the English percentage moves about 60%. Teams are starting to suffer from having a big gap between their old generation and their new youth, average age will plummet in a few years.
England keep up the good international performance to blast through their World Cup group. However a matchup against USA brings flashbacks of 2010, and they fall 2-1. Spain gain their second title winning 3-2 over Argentina. Messi just can’t catch a break.
2022/23
League Winners: Tottenham
Cup Winners: FA – Norwich, League – Liverpool
League Ranking: 1st
World Ranking: 3rd
For the first time in absolutely forever, Chelsea don’t win the league. In fact the title goes to TOTTENHAM GET IN THERE. Ahem, that’s right, Spurs take the title away from Chelsea, whilst Norwich manage to steal a 4th place to knock Man United down to 8th. AND Köln win the German league for the first time. This is my favourite year ever. Due to a bug/mechanic where embargoes not applying to teams in leagues not loaded, FC United have made a ridiculous rise from tier 7 to the Championship. I’m going to let it ride, just to see how they do.
2023/24
League Winners: Chelsea
Cup Winners: FA – Chelsea, League – Chelsea
League Ranking: 3rd
World Ranking: 5th
Chelsea get their title back and perform the domestic clean sweep, but on the continent England hits a new low. Norwich fail to qualify for the group stages, and Tottenham drop into the Europa league from their group, leaving just Chelsea and Arsenal to fall in the knockouts. England’s reputation takes a big hit, falling to 3rd. For some top teams there’s a bubble about to burst. Man City have Zabaleta, Milner and Hart at 39/38/37 years old, making 24/41/49 appearances respectively. Chelsea’s first XI has an average age of 30.2. Something’s got to give soon.
England are given the chance to parade their new hoard of regens at the Euros, and do incredibly well to slide all the way to the Semis. Unfortunately they are then paired with hosts Spain, and penalties prove to be the stumbling block. Some things never change. Spain however get beaten 3-2 by Holland in the final, to give the Dutch their first trophy ever.
2024/25
League Winners: Chelsea
Cup Winners: FA – Chelsea, League – Chelsea
League Ranking: 3rd
World Ranking: 3rd
Once again Chelsea win everything. The FA have resorted to pre-etching “Che” onto the trophies, so now only Chesterfield and Cheltenham can steal the title. Southampton are on the brink of becoming the first all English squad since forever, with Schneiderlin the only foreigner left. In more interesting news, Real Sociedad steal a La Liga title from the big 3 thanks to a 4-2 record over Real Madrid, and Hearts win their 5th title in a row. Delia has finally been booted, as Celtic finish 8th.
2025/26
League Winners: Chelsea
Cup Winners: FA – Crystal Palace, League – Man United
League Ranking: 3rd
World Ranking: 4th
The top is boring, but Notts Forest relive history and claim a fantastic 3rd place. However poor domestic performance means the coefficient is still dropping, with the Premier League set to fall to 5th after next season. FC United are relegated from the Championship, so won’t ruin my experiment just yet. Vit. Guimaraes win the Primeira Liga, but Bayern can only manage a lowly 5th. Jesse Lingaard now plays for Ross County, Scottish teams are picking up basically every free player.
World Cup 2026 comes home. That’s right, England win the World Cup. They win literally every single game they play, in normal time, including beating Germany, Holland, France and then sticking it to Spain 3-1 in the final. I’ve genuinely never seen such a dominant World Cup run. Get in!
2026/27
League Winners: Arsenal
Cup Winners: FA – Fulham, League – Man City
League Ranking: 5th
World Ranking: 1st
Arsenal unfortunately disrupt Chelsea’s winning streak to take the title. I’m honestly not sure who’s worse. Southampton see Schneiderlin retire, but then replace him with a Nigerian youth, almost as if to tease the full English team in front of me. Meanwhile Notts Forest and Chelsea fail miserably on the European scene, which sees England fall towards Portugal in the coefficient. Over at Reading, the second best English striker walks out on a free to Barcelona. Players are certainly manipulating this embargo for their own good.
2027/28
League Winners: Man United
Cup Winners: FA – Man United, League – Man United
League Ranking: 5th
World Ranking: 5th
They’ve finally done it, Southampton don’t like what they see in the Nigerian youth player and replace him with an Englishman, which means we have our first full 23 player squad of English players! And surprisingly it actually works out well for them, as they grab a Europa League spot with 5th. Also heading into Europe is Workington, who make it to the FA Cup Final to book a space. Yup, they’re the new FC United. 78% of the league is now English.
England have a chance to cement their World dominance at their home Euros, and all seems to be going to plan until they face Spain in the Semi Finals. It seems the demons haven’t completely gone, as Spain win 1-0, and then go on to beat Germany in the Final.
2028/29
League Winners: Man United
Cup Winners: FA – Man City, League – Tottenham
League Ranking: 5th
World Ranking: 7th
Karl Greeno leads United to another title, whilst also collecting his 4th Golden Boot in a row. At this point he is easily the biggest star in England. After their miraculous run, Workington fall sharply back to earth by being knocked out in the Third Qualifying Round of the Europa League. The Premier League closes on 80% English players, and 6th place in the League standings, at this point every team in the league has at least 15 English players. Apart from Liverpool, who have 9 Danes. Clearly Agger was a trend setter.
2029/30
League Winners: Man City
Cup Winners: FA – Chelsea, League – Southampton
League Ranking: 5th
World Ranking: 13th
The Premier League does in fact break the 80% English barrier, something I never expected at the start. As I predicted, squad ages have started to get a bit weird, with Burnley having every single player under the age of 27, whilst at the other end of the scale, Ramsey, De Gea and Henderson are clinging to football with their fingertips. Oh and Workington get promoted to the Premier League. They have no embargo. Everything is about to break.
Having performed absolutely shoddily in the Confederations Cup the year before, things look less promising than the last World Cup for England. As it turns out, that’s for good reason as the First Knockout round is as far as they get. The team that claim their scalp, Mexico, then go on the win the whole thing in stunning fashion. This trophy gets added to the Confederations Cup they ran home with from 2029, and Mexico announce they are World number 1.
2030/31
League Winners: Man United
Cup Winners: FA – West Brom, League – Liverpool
League Ranking: 6th
World Ranking: 11th
Man United have become the new dominant force in England, but it may not be long be Workington spend their way up. The newly promoted team splash £9M on transfers, and finish a very strong 8th. They maybe England’s last hope in terms of league rankings, as the coefficient finally slips behind Portugal into 6th. In squad terms, only 19 players who have made real top tier appearances are left. Most of the continental results go as expected, apart from Teplice who pull out a real shock to win the Europa League. They’re from the Czech Republic if you weren’t sure.
2031/32
League Winners: Everton
Cup Winners: FA – Everton, League – Everton
League Ranking: 6th
World Ranking: 11th
Everton perform big on the domestic stage, managing to grab a fantastic triple to stamp themselves as one of the new elite. However that’s meaning less and less globally, as none of the English teams make it past the Champions League Group Stages. Even Scotland get more coefficient points, things are looking grim. That’s not helped by 10 of the old guard retiring, only 9 current players still exist.
England make up for an shoddy World Cup with a semi decent Euros, managing to make it all the way to the final before Portugal just get the better of them 2-1. Virgil Van Dijk seems to have the boys back on track.
2032/33
League Winners: Man United
Cup Winners: FA – Huddersfield, League – Newcastle
League Ranking: 6th
World Ranking: 2nd
Man United claim a trophy back, but it’s Workington finishing in 2nd that makes the real statement. Are they England’s last hope for a good European showing? Well not if Everton have something to say, as they make the first Champions League Final for an English team in 10 years. Liverpool are still resisting the English rush, with only 13 local players, but the rest of the league makes up for it to create an 84% average. Over in France, Sochaux take a shock title, as do Hoffenheim in Germany. The European titles go to Roma and Lazio.
2033/34
League Winners: Everton
Cup Winners: FA – Man United, League – Fulham
League Ranking: 6th
World Ranking: 1st
Everton take their second title in two years, but it’s Fulham the team having the parties, as they make both cup finals, ending up with taking home the League Cup. Workington have pushing their spending above £10M, but it’s no guarantee of success, with them only managing 5th. Only two current footballers are left, it’s a race to retirement between Raheem Sterling and Nabil Bentaleb. Sterling will probably win, as Bentaleb is a bit rubbish at this point…
The England national team raises everyone’s hopes by winning every group stage game of World Cup 2034, but then restore order to the world by falling to Italy in the first knockouts. Spain once again win the whole thing, beating Argentina 2-1. I don’t know if it’s my fault that Spain are so good, maybe I made their league too strong.
2034/35
League Winners: Man United
Cup Winners: FA – Ipswich, League – Everton
League Ranking: 6th
World Ranking: 3rd
Chelsea and Man City return to the top three after a small hiatus, and they’re still keeping Workington from dominating despite them spending over £20M. Maidstone have also made their way to the top league now, whilst Dorchester have just won the Championship. Everything I’ve done is now breaking. Help.
What now…
Well at this point two things have happened to bring the experiment towards the end. Firstly, the tier 7 teams have started to well and truly fucked with the experiment. They’re by no means riding straight to the top, but it’s surely only a matter of time before they build up the complete package. And secondly, the league ranking has got as low as I can see it going. The English youth is just about good enough to get 10 coefficient every season, and no-one below 6th is good enough to string consistent seasons together. How about we fast forward a little bit and see if anything actually interesting happens…
2035 to 2040
The titles are relatively equally shared between Man United, Chelsea, and Everton. The later have somehow become a star laden team, taking both the assists record with Courtney Kerr, and the goals record with Pavel Zlobin. However the broken teams of Maidstone, Dorchester and Workington have ruined the English percentage, breaking it all the way down to 75%, despite even Chelsea having 23 Englishmen. They aren’t dominating at all though, with Dorchester even getting relegated. All is well though, as Arsenal hire Oxlade-Chamberlain as boss and he tries to get them relegated, only to be replaced by James Wilson who saves them. Next season they bring in the Ox again, and this time he succeeds in taking them to the Championship. I actually laughed.
James Vaughan takes over as England gaffer, with Van Dijk leaving after the 2034 World Cup. Vaughan gets a rough start as he leads England to a distinctly average Euro 2036, before somehow pulling an absurd World Cup win out in 2038, using extra time at every opportunity. Euro 2040 is also pretty average, as the World Champions fall in the semis. Still, that’s pretty damn good.
2040 to 2045
The titles are shared between Everton, a resurgent Chelsea, and an unlikely Fulham, who spend the time being average or winning the whole thing. Dorchester return to the top tier, dragging newcomers Cambridge City (not the good Cambridge) along to them. Arsenal are still struggling as relegation battlers, whilst Huddersfield take over their mantle as European challengers. They get absolutely battered by Real Madrid 7-1 in their first ever knockouts. With their spare cash, everyone has upgraded facilities to maximum.
Internationally England make World Cup 2042 final and the 2044 Euros semi-finals, but both times get dumped out by France. Still, relatively strong performances all round. England’s greatest ever player, Toby Dunk, finally retires at 39. With 2 World Cups, and 1 player of the year trophy, as well as 160 caps giving him 105 goals, it’s safe to say he’s booked his spot in the record books.
A random note, Greg Leach of Sunderland retires. Normally I wouldn’t mention it, but at the age of 39 he finishes his 24th season, having scored 524 goals in 985 games, all at Sunderland. He falls just short of the big 1000, but realistically that’s still way better than every single other Premier League player has ever managed. In terms of honours, he managed a grand total of 0 caps and 0 trophies. What a career.
2045 to 2050
Cambridge City become the first “un-embargoed” team to win the title, and take that momentum to take a further two titles. That’s not without spending a fair bit of cash mind. Maidstone and Dorchester follow suit, and the new teams start to build a new elite. Pavel Zlobin of Everton finally retires, having scored 418 Premier League goals in 606 games. Easily the record for most goals. Everton do manage to keep the good times going despite it, and become the fourth member of the new English top tier.
England get two shots at the World Cup, one resulting in a destruction of the Mexico, the new world force, in the final. And the other resulting in utter failure at the group stages. Over in the Euros it’s yet another final, although Italy stop them getting their second European title.
The result?
Honestly I’m not entirely sure. However the international performance seems a little better than I’d normally see from England so… I’m going to say it was a Success. The league may have suffered a little, but the 3 World Cup wins in 6 tournaments is one hell of a return. So you heard it here first folks, this is what England need to do to win. Out with the foreign players and I promise you the World Cups will come rolling in. Like London Buses.
As an extra bit of proof, here’s a graph of the percentage of English players in the Premier League (Full squads of 23). The blue line is the total percentage, whilst the red line is with the “broken” tier 7 teams taken out. It’s pretty clear things blast up to 85% and then plateaus, whilst every Tier 7 team in sees a drop of about 5%. The 85% cap seems to be due to the abundance of international connections every team has (I’m looking at you Liverpool, what the hell is up with Denmark!).
The state of the world
Spain
Asides from a single solitary title in 2025 going to Real Sociedad, every single title goes to the three you’d expect. Villarreal are the only team that puts in a vague fight to disrupt the top, whilst Sevilla and Valencia both become relegation battlers (well I guess for Valencia that’s right…)
Germany
Bayern dominated early on, with random titles going to Dortmund, Wolfsburg and Köln. Köln do later get relegated, whilst Schalke build themselves into a strong team before dominating the entire 40’s. The league struggles to keep up with the Spanish, at some points falling to 5th best.
Italy
The biggest surprise for me is that no one wins the title for me than 4 years in a row. AC Milan, Napoli, Juventus, and Roma all battle it out to start with, before the first two are replaced by Lazio and Inter. The league as a whole remains very competitive in europe, probably more so than in reality…
France
Well for starters the French league rises to the point of being permanently 1st or 2nd in the Euro coefficient. Monaco manage a 3 year title run in the 20’s, but other than than PSG dominate as expected. The oddest two titles go to Sochaux-Montbe, who actually become a top team globally.
Portugal
Not much to say other than Porto and Benfica take all but 6 titles. Those 6 go to Sporting, Braga, and a nice little trophy for Vit. Guimaraes. But mostly Porto and Benfica.
Holland
I’m putting Holland here for the pure entertainment. Cambuur, Roda, Excelsior, Dordrecht, Sparta Rotterdam, Zwolle and RKC all win titles. I’m pretty sure most of them get relegated too, including PSV and Feyenoord. The only consistent (ish) team is Ajax. The league is an absolute shambles.
Scotland
The Scottish league got hit by a massive influx of free English players. As a result Motherwell were the first team to depose Celtic, before Hearts and Rangers began a long on-going battle for every title. Celtic have become relegation strugglers, dropping to the Championship every other season. Hooray!
Europe
Other than the fact that England only appear in 3 finals after 2020, the Champions league remains inconsistent, with most of the titles going to Spain or Italy. Sochaux do grab themselves a winners medal though. The oddest winners come in the Europa League, with the Czech Republic taking home two titles in the form of Teplice and Slovan Varnsdorf. Genuinely not the teams I expected, at all.
International
The International scene sees very little surprises. Apart from the whole “England actually winning” thing of course. Mexico do become a very very strong nation, claiming a World Cup, whilst Turkey see above average performances to take home a Euro cup.
If you want information on other leagues, the following were also loaded: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czech Rep, Greece, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, USA, Ukraine. Just drop a message and I’ll give a short update.
One final test
With everything falling apart thanks to the newer teams, I did wonder what what happen if I loaded more of England, so as to prevent something like Workington happening again. So this time I loaded 9 tiers of the English pyramid, and blitzed (well, holidayed incredibly slowly) through a few decades. And the result is… someone from tier 10 breaks it instead. The lucky team this time are Wodson Park, who achieve a ridiculous 9 promotions in 10 seasons to make the Premier League in 2024/25. They do seem to be an anomaly though, as the second best climber (Cadbury Athletic) only gets to League 2 in the same time. This one is much more of a failure.
Basically, below Championship level the quality gap begins to blur a little, so having the huge advantage of all the free transfers you could want just blows everyone else out the water. It seems like the test I did might be the best we get, unless I find some way of putting an embargo on teams in leagues not loaded. Otherwise they just inevitably take over and ruin everything.
Final Thoughts
Well wasn’t this an interesting one. Basically the complete reverse of the Qatar one, this time trying to kill a league rather than build one. I was a little surprised at how noticeable the drop off in European terms was, England stopped being competitive in every single way, whilst on the flip side the national team improvement was impressive. Luckily for England the game is so ingrained that a full squad of 23 talented players is quickly made and trained, but domestically it’s tough to get enough, with many teams rotating huge chunks of players every year. And almost no English teams had top talent, at all. Any good regens very quickly went to actually competitive leagues.
Again I enjoyed writing this, as insane as it sounds. I hope that carried across in the way it’s read! Last time I wrote one of these I received some absolutely fantastic feedback, and ideas of what else to do, so if anyone has more of these to chuck at me then I’m more than welcome to hear them. I’ve got a list and everything. Thanks for reading though, always good to know I maybe entertained one person with this. You should probably get some real hobbies though.
Fancy carrying on from where this ended? Go to this link to download the save: Download
