Friday, March 29, 2024

Do promoted sides have enough quality to survive in the Premier League?

Swansea City, Norwich City and QPR were promoted from the Championship to the Premier League last season.

They proved throughout last season that they were the best teams in the second tier of English football.

However getting results in the top flight will be much harder for the trio. The question is how will they cope with life in the top flight next season?

Frustrated

All three have found signing players with Premier League experience difficult this summer. It seems that the majority of players who helped the clubs to promotion will be given their chance in the Premier League.

QPR

Queens Park Rangers won last seasons Championship at a canter in the end. They were expected to spend big on their return to the Premier League. However so far their only two significant signings have been the Bosman signings of Kieron Dyer and Jay Bothroyd.

There are some players in the QPR squad who have Premier League experience but I just don’t see them being strong enough to survive in the top flight without strengthening their squad.

Further more the Hoops could be losing last seasons star player and playmaker Abel Taarabt. French side PSG are believed to be interested in signing the Moroccan and Rangers are resigned to losing their top player.

Rangers hopes of retaining their Premier League status next season could rest on keeping the talented former-Tottenham star or how they replace him. The signing of former-England international Dyer is an interesting one. He has talent and experience but his injury record has blighted his career.

Swans

Swansea City made it into the Premier League courtesy of the Championship play-offs. Brendan Rodgers side were definitely worth their promotion though as they were in the top two of the league for most of the season.

They also played some of the best football in the league. Rodgers has a clear football philosophy based on Barcelona’s style of play and every player in the Swansea team is comfortable on the ball. The Swans have tailored this style over the last few years under various managers.

It will be harder for the Welsh side to play their passing game in the Premier League. Their players will have less time on the ball than in the Championship last season and find it harder to find space.

One player who looks like he could have the class to make it in the Premier League is Scott Sinclair. The former-Chelsea striker-cum-winger was superb last season scoring 22 goals in all competitions.

I am a big fan of the way the Welsh side try to play football. I really hope that new signing Danny Graham can help Scott Sinclair in the scoring department next season.

Canaries

Norwich won a second successive promotion last season under Scot Paul Lambert. He is a highly-rated young boss but not even Lambert would have expected promotion last season. His side took the Championship by surprise with their rise up the table.

The strike-partnership of Grant Holt and Simeon Jackson helped to fire the club to promotion. Despite the strikers producing in the Championship last season they are likely to face tougher competitions for places next season. The Canaries have added attackers Anthony Pilkington, James Vaughan and Steve Morison to their squad this summer.

Although all three players are talented, only Vaughan has previous Premier League experience and that was limited due to injury problems. Norwich’s squad also lacks Premier League experience.

Managers

One of the things that all three promoted teams have in common is that their managers are shrewd. QPR boss Neil Warnock has immense experience and has helped numerous teams to promotion in the past.

However the last time he was in the top flight was with Sheffield United and the Blades were relegated.

Rodgers and Lambert are very much part of the promising young breed of bosses in the English game. They like their teams to play the game with the ball and are forward thinking.

These three could be the difference between their teams surviving in the Premier League or making a quick return to the Championship next season. I fear that not all three will survive the drop next season.

Can all three promoted sides survive in the Premier League next season?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Nugent


David is a freelance football writer with nearly a decade of experience writing about the beautiful game. The experienced writer has written for over a dozen websites and also an international soccer magazine offline.
Arguably his best work has come as an editorial writer for Soccernews, sharing his good, bad and ugly opinions on the world’s favourite sport. During David’s writing career he has written editorials, betting previews, match previews, banter, news and opinion pieces.

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  • Ld

    0 0

    QPR could make it through 1 season. Swansea will fight it out for servival and I think Norwich will go back down. I think Lambert is a great coach, but his side have no depth.
    Wigan, Rovers/ Wolves, and Norwich will be demoted.
    Has everyone forgotten the fact that 1 promoted always rocks the premier league their first season up, then gets demoted the next season.
    QPR will go weel and I think that Abel Taarabt is an unreal player for the club but they need to keep him if they want to stay around for a while in the premier league

  • Chelsea FC Fan

    0 0

    If these teams could somehow hold on to the players that got them promoted, and have a competitive budget to make signings, they are more than likely to stay up…but, if they lose talent and now have to play better football to win, they’re only set up to lose. They all have a fighting chance, and that makes for great competition, but it looks like they are all going to have to fight harder with less talent at their disposal.

    I’m very curious to see how the competition plays out a few years from now once financial fair rules have been implemented for 2 or 3 seasons. The gap between top clubs and the rest needs to be narrowed for promoted teams to have a fair chance.

  • Chelsea FC Fan

    0 0

    If these teams could somehow hold on to the players that got them promoted, and have a competitive budget to make signings, they are more than likely to stay up…but, if they lose talent and now have to play better football to win, they’re only set up to lose. They all have a fighting chance, and that makes for great competition, but it looks like they are all going to have to fight harder with less talent at their disposal.

    I’m very curious to see how the competition plays out a few years from now once financial fair rules have been implemented for 2 or 3 seasons. The gap between top clubs and the rest needs to be narrowed for promoted teams to have a fair chance.

  • Ld

    0 0

    QPR could make it through 1 season. Swansea will fight it out for servival and I think Norwich will go back down. I think Lambert is a great coach, but his side have no depth.
    Wigan, Rovers/ Wolves, and Norwich will be demoted.
    Has everyone forgotten the fact that 1 promoted always rocks the premier league their first season up, then gets demoted the next season.
    QPR will go weel and I think that Abel Taarabt is an unreal player for the club but they need to keep him if they want to stay around for a while in the premier league

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