davieG Posted 17 June 2009 Posted 17 June 2009 From the BBC - Full script It it less than one month since Burnley's victory in the Championship play-off final brought the curtain down on another memorable year in the Football League. But as the Clarets look forward to mixing with English football's aristocracy, the release of next season's fixtures confirms that Charlton Athletic, Southampton and Norwich City are facing an altogether bleaker reality. Three clubs who were members of the Premier League only four years ago will take on Wycombe, Millwall, and Colchester respectively in League One on 8 August, after being relegated from the Championship. Southampton dropped into the second tier in 2005 after 27 years in the top flight. Norwich came down with them after a solitary season of struggle. Charlton, long regarded by many as the model of how a modern club should be run, were relegated from the Premier League in 2007. Their stories are familiar ones. The three worst sides in last season's Championship are the latest in a growing number of clubs to sink from the top flight to the level formerly known as Division Three. Since the Premier League's inaugural season in 1992/93, 14 clubs have experienced the slide from the top division to what is now League One. ...................................................... Full script here .....................................Last season Dickov helped Nigel Pearson's Leicester side to the League One title and the striker knows what it takes to haul a big name out of a lower division. "It will be hard for Southampton, Charlton and Norwich, but I fully expect all three of them to do well next year. "It's a strong league, physically. We knew teams were going to start fast against us - we just wanted to start faster. It knocked the stuffing out of them a bit, because I think they expected a team who didn't like the physical side of the game. Dickov sees parallels between the way Royle turned Manchester City's fortunes around in 1999 and the job Pearson has done since the Foxes were relegated from the Championship a year ago. "Nigel settled everyone down," said Dickov. "You just got the feeling the club was on the right track again. In the seasons leading up to the relegation Leicester had three or four different managers - as players, if you are constantly changing managers, you can't perform to your maximum. "We had a good start and it was like a snowball effect. We were top of the League for most of the year, confidence was flowing and you feel like you cannot get beaten. "At Manchester City, it was the momentum from the first promotion that carried us back up to the Premier League. We all pulled together, we wanted to get the club back up, and we had the belief and hunger to do it. "There's a very similar feeling at Leicester at the moment. With the addition of a couple of players, there's no reason why we can't hold our own. I believe we can certainly push for the play-offs in the Championship." If Leicester do succeed in regaining their Premier League status, they will buck the trend which has seen so many clubs struggle to recreate their glory days once they have dropped out of English football's top two divisions.
Ultra Posted 17 June 2009 Posted 17 June 2009 Man City made it back to the Premier League, though they needed two goes to stay there. I hope we can follow their trail.
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