In the Premier Manager series you lead a team from the Conference, the fifth division of English football, into the Premier League and onto European glory. Sign the right players and sell the bad ones to improve your squad. As in previous games in the series, the telephone puts you in touch with your staff, such as coaches to improve your players' skills and a scout to find new players. Stadium improvements (room for more supporters, undersoil heating, a better supporters' club) and sponsorship (assigning a brand to each piece of the stands around and above the pitch) are largely unchanged from PM2.

New to this version is the Assistant Manager - if you can sign a quality one, he can do jobs such as training for you. Tactical depth is increased in PM3 - each player can be assigned a position on the pitch depending on which sector the ball is in, in a manner similar to Sensible World of Soccer. Match coverage is fuller than in earlier versions, with an isometrically-viewed pitch displaying each touch in detail, helping you work our why your team lost 5-0, and how to stop it happening again.