Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton were all relegated to the EFL Championship last season. But, what can we expect from the three sides? Let’s find out.
Ipswich Town
Stop me if this sounds familiar.
A team gets promoted to the Premier League unexpectedly. They strengthen well; they do their best but ultimately are relegated.
Despite being relegated, they manage to keep the majority of their team together, including the manager that got them to the Premier League in the first place.
The team should bounce back up to the Premier League at the first time of asking right?
Well, this is the position that Luton Town found themselves in at the start of last season, but unfortunately for them they went the other way, being relegated once again to League One.
This is the fate that newly relegated Ipswich Town will be looking to avoid.
The tractor boys were very much the wildcard of the Premier League going into last season, having miraculously secured back to back promotions from League One, coming up automatically from the Championship despite fierce competition from the likes of Leeds, Southampton and Norwich, clubs who have yo-yoed between the second and first tiers in recent seasons, with squads too strong for the former but not good enough for the latter.
Despite spending over £125 million pounds, Ipswich could only manage twenty-two points in the Premier League and were relegated.
Looking ahead to next season, as previously mentioned, they have managed to keep the majority of their squad together so far.
Liam Delap, who scored twelve goals in the Premier League last season, departed for Chelsea after they triggered his £30 million release clause.
Surprisingly, centre back Cameron Burgess rejected a new contract at Portman Road to move to Swansea City on a free transfer.
Versatile defender Axel Tuanzebe has moved on to newly promoted Burnley.
Jens Cajuste, Julio Enciso, Ben Godrey and Kalvin Phillips have all departed the club following the end of their loan spells.
Massimo Luongo and Marcus Harness will also not be a part of the squad next season.
The biggest loss here is undoubtedly Liam Delap but I do not think he is irreplaceable.
George Hirst, Conor Chaplin and Ali Al Hamadi have scored goals for the club at Championship level previously, as well as Sammie Szmodics who, whilst not an out and out striker, was the 2023/24 Championship golden boot winner for a Blackburn Rovers side who only survived relegation on the last day of the season.
Alternatively, they could simply buy a new striker, having doubled their money on Delap and with the parachute payments they will receive as a result of their relegation from the Premier League.
Burgess will certainly be a loss also but with Dara O’Shea and Jacob Greaves at the club, the impact of his departure should be minimised.
There is interest in Omari Hutchinson, but he is still with the club at the time of writing.
Going into last season, it was notable that Ipswich targeted the best players in the Championship, signing the likes of Jacob Greaves and Sammie Szmodics.
Whilst this didn’t work in the top flight, it puts them in a very good position to bounce straight back up this time around. Given the surprise performance of Luton last year, Ipswich’s upcoming season seems less straightforward.
Will they follow in their footsteps and also suffer back-to-back relegations (if anything this is even more likely given how quickly they rose up the divisions)?
Or will they return to the Premier League at the first time of asking as expected? We will have to wait and see.
Leicester City
Former Premier League champions.
The writers of the greatest story in sporting history, find themselves in something of a rut at the moment.
Following their miraculous title win in the 2015/16 season, defying odds of 5000/1 to become champions of England, they continued to be successful.
They won the 2020/21 FA Cup and the English Supercup in the 2021/22 season. They also competed in the Champions League in the season following their Premier League title win, the Europa League in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons, as well as the Conference League in 2021/22 also.
This success would come to an end the following season when they were relegated. Luckily for the Foxes, they were able to bounce back, winning the Championship under the management of Enzo Maresca at the first time of asking.
However, the very next season they were once again unable to avoid the drop, finishing thirteen points behind 17th place Tottenham.
Now they once again find themselves in the Championship, but this time with no manager and even more significantly no Jamie Vardy.
The club’s top goal scorer departed at the end of last season following thirteen seasons at the club, playing a key role in all of their recent success.
Despite this, Leicester City need to get out of the Championship once again, but will they be able to do it?
Aside from Vardy, only two other senior players have left the club as of yet, Daniel Iversen and Danny Ward, both are goalkeepers, and neither are first choice.
Odsonne Edouard and Facundo Buonanotte won’t be part of the squad next season following their loan spells from Crystal Palace and Brighton respectively.
It is looking likely that experienced centre back Conor Coady will be leaving the club, with rumoured interest from Scottish giants Rangers reported.
There is thought to be interest in goalkeeper Mads Hermansen and attacker Bilal El Khannouss, two of the clubs’ only bright lights from last season.
These would both be huge losses for the club.
One thing that certainty must improve if Leicester are to reclaim their Premier League status is their signings.
There has been much criticism over recent seasons, with their marquee signing this season being Oliver Skipp, as players such as Youri Tielemans and James Maddison have departed.
One thing that the club must get right going into next season is their managerial appointment. After Enzo Maresca left for Stamford Bridge, he was replaced with former Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper.
These links didn’t exactly endear the Leicester City fans to the Welshman, and he was sacked after only twelve games, despite the club not even being in the relegation zone at the time.
He was replaced by Premier League legend Ruud Van Nistelrooy who couldn’t improve things and oversaw the Foxes relegation to the second tier.
Whoever this new manager is, they may have to deal with a points deduction after the club were charged with an alleged breach of EFL financial rules, potentially making a return to the Premier League even more difficult.
Southampton
What a season it was for Southampton. But for all the wrong reasons.
The side which used to be home to the likes of Gareth Bale, Virgil Van Dijk and Sadio Mane, very nearly became the worst Premier League team in history last campaign.
The Saints managed to surpass Derby’s record of eleven points, set in the 2007/08 season, finishing the season with a measly twelve points to their name.
Russell Martin started the season at the helm but very quickly something became clear. His style of play that had bought his side so much success in the Championship, was not going to work in the Premier League.
And yet, he persisted with it, failing to learn from Vincent Kompany who tried the same thing with his Burnley side the season before and paid for it.
Martin would be sacked in December. Ivan Juric was the man brought in to try and rescue the rapidly sinking ship.
For me this was a curious appointment given how Juric had underperformed with a Roma side that by the end of the season, Claudio Ranieri had one point outside of the Champions League Places.
However, to be honest, even then it felt like it didn’t matter who they appointed, Southampton looked dead and buried even then.
Simon Rusk took charge of the team for the last few games of the season, but things are starting to look up for them in the managerial department, with the appointment of the highly regarded Will Still.
A few years ago, you couldn’t go on social media without being bombarded with articles about Will Still because of how well he was doing at Reims and the unique circumstances that surrounded him and his managerial journey, namely his young age and that Reims had to pay a fine for every game he managed as he didn’t have a professional coaching license.
After impressing at Reims and then Lens, he announced that he would leave the French club at the end of last season. He now finds himself on the South Coast.
I think that of the three relegated sides Southampton’s team will look the most different going into next season.
Paul Onuachu has headed back to Trabzonspor, Adam Lallana has announced his retirement and Kyle Walker-Peters has left the club after his contract expired.
Aaron Ramsdale is likely to be sold once again, Kamaldeen Sulemana is almost certain to join Atalanta. Porto are interested in Taylor Harwood-Bellis, and there is plenty of interest in Tyler Dibling.
The only player they have brought in is young German centre back Joshua Quarshie from Hoffenheim.
Despite all the potential departures, I think that Southampton will do well next season.
They have installed a good manager and even with players leaving, they still have a good squad.
To add to that, players such as Ronnie Edwards and Shea Charles returning from impressive loan spells in the Championship, I think Southampton will be right up there this season.
