Burnley
Blackburn Rovers
Coventry City
Derby County
Leeds United
Luton Town
Middlesbrough
Millwall
Norwich City
Portsmouth
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield United
QPR
Over decades now, we have seen many teams promoted from the Championship to the Premier League who have be able to compete from the off and have not looked out of place.
Now, what is usually a typical dogfight at the bottom between numerous clubs has devolved into a comfortable ride for many teams, with the recently promoted teams barely putting up a fight.
How big is the gap between the Championship and the Premier League? I would argue that it is now wider than it has ever been based on the recent evidence below.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 17 |  West HamWest Ham | 32 | 9 | 8 | 15 | 36 | 54 | -18 | 35 |
| 18 |  IpswichIpswich | 32 | 4 | 9 | 19 | 33 | 67 | -34 | 21 |
| 19 |  LeicesterLeicester | 32 | 4 | 6 | 22 | 27 | 72 | -45 | 18 |
| 20 |  SouthamptonSouthampton | 32 | 2 | 4 | 26 | 23 | 77 | -54 | 10 |
Every Championship team dreams of reaching the promised land that is the Premier League, whether that be in the short or long-term. But is survival for newly promoted clubs now becoming virtually impossible? Especially given the state of this season and last year, too?
Leicester City, Ipswich Town, and Southampton set to make Premier League history
Last season saw Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton Town promoted to the Premier League following promotion in the 2022/2023 season; all three sides were relegated straight back to the second tier.
Burnley and Sheffield United were nothing short of, only winning eight of 76 Premier League matches between them. Collectively, they managed just 66 points. A similar story is unfolding this season, with Ipswich Town’s recent defeat to Wolves leaving them 14 points adrift with six games left to play.
Relegation is an inevitability for each, with Southampton already confirmed to be a part of next season’s 2025/26 Championship line-up alongside Birmingham City. 49 points between them at the matchday 32 stage has them on track to be the worst three promoted teams ever, beating last season’s trio.
On that, it will mark the second season in a row where the three teams that came up go straight back down; the first time it’s happened in consecutive seasons since the Premier League began in 1992
Prior to the 2023/24 campaign, all three promoted teams being relegated had last occurred in 1997/98 as well. The omens are therefore not good for Leeds United and Burnley at the top of the second tier, with promotion very much in their sights as we approach the run-in at the business end of things.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 1 |  LeedsLeeds | 42 | 25 | 13 | 4 | 82 | 29 | 53 | 88 |
| 2 |  BurnleyBurnley | 42 | 24 | 16 | 2 | 57 | 13 | 44 | 88 |
| 3 |  Sheff UtdSheffield Utd | 42 | 26 | 7 | 9 | 57 | 33 | 24 | 83 |
| 4 |  SunderlandSunderland | 42 | 21 | 13 | 8 | 57 | 38 | 19 | 76 |
Of course, the financial reward is a major benefit of promotion. However, they will be concerned at the state of the bottom of the league considering how dominant each promoted side was in the second tier last term.
However, two of the appalling sides of last season are in the top three if you fast forward to the present day. Despite having been so poor last season in the Premier League, then both forced to sell/release many of their best players, Sheffield United and Burnley find themselves in contention.
Last year, the three sides that came down: Southampton, Leeds United, and Leicester City, all thrived under new management in the second tier. But even teams who accrue 87, 90, and 97 respectively are unable to compete in the top-flight.
The financial problem for promoted clubs to the Premier League
This should soon be a time for celebration for each of the teams in the mix, but Southampton have gone from 87 points down to just 10 in a miserable campaign. They could yet equal, or even break, Derby County’s record for the fewest points (11) in a Premier League season.
Although there have been rare occasions where all three promoted sides survive, most recently with Fulham, Bournemouth, and Nottingham Forest all beating the drop in 2022/2023, there is an evident financial and quality gap growing.
Whilst in the Championship, clubs miss out on the Premier League revenue which brings a massive financial boost. All 17 teams next season will have had three summer and three winter windows to build in the Premier League and many teams who looked the most likely to down are now on upswings.
Wolves, Everton, and Forest have flirted with the bottom in recent years, while West Ham and Graham Potter look like steadily improving. Though clubs earn money for achieving promotion, the clubs already in the Premier League have an automatic advantage, allowing them to invest heavily in their squads.
Some promoted clubs have tried to splash the cash in recent years, but this is often unsuccessful. Vincent Kompany’s Burnley spent just over £100 million on transfers last summer, investing in young talent from abroad; only for them to finish 19th and well adrift. Their best players in the Championship and more added quality on top of that still proved to not be enough.
In terms of quality, the Premier League is at an all-time high and this bar is being continuously raised. For teams looking to adjust from the Championship, this huge difference is proving very difficult to overcome. For example, clubs like Bournemouth are able to outbid the likes of Juventus and Inter Milan.
Having access to that revenue for a concerted period makes it near-impossible for the Championship sides to compete without financial eform of some kind, or some sort of restructuring of the league. There’s even the possibility that relegation is scrapped for an American-style closed off 18-team league.
That hasn’t been mooted yet, but you wouldn’t be surprised if it was argued strongly at some stage by the current teams for more of a closed group Premier League. This year, we are set for the worst bottom three in Premier League history, which is a huge concern for English football after last season.
How do Burnley and Leeds United break the relegation cycle?
Those relegated to the second division of English football have much bigger resources than those who have not been in the Premier League of late due to parachute payments. But they are somehow still finding it difficult to compete once they face teams who have been in the top league for a longer period.
Leeds and Burnley could still yet manage two of the highest points totals ever, but it will mean very little if they don’t nail recruitment and be cut-throat in the Premier League this summer. Many see this gap as a purely financial one, but tactics, added quality, and vital experience are crucial as well.
Luton’s recruitment was perhaps the most appropriate tactic as a strategic method; physicality and athleticism can get you to compete, but they then leave you with a Championship squad lacking the technical players to be the protagonists at the top end of the second tier — hence their struggles this term.
Even with that said, there’s a sense that the gulf between the Premier League and Championship is widening, and at a quicker rate than ever before. It will be extremely difficult for even one team to make the jump, let alone two or even all three.
It could, and perhaps is, creating a group of clubs in between the two leagues which are too good for one division but cannot seem to compete at the level above; almost a mini-league between leagues where seven or eight teams will lie in a purgatory-like state.
While that doesn’t necessarily reflect too well on the state of the Championship, it’s arguably even more of a problem for the Premier League. They want the average standard of the competition to be as high as possible, meaning reform is definitely worth considering if lightning strikes for a third time in 2025/26.