How Premier League's worst teams have fared after relegation (2024)

Published

6 August 2024

Few teams were as glad to see the back of 2023-24 as Sheffield United.

The Blades suffered a dismal campaign, as they won just three times and set an unwanted Premier League record for goals conceded with a whopping 104.

Their final tally of 16 points from 38 games was the joint-third lowest ever amassed in the top flight since the Premier League's inception in 1992.

As Chris Wilder's side prepare for life back in the Championship, BBC Sport takes a look at how the other clubs in the bottom five for Premier League points tallies have got on in their first campaign after going down.

What went wrong?

The Black Cats had finished 17th the season before so it was perhaps no surprise when they made a bad start to the following campaign.

Peter Reid was sacked in October and replaced with a management team of Howard Wilkinson and Steve Cotterill. However, they could do little to right the sinking ship and, when Mick McCarthy took over in March, relegation was already a foregone conclusion.

The Wearsiders lost all of their final 15 league games of the season and finished a whopping 25 points adrift of safety.

*Portsmouth ended the season with 19 points in 2009-10 but that was after being deducted nine points for entering administration

What happened next?

Sunderland fans probably feared the worst when they lost their first two matches back in the Football League but a run of four straight wins after that got their season going.

They never really threatened the top two of Norwich and West Brom but a third-placed finish was an impressive showing given the disarray of the previous campaign.

Sunderland's promotion bid ended at the play-off semi-final stage, though, as sixth-placed Crystal Palace claimed a 5-4 win on penalties after a last-minute goal by Eagles midfielder Darren Powell in the second leg had made it 4-4 on aggregate.

Driven on by that near miss, McCarthy led them to the title the following season with 94 points. Although success wasn't particularly lasting - more on that later...

What went wrong?

Now looking forward to a first-ever season in the Champions League - and a first at European club football's top table since 1982-83 - things were very different for Villa nine years ago.

After successive Premier League finishes of 16th, 15th (twice) and 17th, the team were in a mess both on the pitch and off it.

They won their opening game of the season at newly-promoted Bournemouth but didn't win again in the league until beating Crystal Palace in January and Norwich in February, by which time Tim Sherwood had been replaced by Remi Garde.

The Frenchman didn't manage another win and had quit by the time a teenage Marcus Rashford confirmed their relegation with four games to spare as Villa lost 1-0 at Manchester United in mid-April, one of their 27 league defeats that season.

What happened next?

Chinese businessman Tony Xia took over in the summer and said he wanted the club to win the Champions League within 10 years.

However, despite spending big on players like James Chester, Jonathan Kodjia and Ross McCormack, boss Roberto Di Matteo won just one of his 11 matches and was sacked in October.

Championship promotion expert Steve Bruce came in but could only guide them to 13th, as they finished 18 points off the play-offs and 31 off the top two.

Despite his bold promises, Xia was in danger of running the club out of business before billionaires Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris took over in July 2018 and Villa fan Dean Smith ultimately took them back up thanks to a play-off final victory over Derby.

Of course, now Unai Emery has them in the Champions League, maybe Xia could yet be proven right...

What went wrong?

Huddersfield surprised many by avoiding relegation in their first ever season in the Premier League, and first in the top flight in over 40 years, in 2017-18.

Any hopes of kicking on and establishing themselves were quickly dashed, though, as they failed to win a game until November in their second campaign.

Popular boss David Wagner left by mutual consent in January in the middle of a run that saw them lose 13 of 14 league matches.

Young German coach Jan Siewert came in as his replacement and their inevitable relegation was confirmed by a 2-0 loss at Crystal Palace on 30 March.

What happened next?

Town stuck with Siewert for pre-season but he was sacked after a 1-0 home defeat by League One Lincoln in the Carabao Cup in just the third game of the season.

Imps boss Danny Cowley was then appointed his successor a few weeks later off the back of leading Lincoln to two promotions in three seasons from the National League to League One.

Town eventually claimed their first victory since February on 1 October but it was a season of struggle for the West Yorkshire side.

In a campaign broken up by the Covid-19 pandemic, they finally secured their second-tier survival after a win over promotion-chasing West Brom in the penultimate game of the season on 17 July.

What went wrong?

After winning the Championship title at a canter, Sunderland fans could have been forgiven for thinking they would make a better fist of their first season in the Premier League since their lacklustre relegation two years previously.

Somehow things actually got worse, as they lost their first five games in a campaign where they tasted defeat in 29 of 38 matches.

The Black Cats' joint top scorers were four players who finished with three goals each and their final tally of 15 points was boosted by a penultimate-day win over Fulham, long after relegation had been confirmed.

What happened next?

Ex-Black Cats striker Niall Quinn found himself as both chairman and manager when the season began after a summer takeover.

He made no secret of the fact it was not a position he wanted to be in and his six games in charge brought five defeats and one win.

Enter Roy Keane.

The legendary Manchester United midfielder had just retired from playing after a brief stint at Celtic and took over at the Stadium of Light with the team down at the wrong end of the table.

He made a decent start to get them going in the right direction but kicked things into top gear in January thanks to some clever additions like former United team-mate Dwight Yorke.

A 17-match unbeaten league run between 1 January and 14 April catapulted them to the top of the table as the yo-yo club again won the Championship title.

What went wrong?

Not quite everything but almost.

Rams had been unfancied in the Championship in 2006-07 but Billy Davies led them to promotion through the play-offs with a 1-0 win over West Brom at Wembley.

The Scot probably wished he hadn't bothered.

Derby were ill-equipped for the top level, but they won once all season, a 1-0 success over Newcastle in September, and lost a staggering 29 games.

It seems unlikely that their paltry total of 11 points will ever be usurped as the worst Premier League season ever.

What happened next?

The Rams kept faith with Paul Jewell, who had led Bradford and Wigan to promotion from the second tier, despite his minimal impact having taken over from Davies the previous November.

After a slow start to the season, three wins and a draw from five league games in October were enough for Jewell to be nominated for the Championship manager of the month award, but that was as good as it got for both team and boss that season.

Jewell resigned on 28 December after a 1-0 home defeat by Ipswich left them five points above the second-tier relegation zone.

Nigel Clough, son of legendary Derby and Nottingham Forest boss Brian, took over the following month and steered them to survival with an 18th-placed finish.

Oddly, despite their league struggles, they made the semi-finals of the League Cup and victories over Stoke and Manchester United (who they lost to over two legs in the semis) meant they actually beat more Premier League teams that season than they had in the previous campaign when they had been a top-flight side.

Football, hey?

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