Fulham will be eyeing an immediate return to the Premier League this season coming as they embark on a Sky Bet Championship challenge.

Marco Silva is now at the helm after he succeeded Scott Parker and he'll be itching to prove himself after his last spell in England ended up being a tough one Everton.

At Hull City and at Watford initially he did a good job, though, and he'll be looking forward to the challenge.

Whilst we wait to see how they get on, though, we've been thinking about some of the best English players to have played for the club in the last 15 years - with that time seeing the club playing in the Premier League and in Europe, as well as the second tier.

Here, then, is an XI of English players to have featured for Fulham in the last decade and a half...

Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer was in goal for Fulham's highest moments in the last 15 years but they've had other top 'keepers in that time, too, and their best English one is probably Marcus Bettinelli, who has spent a great portion of his career at the Cottage.

He left this summer, of course, having fallen down the pecking order at the club but at one point he was a real key member of the side, helping them win promotion in 17/18, with him also receiving an England call-up.

He's looking for a new club this summer, then, and it'll be interesting to see where he ends up. At 29-years-old he still has much to offer.

Ryan Fredericks flew up and down the right-hand-side for Fulham during his time at Craven Cottage and was a real asset both offensively and defensively for the club.

He joined in 21015 from Bristol City and was at the club until 2018 with him making over 100 league appearances during his time at Craven Cottage, helping them win promotion in the 2017/18 season.

He joined another London club in West Ham United in 2018 and has been there ever since, establishing himself as a Premier League level player in the process.

The Irons finished well last season, and he'll want to help them build on that this coming campaign as he battles Vladimir Coufal for a starting spot.

Tosin Adarabioyo excelled for Fulham last season and, despite their relegation, he proved himself as a player good enough to be featuring at Premier League level.

The Cottagers will want to try and keep him this summer if they can but, of course, there is every chance that clubs are going to be lurking and looking to try and take him away from south west London.

Fulham have had some good centre-backs over the last 15 years but a lot of them have hailed from outside of England, so Tosin is one of the players to get the nod and, in fairness, the quality and potential he has means he's more than at home in this theoretical team.

Chris Smalling did not play much for Fulham and this may raise a few eyebrows but you have to look at his career since to see why he gets into this team.

He joined Manchester United as a youngster and helped them win the Premier League title, working with the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Phil Jones as he made over 200 league appearances for them in a 10-year spell at Old Trafford.

He's also earned over 30 England caps and is playing for AS Roma in Serie A now, so he's got a very impressive CV when you look at it.

Paul Konchesky bombed up and down the left for Fulham during his time at the club and it got him a move to Liverpool when Roy Hodgson moved there from the Cottage for the start of the 2010/11 season.

Of course, the move did not work for manager or player and they were soon both leaving Merseyside but Konchesky's efforts for Fulham cannot be forgotten and he was a really decent player for the club at his best.

He had a great left-foot on him and made just shy of 100 league appearances for the club between 2007 and 2010.

Steve Sidwell made over 90 league appearances for Fulham between 2011 and 2014 with the Cottagers bouncing around mid-table in the Premier League for most of his time there - though it obviously ended on a sour note.

He scored 14 goals for the club during his time there in the league and was captain for a short spell, though it ended negatively as he was released at the end of the 13/14 season after the club's relegation.

Other players that could have been mentioned were Scott Parker, though that's perhaps a bit raw, and Tom Cairney - though he has, of course, represented Scotland.

Instead, we've found two other midfielders from the Premier League years...

Danny Murphy was a top signing for Fulham as he came towards the end of his career and imparted all his knowledge on the side to help them impress in the Premier League and go on that fine run in the Europa League as they made the final against Atletico Madrid.

Murphy had played for the likes of Liverpool, Charlton and Tottenham in the years leading up to his spell at Fulham, with him joining in 2007 and not leaving until 2012.

In that time, he made just short of 170 league appearances for the club with him enjoying a top spell in the latter stages of his career.

Jimmy Bullard's time at Fulham was badly hit by injuries but he still showed what he could do during his time at the Cottage, with some particularly important moments in the club's fantastic run to survival in the 07/08 season as Roy Hodgson came in to help them out.

He would have undoubtedly liked to have played more than the near 40 league appearances he made between 2006 and 2009 but it's a cruel game sometimes and these things can happen.

On the back of his performances in 07/08 for Fulham he earned an England call-up but never got the chance to actually feature for the Three Lions.

We're going to ask Andy Johnson to run the channels a bit in this particular XI so we can make room for who we want to in the attacking third.

Johnson joined Fulham in 2008 and was at the club for the next four years, making 80 odd appearances in the Premier League for the club during that time, and scoring 13 goals in the process.

The 08/09 season was arguably his best campaign at the club with him scoring 10 times and helping them finish 7th to qualify for the Europa League the following year, with his next two campaigns badly hindered by injuries.

11/12 was also decent enough for him, though, with a hat-trick against QPR and he also scored eight goals in total during Fulham's trips to Europe.

Ryan Sessegnon burst onto the scene as a teenager and though he started as a full-back we perhaps saw him at his best for Fulham further forwards.

We're putting him on the left of this attacking three and we're sure he'd have been right at home in the Cottagers' side when they were challenging for European places and putting the likes of Juventus to the sword.

Sessegnon was repeatedly linked to Spurs during his time at Fulham and he eventually made the move across town in 2019.

He's not played much for Tottenham since but he's still very young and the hope will be he is going to deliver on that huge promise that he clearly has.

Bobby Zamora has to be in this team and he completes our XI.

Zamora earned cult hero status at a number of clubs that he played for, with several of them in London, and that is testament to the sort of character and professional he was during his playing days.

He was a big part of Fulham's success at the turn of the last decade, with him making over 90 league appearances for them between 2008 and 2012.

He scored 20 league goals for Fulham during that time, as well as famous strikes in Europe against the likes of Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus and Wolfsburg.