Is the gulf between the Premier League and the EFL too wide? What can be done to make it all fairer? How can promoted teams survive? Our expert panel discusses.
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00:00This week, we're going to look back at a relegation battle that seems to be almost
00:08done and dusted and ask whether the gap between the Premier League and EFL is too wide and
00:12what, if anything, can be done about it. To help me debate that, I'm joined as always
00:17by an expert panel, freelance football journalist Mark Carruthers is here, as is the Express
00:22and Stars digital sports editor Nathan Judah. Mark, I'll come to you to get the ball rolling.
00:27As it stands, not only are the three newly promoted teams all set to be renegated again
00:31for the second year in a row, but Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton are jointly on course
00:35to break last year's record for the lowest accumulated points total by a bottom three.
00:40Do you think all of this is down more to mistakes by the individual teams or is this a systemic
00:46issue we're seeing?
00:47That's a positive start, isn't it? Yeah, I think it's the first time in Premier League
00:53history that the teams that have come up have gone down in consecutive seasons, I think.
00:58Yeah, I think it's probably the third time in total off the top of my head. It happened
01:01back in the 90s, I want to say 98, but yeah, it certainly hasn't happened twice in a row
01:04before.
01:05But it's, yeah, I mean, it's difficult because I think I said, and I'm happy to admit I was
01:10wrong by the way, but I think I said earlier in the season on here that I felt Ipswich had
01:14the best possible chance and I looked at their recruitment last year, last summer, sorry,
01:19and it looked really positive. I mean, Dillap's been an unquestionable success as of a couple
01:25of other players like the Brogan and Murray Hutchinson, for example. I think it's had
01:28very good spells in the season. But I think with Ipswich, and I will get to the other two
01:32in a moment, but I think when you look at Ipswich, they've come a long way in quite a short
01:35space of time and I think maybe just caught up with them and trying to make up that considerable
01:41gap to clubs in the Premier League has just been a step too far. With Southampton, I think
01:46losing a couple of the better players last summer, they were playing catch-up from minute
01:50one with a squad that really wasn't good enough, coupled with the fact that they were late
01:54in the Premier League because of the play-off win. So I think all three, and Leicester, you
01:59know, the off-field problems at Leicester have been well-versed in the last two years.
02:02So, but what I would say is I think the gap is now possibly bigger than it ever has been
02:08because even your kind of mid-range Premier League clubs are spending more than ever and the
02:13clubs coming up can't really do that straight away. So it is difficult. There are some that
02:17will book the trend, I dare say we'll talk about them later on, but I think the gap now
02:22is bigger than ever and it isn't going to be easy for clubs to come up and book that trend.
02:28Leeds may have a chance if Leeds come up, simply because of the size of the club, they'll attract
02:32bigger players of serious investment. So they may be in a better position to do so, but I think
02:37examples of that will be few and far between.
02:41Yeah. I mean, Nathan, just last week, to bring you in, you got to watch your Wolfside, you
02:46cover the Express and Star, play against Ipswich. You weren't supposed to be sort of the best
02:50of the bottom three, the club making the best fist of it, but there's still only, at the
02:54time we're recording this anyway, I should know there's going to be a few games before
02:57this will go out, there are only a few points above Leicester City, despite the fact that
03:00the overall, you know, the prevailing narrative has been that Leicester have had a terrible
03:04season and Ipswich at least gave it a good go. There's a big double-digit gap between
03:08Wolves, who are supposed to be, you know, the worst of the rest of the league, and Ipswich.
03:12Did you see that kind of gap when you watched the two teams play? Is there a visible gulf
03:16to you between the teams who are going down and teams like Wolves, Everton, West Ham, the
03:20other teams in the bottom half of the table?
03:22I think if you take it just on an individual game-for-game basis, no, not too much, I want to
03:28say. You know, Ipswich went 1-0 ahead in that game. Wolves came back to win the game
03:34and obviously put the kind of relegation uncertainty to bed, really. But in terms of just a one-off
03:39game, and I think we've seen glimpses of how well Ipswich can do this season. No, I wouldn't
03:44say there was too much between the sides, but at this level, it's a 38-game season. There's
03:50a lot of games you've got to have that quality, and I just feel the likes of Ipswich, of course,
03:55Leicester and Southampton, but Ipswich overall throughout the team haven't got that quality,
04:00and Wolves started the season terribly. You know, they lost seven out their first day
04:06in the league. Of course, they're going to be bottomed, so they're going to be in that
04:08mix for a long, long time to come, and it's only taken a managerial change and, you know,
04:14an excellent last seven or eight games in the Premier League, albeit without their main striker,
04:18to kind of turn things around. Otherwise, it would be a bit of a battle. I look at Ipswich
04:23side and say they've got some decent players, but, you know, bar the two that Mark had mentioned
04:28there. You know, obviously, Dallat's been a sensation. You know, I think Hutchinson's
04:31a good player. There's maybe a couple of others. You're looking at that team, and I'm struggling
04:36to see the quality, and the problem you've got is, and fair play to Ipswich, they've
04:41had a good go. They've spent £150 million plus to have a go, you know, and that's what
04:46you've got to do, and yet you're still in the same situation as Southampton. You're still
04:50getting relegated, so if you're Leicester, Leicester kind of spent a little bit, but not
04:54a lot. Southampton spent next to nothing. Are Southampton Leicester in a better position
04:59than Ipswich? Because they've saved that kind of money. Now, you're going to get parachute
05:02payments, but is this a warning for the likes of Leeds United, Sheffield United, you know,
05:08the teams that are going to go up Burnley saying, we're not ready to compete this year.
05:12If Ipswich can't do it, it's spending £150 million. We're not going to spend next to anything
05:15like that, so let's just accept relegation and just try and come back and be this yo-yo team,
05:20and then if we can get lucky, then so be it.