For just the second time in the Premier League’s history, all three promoted sides were relegated straight back to the Championship at the end of the 2023-24 campaign. There has been plenty of discussion surrounding the widening gap between the top flight and the remainder of the football league pyramid. Current PL managers such as Marco Silva have suggested that the growing chasm between the two levels is making it much tougher for newcomers to be competitive enough to avoid the dreaded drop.
A quick glance at the 2024-25 relegation betting odds gives further credence to this theory with Leicester, Southampton and Ipswich priced up as the three favourites to make an immediate return to the second tier. Two of the three are currently odds-on to spend just a single season in the top tier, whereas the play-off winning Saints can be backed at a slightly bigger price.
Ahead of the new season, punters will be hoping to find some value in these season-long outright markets. There will be plenty of opportunities to use some of the fantastic betting promotions when putting together ante-post wagers and the majority of bettors are likely to include at least one of these teams in their pre-season accumulators.
Neither of this year’s promoted trio are strangers to the top flight. The Foxes and the Saints are fairly familiar names to Premier League fans, however, Ipswich have been absent for over two decades with the Tractor Boys having been relegated back in 2002.
Since the advent of the Premier League, there have been just four teams who have failed to stick around for more than a single season including the recently relegated Hatters:
Luton Town
Luton Town were unexpectedly promoted to the PL via the Championship play-offs at the end of the 2022-23 campaign. This triumph capped off a remarkable rise which saw the club successfully clinch four promotions in the space of a decade. Although Rob Edwards was the man who guided them to the promised land, plenty of credit must be given to previous boss Nathan Jones who laid some incredibly solid foundations across two separate stints in the dugout.
The Hatters are a well-run club, however, they are a relatively small operation and in order to compete in the top tier, a £10m revamp was made to Kenilworth Road and this allowed them to finally host Premier League football.
Despite some notable results along the way, Luton eventually finished 18th and were subsequently relegated. They weren’t shy going forward, yet their lack of defensive nous held them back and having conceded 85 times in 38 matches, they’ll need to focus on tightening up in the Championship this season.
Blackpool
Blackpool enjoyed a rollercoaster ride under their colourful coach Ian Holloway. The Seasiders returned to the top tier following a 39-year absence and they were regularly described as a ‘breath of fresh air’ by both commentators and pundits.
The Fylde Coast club were hugely entertaining, scoring 55 goals in 38 games, however, they were far too open at the back and were breached on 78 occasions.
Their unfashionable squad, consisting of players such as James Beattie, Marlon Harewood and Gary Taylor-Fletcher overperformed during the first half of the campaign, however, their post-festive slump saw them drop into the relegation zone and a final day defeat to Manchester United was the final nail in the coffin for the Lancastrians.
Barnsley
The Tykes spent just a single season in the top tier under manager Danny Wilson. Despite Neil Redfearn leading by example and netting 17 times, the South Yorkshire club were sadly unable to preserve their status.
Barnsley also made it to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and although their results picked up throughout February and March, they were eventually demoted alongside Crystal Palace and Bolton Wanderers.
Their issues were mostly on the road with the club winning just three times and picking up a total of ten points away from Oakwell. They lost eight of their first ten games and although the damage was already done, they also failed to find the net in any of their last three PL fixtures.
The mid-season signing of Jan Age Fjortoft added some much-needed potency to their attack, yet the Norwegian striker wasn’t able to single-handedly save the Tykes.
Swindon Town
The aforementioned Fjortoft also featured prominently in Swindon’s sole top flight season. He netted 13 times for the Robins who were finally allowed to compete at this level for the first time in 73 years.
Sadly, the Wiltshire club weren’t good enough to stick around and finished bottom of the pile having taken just 30 points from a possible 126. It took them 15 matches to collect their first maximum and they found the net just three times in their first seven outings.
Fjortoft’s arrival did coincide with an upturn in attacking output and they did manage to do the double over top-half dwellers QPR, yet there were very few highlights in what turned out to be a long and arduous campaign for Robins fans.