Relegation from the Premier League is about as bad as it gets for a football club. To go from mixing it with the elite of English football to dropping down to a division as fierce and competitive as the Championship can be a major challenge for a team, and we’ve seen countless times in the past how relegation from the top flight can lead to a slide down the English football pyramid.
Tales like that of Sunderland are proof that the cost of relegation can hit hard, both in terms of finances and in terms of the general atmosphere around a club. The challenge facing Bournemouth, Watford and Norwich City this season is to avoid such a slide, and in an ideal world to fight for promotion back to the top flight. It seems to be becoming a rarer feat for clubs to regain promotion the season after being relegated, so let’s assess the chances of each of last season’s relegated sides.
Bournemouth
Bournemouth were close to staying up on the final day of the Premier League season, but ultimately succumbed to the clutches of the relegation zone after five seasons in the top flight. It was seen by many as a miracle that Bournemouth even got promoted in the first place, but manager Eddie Howe proved so many people wrong to keep them there for some time.
Howe and Bournemouth went their separate ways in the summer, and with Jason Tindall now in charge, the challenge is to earn promotion straight back to the top flight. At the time of writing the Cherries are the favourites to be promoted according to the Betfair Exchange, and their supporters would love to see an immediate return having got used to Premier League football.
The club has done well to hold on to a number of their Premier League regulars, although they lost both Ryan Fraser and Callum Wilson to Newcastle, and that squad strength should help them last the course in such a difficult division.
Watford
Watford find themselves in a similar situation to Bournemouth. Both clubs were promoted in the same season from the Championship, and after five years both clubs were relegated from the Premier League in the same campaign. Vladimir Ivi? is the latest man to step through the gates of Vicarage Road as manager, and he’ll be hoping he can mastermind a return to the top flight in short order.
One of the big talking points of the summer transfer window was the future of Senegalese forward Ismaïla Sarr. He had been linked with a number of Premier League clubs, including Liverpool, but Watford set an asking price that was deemed too high and so Sarr has remained at Vicarage Road. If he can find his best form, he could be a valuable asset as Watford try and regain promotion.
Norwich City
As for Norwich, their relegation is less of a catastrophe, having only spent a single season in the top flight under Daniel Farke. The German has remained to try and help earn promotion for a second time, and for now the club has held onto players such as Todd Cantwell, although key defenders Ben Godfrey and Jamal Lewis have both moved on, to Everton and Newcastle respectively. It’s been a mixed start to the season for the Canaries, with two wins, a draw, and two defeats telling the tale of their season so far. But a Championship promotion campaign is a marathon, not a sprint, and with the squad having experience of winning the 2018-19 title, they may just fancy themselves to nick promotion if they can build some momentum.
