The event of Cardiff’s promotion to the Premiership now means (rather surprisingly) that from next season, half of the 92 League clubs would have experienced the Premiership since it’s formation in 1992. If Brighton manage to also join Cardiff, via the play-offs, it would mean the majority of league clubs would have sampled it. Which is a little more democratic than the elitist stigma attached to the league.
Of course, football existed a long time before Division One’s re-branding and Sky TV coming along, but the below table (up to May 2o12) by Sportingintelligence of the success of the 45 teams that have sampled the Premiership is a good indicator of club’s status in recent times.
The table shows the full 20 years of the league’s existence, with team’s judged by their top placing in the league. Also, it shows how many seasons a club has been present in the top-flight since the ‘Premiership’ name change.
There’s a few immediate interesting observations, like West Ham have spent more time in the Premiership than Manchester City, while Wigan have spent more time there than West Brom and next season will eclipse Birmingham City. Stoke City have only had four seasons in the league – will that be cut short this season?
In terms of Aston Villa and their standing compared to Midland rivals, if the likes of WBA and Birmingham can’t even compare to Wigan (the butt of many ‘No fans, no history’ kind of jokes), how can they be compared to Villa?
In fact, it’s Coventry who boast the second best record amongst Midland’s clubs in terms of longevity in the recent top flight…and you’ll be hard-pushed, without looking it up, to remember when they last graced the league.
UTV
