Premier League’s down year hints at trouble ahead

Look, this may be the earliest the winners and losers of the Premier League have ever been decided but I maintain the league itself is still a laugh. Plus, given 11 English sides could theoretically qualify for Europe next season – see, United, you are still a big team! – there is still something in it for the majority.

We talked about Liverpool last week: their title-winning moment at Anfield and everything that came after was incredible to witness.

Their players deserved to enjoy it with the fans after the isolation of 2020’s breakthrough win, and their focus on the collective nature of the achievement was heartwarming.

This week, let’s take a look at the other end of what’s been decided: the bottom of the table. Southampton, Leicester and Ipswich Town have packed their trunks and said goodbye to the circus. This is the second consecutive season where all three promoted teams have been relegated.

Given a major part of what makes English professional football an improvement on any American alternative is the openness of the league system, this feels as if it is a real problem.

After Wrexham’s third straight promotion, co-owner Rob McElhenney confirmed Premier League football is the target. Why not, he said, when the football pyramid here is set up to make the pinnacle possible.

The demise of Luton, Sheffield United and Burnley last season and now the trio no one is calling SLIT would seem to argue against this theory. Or at least – yes you can get there, but you are set up to fail.

The reason this has been such a live subject is because all promoted teams getting relegated is something that did not happen in the first 99 years of the English top flight, and has only happened three times since. Two of those times are in the last two years. Given how clear SLIT’s plight has been from the very early stages of the season, and given Southampton are still sitting on the record lowest points total, the situation seems significant.

Competitive relegation and promotion is our heritage! Something must be done!

It is clear that dominating the money leagues makes you nearly untouchable in the Premier League.

Six teams have been ever-present since founding. Only seven clubs have won the title in 33 years. The gap between resources in the Championship and the top division is growing. Total revenue in the second tier in the 2022-23 season was 12% of the Premier League’s, with the clubs receiving parachute payments taking the lion’s share of that.

But two years is not a trend. There were specific challenges at Leicester that hamstrung their season. Leicester is an atypical club given it’s one of the seven Premier League winners but is also a yo-yo club in the truest sense of the term.

The impact of the tragic death of their visionary chairman seven years ago is ongoing and may make their challenges insoluble in current form.

Southampton’s challenges are similar, although from different cause. Ipswich’s long absence from the top flight and rapid rise has meant they are not yet a club ready for the rigours of the Premier League.

Will Leeds and Burnley fare better next year? They could look to Nottingham Forest for inspiration – a side finishing 17th last season who have a strong chance of being in the Champions League next year – but neither Forest’s success nor the repeated relegation crew are evidence that change is needed.

Not just yet, anyway. But file this away for this time next year, when we may need to talk.

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