Premiere League Hangover
- Fred
- 15 hours ago
- 8 min read
"The hardest thing to do in sports is to win a game in the National Football League" - Network Broadcasters across the United States.
That quote is simply not true. You pay 5 billion dollars for a team in the NFL and the league is set up for you to win half the time, for the rest of your life. The late NFL Commissioner Pete Rozell slanted the league for parity. The hardest thing to do in the world of sports is to win a game in England's Premier League, where, if you suck, you are demoted to the lower levels of the soccer pyramid, and you may never return, no matter how much money is in your bank account..
But since the Premier League was formed in 1992, I have often wondered whatever happened to the relegated teams? (Teams in RED have NOT returned to the Premier League once demoted).
92-93 Season
20. Crystal Palace - Has been back in the Premier League for the past decade.
21. Middlesbrough - The last we've seen of Middlesbrough in the EPL was 2017.
22. Nottingham Forrest - Nottingham will finish this season in the EPL in the Top 10.
93-94 Season
20. Sheffield United -More time outside the Premier League, than inside
21. Oldham Athletic - Oldham never returned to the EPL. They are currently in the National League, the fifth level of England's soccer pyramid.
22. Swindon Town - Swindon never returned to the EPL. They are currently in League 2, the fourth level of England's soccer pyramid.
94-95 Season
19. Crystal Palace - You're going to notice a pattern at Crystal Palace.
20. Norwich City - Consistently at the bottom of the EPL or the top of the Championship.
21. Leicester City - Will be relegated again from the EPL as soon as this weekend.
22. Ipswich Town - Will share the same fate as Leicester next weekend.
95-96 Season
18. Manchester City - Yes, that Manchester City. The only way they'll be relegated in the next decade is by running afoul of Financial Fair Play Rules.
19. Queens Park Rangers - Consistent Championship participants for the past decade.
20. Bolton Wanderers - Bolton's Glory Days were before World War II
96-97 Season
18. Sunderland
19. Middlesbrough
20. Nottingham Forrest
All 3 teams would be back one day.
97-98 Season
18. Bolton Wanderers
19. Barnsley - Barnsley never returned to the EPL. Not even close in 20 years.
20. Crystal Palace
98-99 Season
18. Charlton Athletic
19. Blackburn Rovers
20. Nottingham Forrest
99-00 Season
18. Wimbledon - Wimbledon was demoted. Moved. Then ceased to exist in 2004. The team was re-organized and re-branded as the Milton Keynes Dons F.C. Milton Keynes has never sniffed the Premiership. AFC Wimbledon is, for all intensive purposes, an expansion team started by Wimbledon supporters, but is unrelated to the original Wimbledon.
19. Sheffield Wednesday - Traditional rivals, Sheffield United, have gotten the best of them over the past generation.
20. Watford
00-01 Season
18. Manchester City - Don't worry Man City, your day will come.
19. Coventry City - Coventry never returned to the EPL. Not even close in 20 years.
20. Bradford City - One of the best teams in England right before World War I, Bradford City rose from 80 years of obscurity, like a shooting star, at the turn of the millennium, only to return to obscurity, never to return to the EPL.
01-02 Season
Ipswich Town
19. Derby County
Leicester City
All 3 teams would be back, but Derby County flaunted Financial Fair Play Rules and nearly ceased to exist.
02-03 Season
West Ham United
West Bromwich Albion
Sunderland
03-04 Season
Leicester City
Leeds United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
04-05 Season
Crystal Palace
Norwich City
Southampton - Southampton has already been mathematically relegated from the Premier League, THIS YEAR.
05-06 Season
Birmingham City
West Bromwich Albion
Sunderland
06-07 Season
Sheffield United
Watford
07-08 Season
Reading
Birmingham City
Derby County
08-09 Season
Newcastle United
Middlesbrough
West Bromwich Albion
09-10 Season
Burnley
Hull City
Portsmouth
10-11 Season
Birmingham City
Blackpool - Blackpool had one magical season in the EPL in 2010-2011, and was then relegated. Blackpool currently resides in League One
West Ham United
11-12 Season
Bolton
Blackburn Rovers
Wolverhampton Wanderers
12-13 Season
Wigan - Wigan was promoted to the Premier League in 2005 and spent nearly a decade there. Once relegated, they would never return. They are now in the middle of the League One pack.
Reading
Queens Park Rangers
13-14 Season
Norwich City
Fulham
Cardiff City
14-15 Season
Hull City
Burnley
Queens Park Rangers
15-16 Season
Newcastle United
Norwich City
Aston Villa
16-17 Season
Hull City
Middlesbrough
Sunderland
17-18 Season
Swansea City - The Pride of Wales (not according to Cardiff City) initially entered the Premier League in 2011 and was relegated in 2018. They have been in the Championship ever since.
Stoke City - In the Premier League from 2008-2018, then also in the Championship since that season.
West Bromwich Albion
18-19 Season
Cardiff City
Fulham
Huddersfield Town - Made it to Tier 1 of the English Soccer Pyramid for the first time in 50 years, only to bookend 16th and 20th place finishes to get sent back down.
19-20 Season
Bournemouth
Watford - The definition of a yo-yo club.
Norwich City
20-21 Season
Fulham
West Bromwich Albion
Sheffield United
21-22 Season
Burnley
Watford
Norwich City - For those keeping score, demoted for the 6th time, more than any other EPL club. Instead of thinking about those relegations, frame it as Norwich is consistently about the 20th best team in England!
22-23 Season
Leicester City
Leeds United
Southampton
23-24 Season
Luton Town - Luton Town went from Tier 5 in the National League to the Premier League in a decade....where they immediately finished in 18th and were sent back down. They are frantically scrambling not to be sent down from the Championship.
Burnley
Sheffield United
24-25 Season (Unofficial)
Ipswich Town
Leicester City
Southampton
Editor's Note I: The 2024-2025 season isn't over, but there's too many points separating the bottom 3 teams on the table. With James Vardy now 38 years old and owner Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha only being a year older, I speculate that Leicester City may have the hardest route back to the Premier League.
Why did we start an article about the Premier League with a quote about the NFL? Simple.
In the NFL, the business model is that the 32 owners make money. Whether a NFL Franchise wins or loses, it is mostly irrelevant. It's nice to win, but there's no "penalty" for losing. Once you're in the NFL club, many never leave. Why? Because the number one priority in the NFL is not football, the city, or the fans. It is the NFL Owner.
In the Premier League, the number one priority is your club winning. If you don't win, you are out of the league. It doesn't matter if your team makes money. It doesn't matter if the fans are happy. You have to win, EVERY SINGLE YEAR.
The NFL's biggest scam is the draft. The NFL Draft (which is, coincidentally, next week) sells hope to the bad teams in the league by giving the "best" incoming players to the worst teams. The NFL makes tens of millions of dollars on The Draft, without even playing a game! What happens if you're the worst team again next year? You get the best college player again.
Wash. Repeat.
In the Premier League, this is how you sell hope. If your team is relegated, you tell the fans that you'll win the Championship the next year. If your team is lucky, and good, it will be back in the Premier League the following year. If it's not you get a Parachute Payment of around $40 million (long story short).
But here's the ruse. In the NFL, they made $23 billion last year and split the pie 32 ways.
The best contrast of how the two leagues work is Randy Lerner. In the year 2002, Randy Lerner inherited the NFL's Cleveland Browns from his father, Al Lerner, who tragically died of brain cancer. Al Lerner had paid $500 million for the Browns when they returned to the NFL in 1999. Randy Lerner got tired of operating an NFL Franchise, ran the team into the ground, and sold the Browns for just over a billion dollars in 2012. Quick math, the Lerner Family made half a billion in a decade.
Why did Lerner tire of the NFL? He was an Ivy Leaguer who spent a year of college at Cambridge and fell in love with Premier League soccer, specifically in the Midlands. When Lerner had the chance to buy Aston Villa, he leapt at it. After a few years of moderate success, the team started to tank. Randy Lerner poured money into nice paint jobs and updated locker rooms, but he ran the team on the pitch into the ground. After 111 years in the top division, it only took 10 years of Lerner's Leadership, even with an open check book, to get the team relegated. Randy Lerner lost almost a half a billion in a decade.
In America, intrepid reporters tried to hold Lerner's feet to the fire for a public that couldn't hold him accountable. Randy Lerner only sold because he was bored. In England, Aston Villa fans took to the streets and were about to tear their stadium down chanting that they were going kill the owner for losing. I am not exaggerating.
Editor's Note II: I used to have the link and would watch it from time to time, but it kept getting taken down on YouTube. Why? Apparently it is against community standards for a mob to chant for someone's death.
Where's Randy Lerner now? Retired from Public View in the Hamptons.
You counter that former Brown's Art Modell received the same treatment? Yeah, when he moved the team. In America, NFL owners hold communities hostage to get what they want. In England, almost every city in the country has a soccer team on some tier of the soccer pyramid. With the exception of the Wimbledon example, it is almost unheard of to move a team more than a few miles from their home. Since 1980, over a third of the teams in the NFL moved, or threatened that they were going to move, if they didn't get new stadiums. There was no community partnership, just blackmail.
West Ham in London moved their home 3 miles away in 2016 and the fans wept.
Editor's Note III: I am not exaggerating about the NFL example either: Bears, Bills, Browns, Cardinals, Chargers, Colts, 49er's, Giants, Jets, Rams, Raiders, Titans. All moved or threatened to move.
No major sport's league in America has a relegation/promotion model because owners want a return on investment. In England, specifically in the Premier League, there is a community/private trust.
But I'll tell you what, that trust is wearing thin.
How do I know? In 2021, a few of the top owners in the Premier League, amongst them Stan Kroenke (Arsenal and Los Angeles Rams) and Joel Glazer (Manchester United and Tampa Bay Buccaneers) tried to break away from the Premier League and form the European Super League. What was the allure of the new league? The Big 6, and some of Europe's other biggest clubs, would start a league with "permanent contestants in a semi-closed league format."
The idea was universally derided, by the fans, other teams, the leagues, and European capitals, everywhere. Who were the champions of the idea? The Richest of the Rich Soccer Owners.
In the NFL, the owners made a solemn pact to make money together. What do the Big 6 (Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, and Arsenal) in the Premier League have in common? They don't care about ANY of the teams that have been relegated above.
None of them.
If Owner John Henry (Boston Red Sox and Liverpool) read this article, he would probably learn things about his own league that the average Premier League fan has etched in their memories.
I 100% guarantee you that the Big 6 Owners are still studying plans to either break away from the Premier League, or ensure they can't be relegated from the Premier League, within the next 5 years.
Coincidentally, the winningest coach in NFL history, Bill Belichick, is out promoting his book this week: The Art of Winning: Lessons From My Life in Football.
Secrets contained within? None.
Coach Belichick's biggest reveal? There is no "Patriot Way," he just focused on winning.
Like, duh?
<sigh>
Editor's Note IV
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