The accounts of the descent

Weeks ago Norwich City returned to the Championship. The ones on Carrow Road is a good summary of lift equipment. They have accumulated three promotions to the Premier League and four relegations to the second in the last decade. They have not endured more than three courses in the same category, and it is the fourth year in a row in which they either go down or go up.

Xisco Muñoz, Claudio Ranieri and Roy Hodgson have spent this season on the Vicarage Road bench. None have been able to avoid the collapse of Watford. Hodgson closed his career on the bench with relegation, confirmed precisely against his former team, Crystal Palace.

Several teams have already been saved from burning. The most relevant case is that of Newcastle United, bottom team in December but one of the best teams in 2022 in the Premier League. The Saudi investment that bought the club helped and found salvation in the transfer market. Three teams still have mathematical options to go down. With different feelings but with equal chances of finishing in the Championship. They are Leeds United, Burnley and Everton.

Leeds is the one with the worst

For many reasons. It is the one that occupies the antepenultimate place, the one that would push them back to second two years after their return to the Premier League after a 16-year odyssey through the Championship and League One (the third division). He has two days pending, while his opponents have three remaining. Fewer options to add, fewer options to stay.

Jesse Marsch replaced Marcelo Bielsa at the end of February. The American had a difficult task on his hands, and he still hasn’t been able to get Leeds United out of the mess. Marsch started his career with two straight losses, and although his team went five games without losing, the last three consecutive losses have pushed them back to the bottom. Ahead, two more games. On Sunday they host Brighton, and on the last day they face Brentford. None of them play anything this final stretch, they have their homework done.

mike jackson to the rescue

The dismissal of Sean Dyche raised blisters. The man who had made Burnley a regular in the Premier League and even led them to flirt with Europe. A coach who had been at the club for almost a decade and who had become his main known face. They fired him with eight days to go, in a move that was apparently defeatist: many pointed out that the Turf Moor men were already preparing their next campaign in the Championship.

It was actually the last bullet in the chamber of a club that changed owners in December 2020. ALK Capital, an American sports and technology investment company, arrived. He bought 84% of Burnley’s shares with a substantial loan, in which he included money the club already had in the bank. This agreement was to allow the 76 million debt to be paid in installments until 2025, as long as the club remained in the Premier League. A relegation would force ALK to pay a significant part of this debt, according to The Athletic.

Mike Jackson moved up to the first team as caretaker coach after directing the subsidiary. And with him at the helm, Burnley won their first four games to climb out of the relegation zone, although before the weekend it has the same points as Leeds United. Of course, they have one more game to play. They visit Tottenham on Sunday, and Aston Villa the following Thursday. They close their campaign at home, against Newcastle United.