[Football] Which clubs deserve to be in the Premier League?

[McTavish]

Following various discussions, particulalry concerning Adam Lallana, Ben White and the relative HUGENESS of Leeds and tininess of Brighton, I thought it might be worth compiling a definitive list of all the teams that DESERVE to be in the Premier League.

The credentials for deserving this status are not always clear and obviously do not need to include much success in the Premier League itself (as seen by the hailing of Dirty and the fact that Newcastle or West Ham getting demoted is considered a tragedy of monumental proportions) so I have suggested a few categories. All the teams fall into several categories (and probably need to or Millwall fans' 'passion' would see them challenging for Europe on a regular basis) but I have tried to pick out the thing that is most important in making each nailed on for the PL.

Of the current members of the PL the following deserve to be in it:

BIG Clubs
Liverpool
Man U
Arsenal
Spurs
Chelsea
Man City (only just about)

Rich History
Villa
Everton

Passionate Fans
West Ham (also World Cup winners)
Newcastle

Sleeping Giants
Wolves

From the Championship:

BIG Clubs
Leeds
Wednesday
West Brom

Rich History
Forest
Derby
Blackburn

Passionate Fans
Middlesborough

Sleeping Giants
Birmingham
Cardiff

From League 1:

Rich History
Ipswich

Passionate Fans
Portsmouth

Sleeping Giants
Sunderland

From Scotland

Big Clubs
Rangers
Celtic

Outliers

Rich History
Wanderers (the team that played at The Oval, not Wolves or Bolton) - although they were disbanded in1887 they won the FA Cup five times and never lost a final. They were reformed in 2009 and, although they now only play in the Surrey SE Combination, I think that they truly deserve to be in the Premier League.

So that's it - the definitive list. Hopefully this will enable #teamslikebrighton to know their place which is probably a Chamionship/L1 yo-yo club.

 

[Whoislloydy]

Teams that deserve to be in the Premier League

1. Teams that don't get relegated from the Premier League
2. The top 2 teams from the Championship at the end of the season
3. Play-off final winners

End of thread.

 

[Palacefinder General]

Everton, the most boring football club ever invented. Boring shirt, boring players, historically too many bland, and also white, players, boring managers, a non-fixture even for Liverpool fans,.

 

[Bozza]

I think it's interesting to find where we believe we lie in the "BIGness" order of English clubs, and if we'd make the top 20 cut that would place us in the Premier League.

Now, BIGness is highly subjective of course, and it would be very difficult to set aside our particular bias, but I suspect we'd come somewhere 20th-30th, ie "not deserving* to be in the Premier League."

* - I fully appreciate we absolutely DO deserve to be in the Premier League, of course.

 

[jessiejames]

Any team that has earned its place to be in the premier league.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Meritocracy, innit.

 

[portlock seagull]

I know the seasons just finished, but can we come up with some less boring threads please.

What about early leavers? Why’s no one discussed them before?

 

[BN41Albion]

Stopped reading when I saw 'passionate fans - Middlesborough'

Whenever I think of Middlesborough I think of empty, badly faded red seats

 

[BN41Albion]

Everton, the most boring football club ever invented. Boring shirt, boring players, historically too many bland, and also white, players, boring managers, a non-fixture even for Liverpool fans,.

They only seem to have one chant too, and the atmosphere at Goodison is the worst in the Prem imo - utterly shocking for a club their size

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Faaa cough. FFS.

 

[GT49er]

Everton, the most boring football club ever invented. Boring shirt, boring players, historically too many bland, and also white, players, boring managers, a non-fixture even for Liverpool fans,.

Oh come on,this is not the time to bring race in it. Most FL clubs, for more than half their existence, won't have had any non-white players in their team.
How many did we have before Chris Ramsey and then Eric Young in the early 1980s? Denis Foreman I can think of ........... many more? Don't think so. And pretty much the same for everyone from Carlisle to Plymouth and back again.

 

[dsr-burnley]

If Birmingham qualify as a sleeping giant, then you're going to need 40 places, not 20 in this division. Does every club that once finished in the top 6 qualify?

Cardiff's a long stretch as well. "Biggest club in Wales" is not the same as "big club".

 

[Nixonator]

BIGness moves in tandem with how many despicable scrotes said club have on social media perpetuating the most inane cuntery.

 

[Juan Albion]

Meritocracy, innit.

Unless technology lets you down.

 

[Eeyore]

The Premier League (using the old 22 club format) based on average finishing positions across all leagues to 2018:

1) Liverpool
2) Manchester United
3) Arsenal
4) Tottenham Hotspur
5) Everton
6) Chelsea
7) Manchester City
8) West Ham United
9) Aston Villa
10) Newcastle United
11) Leeds United
12) Southampton
13) Leicester City
14) West Bromwich Albion
15) Nottingham Forest
16) Ipswich Town
17) Sunderland
18) Middlesbrough
19) Blackburn Rovers
20) Norwich City
21) Wolverhampton Wanderers
22) Stoke City

I'd have to look it up, but I think that would have almost been a carbon copy of a late 70s season without Blackburn Rovers..

Edit: 17/22 in 1976/77-77/78. 14/20 2019/20

The 'big club' thing isn't very thingy as it once was. 49 clubs have played in the Premier League. Hopefully Brentford will be the next.

There are 39 clubs who have spent more seasons than us in the top flight in its current incarnation.

 

[Icy Gull]

I am actually more interested in whether we will be one of the three tipped for the drop again when the pundits give us their choices.

 

[Bladders]

BIG Clubs
Leeds
Wednesday
West Brom


West Brom? Big? you sure?

 

[Perfidious Albion]

Absolute twaddle....
It is ridiculous to say a club deserves the Premier League . It is like saying a club is too good or too big to go down. In my memory Man U, Tottenham, Man C, &Chelsea have all had spells in lower Divisions.
The team wins or loses, the team deserves relegation if it does not win enough. No favours to the rich and powerful.

 

[Icy Gull]

Absolute twaddle....
It is ridiculous to say a club deserves the Premier League . It is like saying a club is too good or too big to go down. In my memory Man U, Tottenham, Man C, &Chelsea have all had spells in lower Divisions.
The team wins or loses, the team deserves relegation if it does not win enough. No favours to the rich and powerful.

True, the big teams already have a massive advantage until they overstretch themselves and get relegated. They then have a good chance of spending years in the doldrums. Doesn’t stop them bigging themselves up when they eventually make it back though

 

[Simster]

BIG Clubs
Leeds
Wednesday
West Brom


West Brom? Big? you sure?

I'm not suggesting we are remotely a big club - we've only had 8 seasons in the top division in our entire history and have won nothing of note (I'm not counting the charity shield in the days when you could die from treading on a rusty nail, because I'm not a Portsmouth fan). But our average gate since the Amex was built has been bigger than those of all three of these "big" clubs.

Leeds have just averaged 34,000, and 31,000 last season - but before that, their gates were lower than ours for 6 seasons running.