-- BBC Sport 17-06-09

English football's slippery slope

Southampton, Charlton Athletic and Norwich City are the latest clubs to slide from the Premier League to League One


By Jonathan Rawcliffe


It is less than one month since Burnley's victory in the Championship play-off final brought the curtain down on another memorable year in the Football League.

But as the Clarets look forward to mixing with English football's aristocracy, the release of next season's fixtures confirms that Charlton Athletic, Southampton and Norwich City are facing an altogether bleaker reality.

Three clubs who were members of the Premier League only four years ago will take on Wycombe, Millwall, and Colchester respectively in League One on 8 August, after being relegated from the Championship.

Southampton dropped into the second tier in 2005 after 27 years in the top flight. Norwich came down with them after a solitary season of struggle.


Every team and every fan looks for the bigger clubs when the fixtures come out

Charlton, long regarded by many as the model of how a modern club should be run, were relegated from the Premier League in 2007.

Their stories are familiar ones. The three worst sides in last season's Championship are the latest in a growing number of clubs to sink from the top flight to the level formerly known as Division Three.

Since the Premier League's inaugural season in 1992/93, 14 clubs have experienced the slide from the top division to what is now League One.

Of these teams, only Manchester City have succeeded in regaining their place among English football's elite.

Unquote

Ref url for the full article including a chart since the Premier League's inaugural season in 1992/93 of the 14 clubs with click on links.

Please go to:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/8050784.stm

marshbags

This post has been edited by marshbags: 2009-06-24 17:03:57

Do they?

Well, I for one have no idea who "the bigger clubs" are playing. After West Ham, I look at Colchester's fixtures - or which ever comes first and that's about it until the season starts, when all else becomes pretty well inescapable.

I do wish that these journalists would stop making generalisations based on their own inclinations.

Thanks for posting the article though. Although I had hoped it would be a broadside on the misadventure and greed in forming the PL. I really enjoy reading those.

i wouldn't call saints, charlton and norwich 'big' clubs per se, but i guess they were traditionally top flight clubs. leeds, forest and sheff weds are three properly big clubs that have slipped badly in the past decade or so. fingers crossed next up is newcastle.

I didn't read it to mean that he said it in the context you thought, i read it as he said that when looking at your/our Team's fixtures, you/we look for Games against the " big Clubs " as Wycombe, Millwall, and Colchester will be doing with their Games against Norwich, Southampton & Charlton.

Anyone else ??

Maybe. I'm not sure as the sentence seems a bit unconnected leaving it slightly ambiguous, or easily misread. But even given your interpretation (which on reflection is what he probably meant) I never look for games against bigger clubs first. e.g. Leeds and Norwich , but for the games against the biggest rivals -- Southend and Wycombe. That is, not bigger clubs but bigger, more important games for most supporters. The others games that he mentions follow after, possibly.

This post has been edited by Happy Hammer: 2009-06-25 00:11:26

HH : Thanks MS

MS : Don't mention it HH....



This post has been edited by MSingh: 2009-06-25 00:35:41

Que Sara Sara..........................

Eh ?

What a strange chap you are, MSingh.

Yes, it quite clearly meant every fan of every club looks for what big clubs their respective club will play against in the coming season. Of course you can disagree and say that you look for certain fixtures like derbies, etc., but the writer didn't meant as a West Ham fan you eagerly look at Chelsea's fixtures, that just wouldn't make any sense.

But then again, I don't speak English...

This post has been edited by Jimjim: 2009-06-25 05:14:04

If all this makes me a strange Chap, then i dread to think what it makes you HH.

2 bob comes to my mind in all honesty ...

yeah of course that's what it is. burnley fans look first for when the united, liverpool and chelsea fixtures are next season. it's football fan nature.

Thanks Stevie but according to HH, i'm only " maybe " or " possibly " right & a strange Chap....

Its the same with the FA cup, little teams like Rotherham would rather play Liverpool, than say Rochdale. Like Steve says its just football nature.

you dont know burnley fans well do you we look for 1 team first, blackburn and i suspect most fans do the same for their "hated" or local rivals, then my mind flips into the good old 1st division days 33 years ago and i remember always spurs coming to turf moor. man u = big bucks to me which is pretty importand for the small clubs such as burnley.

haha, my bad so apologies. ok then, after you've looked up when you play blackburn home and away and then probably bolton, thoughts then turn to the big paydays and potential giant-killings that are united, liverpool and chelsea?

Was the Arse left out intentionally stevie

yeah of course. they're not the big draw they were when people would pay a fortune to see thierry henry play in the flesh.

Looks like they may well be going bust ... i hope not.

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,1...5407702,00.html

Matt Le Tissier and the Pinnacle Group's bid to takeover Southampton is over, with the South Coast club now days from going out of business.

Saints legend Le Tissier, the hero of many a relegation battle as a player, will not be the club's saviour off the field after the Pinnacle consortium he was backing pulled out of the running to take control.

Administrator Mark Fry is now thought to be left with two potential buyers - but said last week he would have to consider starting to wind up the club by Friday.

That really is quite sad news, considering they were flying so high in the Premiership not so long ago, just a few years back. I feel sympathy for Southampton fans if it really happens, that's quite horrible.

it is really sad this. sign of things to come over the next few years though i fear.

I've always hated Southampton. I can't remember when it started. Could have been when I was in the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, they also beat us at home at our final game ever, at Maine Road.

But I also concur, this is sad indeed.

Yes i hate them aswell, went to about 10 Newcastle Southampton games at The Dell without us ever winning, they had them 2 le Tissier goals of the season in one game to win, and about 5 or 6 last minute goals to either get a point or win.

Surely someone will buy them theyve got a brand new stadium and can get 30k a week when doing well.

This post has been edited by sanmiguellight: 2009-07-01 13:46:38

it's all about the debt though isn't it? same goes for liverpool at the minute. football clubs saddled with enormous debt and absurd wage bills just aren't attractive investments right now.

Who will ever forget the day Southampton beat United who were wearing the infamous "Grey Kit"? 3-0 I think

Don't think it ever saw the light of day again.

Didn't they have to refund the fans who had purchased it??

Anyway if the saints go out of business I could see some of their fan base going to Reading as that is the nearest club to them, without a history of annimosity...they certainly won't go to Portsmouth

There will always be a club in one form or another, theyll just be in the non league somewhere.