Once a Premier League team is relegated, fans console themselves with the thought of bouncing straight back.
But it doesn’t always happen.
At a time when playing in the Premier League is at its most lucrative ever, Newcastle United will miss out on a bumper financial windfall and will have to be consoled with a payment of somewhere near £85million over the next three years, unless they actually do get promoted within that time.
There are of course teams sitting in the Championship at the moment that were once Premier League clubs and have failed to return, spending season after season stagnating and trying to avoid an even more disastrous relegation to League One.
Ipswich Town, Wolves, Fulham and Derby are just four clubs that have proved that bouncing back isn’t always as simple as we all imagine.
With all of the resources available at St. James’ Park and the proud name and tradition, it should be a reasonable assumption to consider The Magpies as a Premier League team this time next year.
However, here are four reasons why it might not be so straight forward…
Too many Foreign players…
Newcastle scouted the foreign leagues for the best bargain buys in the market.
That policy seems to have ultimately backfired and has left them with an overwhelmingly high number of non-UK players that will not understand the intensity of The Championship, nor be up for the fight ahead.
Benitez will do well to have a back bone of English players that know the league and that will want to play for the club. He’ll need fighters like the Kevin Nolans and Joey Bartons of previous years, to put 100% into every game and to galvanise the others.
A bit of flair and guile won’t go amiss, but when it’s the middle of winter and you’re playing Barnsley away, you need fighters and often the foreign bargains just aren’t up to it.
It’s going to be tough to recruit, as most players, even though it is Newcastle United, will not want to drop a division and take a pay cut.
Rafa Benitez
The 56-year-old signed a new three-year deal to remain as Magpies boss in May following his decision not to trigger the release clause in the contract he penned in March that protected him in the event of relegation.
And now having decided to stay, Benitez has set his sights on winning promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
No one would bet against him achieving the distinction of leading a club back after relegation, but Rafa is a top flight manager, used to dealing with the top players in the top leagues.
However, Benitez will point to the fact hat he started his managerial career in the Spanish lower leagues and won two promotions. Rafa must assemble the right players, with the right mental attitude and play the kind of football he hasn’t seen in a while if he’s to get back to the big time.
Newcastle are lucky he stayed. His experience will be invaluable.
The Championship
A completely different division to the Premier League and often very tight amongst the leading pack.
Aston Villa, Derby, Brighton and Norwich will all be challenging for promotion after their individual calamities last season and even the re-emergence of Sheffield Wednesday will give Newcastle no time to relax over a long and exhausting season.
The club won promotion at the first time of asking the last time they were relegated, but it seems to be a harder challenge now and then if a club does, it can be difficult not to go down again.
Add to the fact that the Newcastle management are well aware of the Premier League teams, whereas they won’t know a whole lot about the vast majority of teams they will be facing next season. As with every relegated “big” club, every other club sees playing them as some kind of cup final and up their game.
The Statistics
Before the relegation of Villa, Norwich and Newcastle, The Telegraph gathered data on the performance of Premier League sides in the last 28 seasons of the Championship ( The play off system had been in place for 28 seasons).
During that period, 85 teams have been relegated from the top division, 17 have achieved automatic promotion back to the Premier League, 21 teams have made it into the play-offs of which three teams successfully achieved promotion.
Time will tell for The Magpies, but the stats are there for all to see and you hope for their sake that they don’t become another stagnating statistic in a difficult league.