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How League One Has Offered Refuge and Redemption to Some of English Football’s Biggest Clubs

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Football is, for better or worse, an increasingly capitalist sport.

Although not an exact science, those with plenty of money generally thrive and those without it, well, don’t.

Financial mismanagement can be a root cause of why big clubs fail; that is represented by the sheer number of Premier League outfits, past and present, that have fallen as low as League One.

And yet, ironically, for some a stint in the third tier of English football has actually been the making of them…

One Love

The 2024/25 season will see a number of former Premier League clubs plying their trade in League One.

For Birmingham City, a stint in the third tier could yet prove redemptive: those that bet on League 1 will note that the Blues are as short as 3/10 to top the table after an impressive start to the season.

Those betting on football will be aware of the other fallen giants of English football that are playing in the third tier this term: Barnsley, Bolton, Charlton, Huddersfield, Reading and Wigan have all featured in the Premier League since its rebrand from the old First Division in 1992.

They will be hoping to use current Premier League clubs as inspiration; those that have used League One as an opportunity to recalibrate and redeem themselves.

It all began, really, with the 2007/08 season. The League One table for that campaign makes for eye-opening reading: current Premier League side, Nottingham Forest, finished second that year, while Brighton just missed out on the play-offs.

In that very same season, future Premier League side Swansea City won the League One title, Leeds United lost in the play-offs, Huddersfield Town finished tenth in the table and Luton Town, who plied their trade in the EPL in 2023/24, were relegated from the third tier into League Two!

It’s further evidence that a spell in League One is not a disaster. Indeed, teams that get promoted into the Championship can use that momentum to ascend even higher to the fabled land of the Premier League.

Cunning Foxes

The most successful exponents of the League One-Championship-Premier League journey are Leicester City.

The early part of the noughties was a disaster for the Foxes, who tasted relegation twice in the space of four seasons: seeing them drop from the Premier League into the Championship and then again into League One.

But that first season in the third tier was restorative. They appointed Nigel Pearson as manager – he would later mastermind a return to the Premier League, while signing experienced old heads (Paul Dickov, Chris Powell) and exciting younger talents (Lloyd Dyer).

Pearson installed a new football identity, restored the confidence of his players and, before long, Leicester were flying. They would win the League One title, amassing 96 points from their 46 games, to return to the Championship anew.

And the success of their time in League One was undoubtedly a springboard for what was to follow. Leicester would play five consecutive seasons in the second tier, reaching the play-offs twice and then, finally, getting their promotion bid over the line when they won the Championship title in 2013/14.

Within two seasons they were champions of England: that remarkable Premier League triumph of 2015/16 going down in the history books as one of the greatest underdog stories in sport.

But would they have been able to achieve it without their season in League One?

Image Source: unsplash.com

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