Watford are racing clear with an eight-point advantage at the top of the Championship table, heading for another crack at the Premier League. Nothing particularly new in that as most of us expected it after they Aidy Boothroyd's boys were relegated from the top tier last season.

What is also not surprising, to me at any rate, is that for company at the top of the Championship they have several other members of the Yo-Yo Club, teams that have all had a crack at the Premier League at one time or another and haven’t been able to handle it.

West Brom, Barnsley, Ipswich and Charlton are all there within striking distance of Watford, either shooting for one of the two automatic promotion places or battling to make sure they make it in the next group of four clubs, one of which will survive the end-of-season play-offs.

'In every season except 2001-02, when Blackburn, Bolton and Fulham survived after promotion, at least one Premier League newcomer has gone straight back down'


The significance of this trend should not be lost on the Premier League, FA and Football League hierarchy because it bears a distinct similarity to that already established in the top bracket where we have an elite clutch of about a dozen clubs whose status, for one reason or another, is never likely to be challenged.

Likewise it is developing in the Championship where the same dozen clubs (give or take the odd one) are jostling every season for a bite at the big cherry. These are members of the Yo-Yo Club, up one season, down the next. Promoted but never having the resources or financial clout to escape the treacherous lower slopes of the Premier League.

Crystal Palace have been up and down more times than the proverbial fiddler’s elbow, and there’s a whole host of clubs who have snacked with the big boys for one, or perhaps two, seasons – Leicester City, Barnsley, West Brom, Norwich City (check out where they are today), Ipswich Town – but never been there long enough to enjoy the real gourmet delights. Even Middlesbrough and Sunderland, who are currently enjoying the experience, have had their problems in the past and aren’t looking all that healthy right now.

The predicament for relegated clubs is due, in large part, to the disparity of revenue from TV rights between the various divisions. Relegated clubs do receive money from the Premier League in the form of a “parachute payment” but it’s only something like £7million for a couple of seasons – crumbs compared to the fat cats at the top table.

The three clubs promoted last season – Sunderland, Birmingham City and Derby County – are all in the bottom seven in the Premier League table at the moment. Derby are rooted at the foot with very little sign of being able to pull themselves to safety and they are apparently doomed for an immediate return to the Championship. Their 5-0 drubbing at home by West Ham on Saturday must have been particularly hard to take.

In every season except 2001-02, when Blackburn, Bolton and Fulham survived after promotion, at least one Premier League newcomer has gone straight back down. In 1997-98 all three clubs dropped back into the Football League. It has been known for clubs to survive their first season only to suffer a dramatic downturn of fortunes in their second term.

Ipswich Town are the best example of this. They were promoted to the Premier League in 2000, finished fifth at the end of that season, but were relegated on the last day of the following season. Every Premier League club receives on average £45m in TV revenue, while Championship and lesser clubs clubs receive an average of £1m, thus widening the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ year upon year. Where’s Robin Hood when you need him?

This doesn’t take into account the likes of Leeds United, Southampton, Coventry City and Milton Keynes Dons (formerly Wimbledon) who were founder members of the Premiership in 1992 and stayed there for at least 10 seasons before going down – a long way down in the case of Leeds and the MK Dons.

Perhaps this is why the goals-per-game average in the Premier League has dropped to only 2.14, the lowest ever since the Premiership’s inception and the lowest average in the whole of Europe. Is it not because clubs realise they cannot afford to be relegated and, therefore, tend to play with a don’t-lose-whatever-you-do mentality?

Perhaps we should be looking to shake things up a bit. What about a “Start-up payment” of something like £30m for clubs promoted to the Premier League rather than a “Parachute payment” when they go down? Surely this would give them a chance to compete on a more even playing field in the transfer market.

Better still, why not build in a safeguard rule that forbids any club being relegated at the end of their first season in the Premier League? This would give them a chance to build more solidly instead of wasting what little resources they have on a quick-fix attempt to secure at least a couple of seasons rubbing shoulders with the big boys. It might also extend the shelf life of a few managers.

There’s no doubt that England’s most successful clubs are the country’s wealthiest, and it is certainly not coincidental that Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Aston Villa have all had the benefit of huge foreign investment. It’s a growing certainty that Arsenal will follow suit in the very near future.

Football’s governing bodies can’t do much in the way of either inviting or banning foreign takeovers, but they do have the power to spread the game’s gold reserves a little more evenly. I think It’s time they got their heads together to come up with the answer.