50th Premier League team?

[pasty]

I kinda wonder whether number 50 will happen in my lifetime

You never know. 20 years ago you would have got very big odds on us getting there.

 

[1234andcounting]

By my reckoning at least 7 of those clubs have previously played in the top flight of English football, as indeed have Brighton and Huddersfield. I am sure Spurs and Liverpool fans will be the first to admit they have never won the league as it only started in 1992.

 

[Jim in the West]

Looking at that list makes me think we have massively under-performed over the past few years - i.e, before this season we would have been by far the biggest club* NOT to have been in the Premier League (something I hadn't appreciated). [*Excluding Celtic!!].

 

[Papa Lazarou]

By my reckoning at least 7 of those clubs have previously played in the top flight of English football, as indeed have Brighton and Huddersfield. I am sure Spurs and Liverpool fans will be the first to admit they have never won the league as it only started in 1992.

Indeed. You can't have it both ways - either football started in 1992 and EVERYTHING before is irrelevant, OR it didn't.

 

[Thimble Keegan]

Looking at that list makes me think we have massively under-performed over the past few years - i.e, before this season we would have been by far the biggest club* NOT to have been in the Premier League (something I hadn't appreciated). [*Excluding Celtic!!].

I agree on the main point you state, but this has only been true since we moved into The Amex. There has been a whole generation of football fans up and down the country who would have grown-up only knowing the Albion to be a club scrabbling around the bottom 2 divisions at Withdean. Also, I am not sure why you need to exclude Celtic, they are irrelevant.

For what it is worth, I think Sky get a bit of a raw deal on the whole "football only started in 1992" thing. I watch a shed-load of Sky Sports News and they seem to be quite respectful of the history of football, so I am not sure why they get beaten with this stick. Sometimes they mention records or statistics and quote "during the Premier League era" and I think that is fair enough as it was not set-up 2, 3, 4 years ago but has been in existence for 25 seasons...The Premier League has now been around for over half my lifetime!

As for the original question, you do wonder who the next new Premier League team will be. However, what is interesting is I believe that parachute payments are being reduced from 3 to 2 years...So naturally the pool of teams receiving parachute payments at any one time in the Championship should shrink. This may level the playing a bit. For what it is worth, Bristol City & Brentford look best set-up to have a crack in the future.

Albion & England forever.

Thimble Keegan
Westminster BHA