The most mediatic stories are, of course, those of the great successful teams. Nevertheless, winning a Champions League is nothing compared to the intensity with which promotions and relegations are experienced. Category changes are not a specific event of a season, like the titles, but have an impact on the future of the club and can raise the top and sink the teams to the bottom.
Some clubs are used to being lift teams, but for others it can be a real drama. The ideal is to go up in the first season you spend in Second, but not everyone gets it. These are the historic clubs that have already returned to the First Division.
Schalke
After thirty years in the Bundesliga, Schalke were relegated last season. Ten years earlier, he was playing in the Champions League semifinals. Only three before, he was league runner-up. However, since 2018, coinciding with Goretzka’s departure, the team’s decline was unstoppable. But it has only taken twelve months for him to return to the elite, thanks in part to the change of coach in March. After a streak of three punctures in four games (the end of one of nine in fourteen), the club sacked Grammois for Büskens, a caretaker who has won seven of the eight games he has coached. All with hard casualties like those of Serdar, Stambouli, Mascarell, Nastasic, Kolasinac… or Harit, who is expected to return to the team this summer for the return to the Bundesliga.
Fulham
The London team lost Loftus-Cheek or Lemina, but were able to keep important men like Adarabioyo, Robinson and, above all, Mitrovic, who has scored 43 goals in 44 games this year. In addition, in the summer he was able to spend 14 million on Harry Wilson, who has contributed another 11 goals. He also reacted on the bench, signing Marco Silva, a proven coach in English football and European experience who has not failed in the first opportunity he has had.
Mitrovic celebrates a goal with Fulham.
JOHN SIBLEY (Action Images via REUTERS)
Toulouse
Toulouse relegated to Ligue 2 in 2021 after seventeen years in the First Division. After failing with Patrice Garande as coach in the first season, falling in the playoff final against Nantes. Philippe Montanier, formerly of Real Sociedad, has been in charge of achieving this success with a young team in which Rhys Healey stands out, the team’s top scorer this season
those that remain
There are other historical clubs that are very close to achieving what Schalke, Fulham or Toulouse have already done mathematically. For example Hamburg, which was relegated for the first time in its history in 2021 and which today occupies promotion positions. Werder Bremen, also in Germany, is second. In England, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United are in playoff positions, as are Berlusconi and Galliani team Monza in Italy or Sochaux in France.