Charlton. Norwich. Southampton. Leeds. What do all of these teams have in common? The answer is that they have all spent time in League One in recent years, despite being proclaimed to be big teams in the Championship who should be able to reach the Premiership again. These, then, are scalps, big teams that have been relegated despite the hype given to them pre-season, and this post will discuss who may be the next one. So without further ado, let's kick off with...
Birmingham City: Recently-relegated Birmingham at first glance had very little to worry about at the beginning of the season, with a squad filled with Premier League experience and a Carling Cup under their belts. However, during pre-season, owner Carson Yeung was arrested, and a mass exodus followed. Roger Johnson, Scott Dann, Cameron Jerome, Barry Ferguson, Ben Foster and others have all left, leaving what may look like a rather mediocre squad.
I seriously doubt they'll go down, but promotion will be extremely difficult, and a bottom half finish beckons.
West Ham United: This may look ridiculous on paper, but bear with me. Yes, their squad is surely too talented for the Championship, but the deadline-day loss of influential captain Scott Parker to Tottenham will be huge. The crushing disappointment of last season also hangs over the squad, and Sam Allardyce has an axe hanging over his neck, waiting to drop if he cannot fulfil the high expectations of the Hammers' fans and board.
West Ham will not go down unless there is a major shock. They have far too many talented players, and plenty of money to spend. However, should this "Premiership-or-bust" strategy fail, there could be serious trouble at Upton Park, as players will grow restless and money will become more of an issue.
Cardiff City: Play-off semi finalists Cardiff have had a difficult summer. The inability to get Craig Bellamy back will hurt them. However, they have managed to retain a lot of their squad. The main problem will be their failure in previous seasons, as the fans will be impatient and the board, who have already got rid of Dave Jones, will want new manager Malky Mackay to provide the journey to the Premier League they have wanted for so long. With all of this pressure, will they be able to deliver? Sometimes over-expectation can destroy a team, as Charlton saw a few seasons ago.
Once again, it is extremely difficult to say that Cardiff will be relegated. But I do not think they will do well this season, and perhaps a few seasons of mid-table mediocrity are in the future.
Crystal Palace: Yeah, yeah, I know it wouldn't be particularly shocking if Palace went down, but hey, we're still a fairly big club. Palace have struggled in the last two seasons and many were predicting another difficult season, but their early start has confounded critics. The only major loss to the team is that of energetic midfielder Neil Danns to Leicester, whereas big names Nathaniel Clyne, Darren Ambrose, Julian Speroni and Wilfried Zaha have all been retained. Palace have also been able to add to their side, with Jonathan Parr and Kagisho Dikgacoi being the major new faces.
Palace are definitely in danger of relegation. Despite a new look to the side, they are still weak in defence and lack real strength in depth. But a good start helps, and Palace appear to have a new found belief in manager Dougie Freedman, so they should survive another season.
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