This past weekend saw the first Premier League side relegated from the top flight. Southampton were officially relegated following their 3-1 defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. With 6 games left of the season it seems like the other 2 spots are potentially sorted as Leicester City sit 17 points adrift of West Ham United and safety. West Ham have a 14-point buffer on Ipswich Town who occupy 18th place in the table. With relegation looking increasingly likely for these two, we will look at how their season could shape up next year back in the Championship.
Firstly, we can judge a little from how the teams that got relegated last season and how they have shaped up during this season. Sheffield United and Burnley are in the hunt to bounce back into the Premier League, both sides are accompanied by Leeds Utd as the promotion race looks to be going down to the wire. Both sides lost a few of their players, Sheffield Utd lost Cameron Archer, Auston Trusty and Jayden Bogle who featured in their relegation season heavily.
Burnley on the other hand lost Wilson Odobert, Sander Berge, Dara O’Shea, Arijanet Muric and many more players in the summer. Luton were the other side that got relegated and they have not coped with relegation well. They are in the relegation zone in the Championship sitting in 23rd. The Hatters lost highly influential players over the summer, Chiedozie Ogbene left for Ipswich, Gabriel Osho joined French outfit Auxerre but most importantly Ross Barkley left the club and rejoined Aston Villa.
Another factor at play here is the parachute payment scheme in which teams relegated receive huge amounts of money for participating in the Premier League. If spent right, the Championship shouldn’t be an even playing field as the teams that come down will have normally a bigger budget than their competitors because of these payments which many fans see as unfair.
This also would suggest why there are many ‘yo-yo’ teams, previously Norwich City were seen as the yo-yo side for many years because of their consistency of being promoted from the Championship up to the Premier League, then being relegated the following season! In more recent years, Burnley and Sheffield United have had this happen to them. With the sides who are coming down from this season not being in this situation, we could see this start to happen again.
Southampton
We will start off with Southampton, a team who has had one of the worst league campaigns in recent memory and could become, points wise, the worst team in Premier League history. Southampton have been incredibly disappointing this season. The club have been through 2 managers this season. Firstly, Russell Martin who was sacked after their 5-0 loss at home against Tottenham. Martin couldn’t adapt to Premier League football, playing the same way and style which got him success in the Championship. This evidentially didn’t work with countless errors from playing out from the back which led to goals meant that his side were on the wrong end of many heavy defeats and only picked up a single league victory.
Ivan Juric came in as Russell Martin’s replacement. The Croatian’s time at the club wasn’t what he or the Saints loyal would’ve wanted. Juric came in and said that he wanted his side to be more aggressive and press more, this style didn’t work with the personnel at the club. His first 6 league games in charge all ended in defeat including a shocking 0-5 loss at home against Brentford. His first points came in the game away at fellow relegation battling Ipswich Town with a late winner from target man Paul Onuachu. 7 matches, 1 point and 20 goals conceded later Southampton were officially relegated. After relegation was confirmed, Juric called it time, the Croatian parted ways will the South Coast side after picking up just a single league victory.
Now looking ahead at next season, Southampton already have key players that are linked with moves away from the club. Reportedly West Ham are interested in defensive duo Aaron Ramsdale and Taylor Harwood-Bellis, youngster Tyler Dibling will have clubs interested in him but with the £100m price tag on him, there may not be any bids that could come close to the valuation Southampton have put on their super star. Southampton will need to recruit heavily over the summer as well as bring in a new head coach/manager to lead them in the Championship, with current Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Rohl heavily rumoured at the moment.
With the current squad that the Saints have, they may be too weak to challenge the top 2 spots. We know that they have a proven goal scorer at Championship level in Adam Armstrong but taking him out of the equation you struggle to see where goals would come from. You could suggest Ross Stewart but with his injury riddled season, Saints can’t rely on someone who has struggled to stay fit. Their midfield would be quite strong for the level. Joe Aribo would slot straight into almost every team in the league, Will Smallbone is a good standard midfielder for the level and Flynn Downes is proven to be reliable.
Defensively Saints have been awful this season, they will certainly need to improve this area if they want to be competitive. If I was to make a judgement at this moment of time, I would say that Saints would be looking at the play-off positions. Their squad isn’t good enough to challenge for the title but with a few incomings they could easily be looking at bouncing back into the top-flight.
Leicester City
Moving onto Leicester City, another team who has had a torrid time since their promotion last season. Leicester City came up as champions but the man who took them to the title left the club to join Chelsea. Enzo Maresca led Leicester to glory, but some fans weren’t as happy with him as you would think. Some said that his style wasn’t good to watch. Former Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper was the Italians replacement. Leicester started off the season with a positive 1-1 draw at home against Tottenham, but it took until the 5th of October until they found their first victory in the league. A 1-0 home victory against Bournemouth.
The Foxes followed this result up with another victory, this time against the team we have already discussed Southampton. Leicester were 2-0 down after half an hour but a second half comeback including a 98th-minute winner from Jordan Ayew secured a big 3 points. But following a 2-1 home defeat against Chelsea, Steve Cooper’s job was cut short. In his replacement came in a legendary Premier League forward, Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
His first test would be a midweek battle against West Ham in which the classic manager bounce was in full affect, the Foxes comfortably beat the Hammers 3-1. The Leicester fans optimism returned. That optimism was short lived. Since picking up 4 points in his first 2 matches in charge, Van Nistelrooy’s men have played 15/16 matches with their only points scoring coming against Spurs, winning 2-1 away from home. Not only that but Leicester have broken an unwanted record, with their most recent defeat, Leicester have broken the record for the longest losing home run without scoring a single goal. The last time Leicester found the back of the net at the King Power Stadium was on the 8th of December. Leicester can be officially relegated on Easter Weekend when they face Liverpool. Fans have been left frustrated with the managers thinking, the Dutchman has played the same starting 11 for the last 4 games in which they have scored 0 goals and conceded 9.
Leicester kept most of their squad from last seasons triumphant campaign. This would suggest that when they eventually confirm the drop, they could and perhaps should be looking at an instant return. It is apparent that Leicester’s front line would need improving with their last league goal coming 3 months ago. Vardy is now 38, Leicester won’t be able to count on him too much next season due to his age. Jordan Ayew and Patson Daka have not been up to scratch either. Leicester must bring in a goal scorer in the summer. Leicester do have some exciting young talent though, Abdul Fatawu thrived in the Championship last season.
Another player who performed incredibly well when the club were last in the second tier was Stephy Mavadidi. El Khannouss was a newcomer last summer, you could suggest that he has posed the most threat out of anybody in Leicester’s attack. The 20-year-old should be an exciting player to watch in the Championship if he remains at the club. On paper they also have a strong midfield. Soumare, Skipp, Winks and Ndidi are all very capable of playing well in the Championship. The defensive area isn’t one of their strongest positions on the pitch. Their defensive players haven’t been performing well this season. The Foxes will look to improve the whole backline.
Leicester City could easily be challenging for the title next season. There is no doubt that they will be strong but it’s whether they can replicate what they did in 2024. Another thing to add would be whether Ruud Van Nistelrooy will remain the Leicester boss after this season. Most Foxes fans would want a replacement, there is no doubt that his record since joining isn’t admirable. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he is replaced over the summer, if not before.
Ipswich Town
Ipswich secured an unlikely promotion back into the top-flight with the East-Anglian side securing back-to-back promotions, the first team to do so since Southampton in 2012. There is no denying that Kieran McKenna has been a revelation at the club, taking them from a side stuck in League One to the promised land. Ipswich came into the season as one of the favourites to go down. To some people Ipswich Town could also potentially reflect what Luton Town were like when they came up the season before.
They both had a similar transfer strategy leading into the Premier League season with both bringing in players who stood out in the Championship in the prior campaign. Ipswich had perhaps the hardest fixtures you could think of to start the season playing Liverpool and the champions Manchester City which both ended in defeats. Ipswich would go on to draw the next 4 matches including impressive results at the AMEX Stadium and at Portman Road against Aston Villa. It would take until the 10th of November for McKenna’s side to pick up their first win in the top-flight since 2002 when they beat Spurs away from home.
The following months saw Ipswich Town beat Wolves at Molineux and Chelsea at home. They had some tough results in January going into February, losing at home 0-6 to Man City, 4-1 at Anfield and losing to Southampton. Ipswich have only 1 league win this calendar year coming at the start of April when they went to the South Coast and beat European chasing Bournemouth.
Ipswich don’t have long to save their season as they sit 12 points adrift of safety with 7 games left meaning that in just 2 games they could be confirmed to play Championship football next season. It is looking very likely that Ipswich’s relegation will be confirmed in the coming weeks. Ipswich will need to look at their squad and see if they need to make any improvements.
Firstly, Liam Delap will almost definitely be leaving the club this summer with a reported £30m relegation clause fee. Multiple English clubs and foreign sides have been monitoring the forward reportedly. This will be a position which Ipswich will need to look to sign someone.
Sammy Szmodics had an outstanding season in the Championship with Blackburn last season, he may be the man to step up to cement the striking role. But with a guaranteed £30m budget why shouldn’t Ipswich go all in to buy a top quality forward to accompany Szmodics. Ipswich have quite a young midfield/ attack with only Szmodics, Luongo and Wes Burns over the age of 28.
Jack Clarke tore the league apart when he was at Sunderland. There is no reason why he can’t perform to this level again. The club also bolsters a young defence. Their influential defenders, Leif Davis, Ben Johnson, Dara O’Shea and Jacob Greaves are all 26 or younger. This is certainly a strong defence heading into the Championship.
With the potential squad Ipswich could have leading into next season, I think that they could be fighting for promotion. If they keep the exact same team then there is a strong possibility of them coming inside the top 2 but with the likely loss of Liam Delap, they will need to replace him well for them to achieve this.
