The odds of an immediate return to the Premier League would not be in the Whites’ favour if they were to drop down to the Championship – but bouncing straight back up is still the best chance they would have of getting back to the top flight anytime soon.
Only 17 of the 60 (28%) clubs relegated over the past 20 years have been able to secure promotion again at the first time of asking, but that’s still more than the number of sides who come back within 2-4 years of relegation combined.
That means that over half of the teams that drop back into the second tier spend at least five seasons at that level (or even drop again), with 52% of the sides who were relegated between 2005 and 2019 failing to get back into the Premier League within four years.
