Is PL relegation now a thing of the past?

Who said ‘spending time with Arsene Wenger is both a privilege and an education’? Of course it was David Dein. And he was correct.

Arsene is with us in Qatar for this week’s CL games and dropped into our beINSPORTS studios for a brief chat yesterday (Sunday).

We discussed a lot - much of it what you would expect. But he stopped me in my tracks when he said ‘there’s no such thing as relegation from the top league in England anymore’.

I let him carry on talking whilst I absorbed that statement. Eventually I had to go back to it. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘You’ll have to explain what you mean’.

He did. It was simple. And his theory is hard to argue with. So now let me explain.

American owners of our clubs have never understood relegation and promotion. They don’t like the thought of a team they’ve spent millions buying dropping out of the PL. They’re scared of the system. How many times have we read if they could form a super league (and they will) there would be no such thing as relegation?

We love it. It’s all we’ve ever known. We believe it’s a fair system and every now and again it allows smaller clubs to get amongst the big teams and realise dreams.

Here’s a few of them - Wimbledon, Swindon, Luton, Oldham, Barnsley, Sheffield Weds (sorry Jonty 😂). There’s a long list.

Bournemouth and Brentford have arrived in recent seasons and established themselves. In total 51 different teams have played PL football.

The 51st were Luton, who voted to set it up, but were relegated before they got to play in it back in ‘92.

But how many more newbie’s (newbee’s if you like) will make it going forward? Not many. Maybe none if Wenger is right. And if there are any they most likely won’t last more than a season.

Wenger argues the established clubs have made it very, very hard for a team to break into the elite. If what’s happened in the last two seasons is anything to go by he’s got a point.

The three teams that came up are going down again. For the first time in that’s happened for a second consecutive season - embarrassingly one of them goes with only 11 points.
The other two have 21 and 22 points - at the moment of course.

West Ham are the worst of the rest. They’re on 35 points. They’re safe by miles, but shouldn’t be. They’ve been hopeless this season. It’s still only three wins from 15 games for Graham Potter. They’re really safe by default.

Neither United nor Spurs have yet got to the magic 40 points. That was always the target at the start of any season. Not anymore. Right now 23 would keep you up. 23 ffs. No matter how bad United, Spurs or the rest are, they’ve got to be capable of reaching that number.

So there’s no jeopardy anymore. No danger anymore. No relegation anymore. If you make it up from the C’ship it’s beginning to look like you'll be going straight back.

So there’s the warning for Leeds, Burnley and whoever makes it from the play-offs. Enjoy it, spend wisely but don’t get too excited. The established clubs are now running a closed shop. It’s come about by stealth, but it’s happened.

Leeds’ chairman Paraag Marathe is quite pleased with himself after publicly backing Daniel Farke ‘I have ended the speculation’ he said. ‘He is my man’.

What he’s not saying is he started the speculation by offering Farke’s job to Jose Mourinho. I know that for a fact. It was Mourinho who actually ended the speculation by turning the offer down.

It was a smart move by Marathe. Mourinho would’ve set Elland Road alight and the PL is always better when he’s working in it.

Sadly Marathe couldn’t convince Mourinho that Leeds won’t be fighting a relegation battle next season. That’s not something the Special One wants. Perhaps he’s right. Perhaps he agrees with Wenger, but it’s a pity.

Without question Farke has done a terrific job getting Leeds up. He’s become to a C’ship promotion bid what Big Sam was to PL surivival, which is why he would’ve walked into another job - at Leicester or Saints perhaps, and done it all over again.

That’s why we shouldn’t feel too sorry for him. He would definitely have been in a job there next January at those clubs. There are no guarantees he will be at Leeds.

Good luck to our teams in Europe this week. I hope they all get what they want - but I’ve got to say this - it’s a joke that two PL teams who’ve been rank this season are going to be playing for a CL place in the Europa League final.

The prize is too big, especially because the competition has been so much easier to have success in this season. How’s that? Because there were no CL clubs dropping in from the group stages of that competition. You can argue that’s been a good thing, but you can’t offer a CL place to the winners of the Europa League when that’s the case. A chance to defend that title? Yes. But no more.

Cole Palmer said ‘shit’ on a sports channel. Outrageous. Quick - apologise. Grow up everyone - please.

And the PGMOL want more money. £39m annuallly isn’t enough for Howard Webb and his mates it seems I’m sorry - PL clubs should turn down his request without even discussing it. No. No - not until standards get better.

As I expected, it turns out the new semi-automated offside system doesn’t work properly. Millions has been spent on this, but according to Sam Wallace in The Telegraph it’s no use if a ball is touched multiple times in the box. They say it can calculate straightforward offsides though. Brilliant. We can all do that.

The bottom line is - it doesn’t work. I’d say you couldn’t make it up - but we know they do.