Champions to relegation: how fast have Premier League winners fallen? - 360 MAGAZINE - GREEN

Spread the love Winning the Premier League usually buys a club years near the top of the table. Two of its champions have still gone down, proof that a title offers no lasting protection from therelegation odds.

This is how quickly each fall came, along with the older collapses and the title holders who came close. Blackburn Rovers: four seasons Blackburn won the 1994-95 title under Kenny Dalglish with 89 points.

Dalglish moved upstairs that summer, and the defence of the trophy brought only seventh place. Roy Hodgson took Rovers to sixth in 1997-98, but he was sacked on 21 November 1998 and Brian Kidd replaced him on 3 December.

Signings including Kevin Davies, bought from Southampton for £7.25m, did not stop the slide. Blackburn finished 19th on 35 points in 1998-99, four seasons after lifting the trophy.

The drop did not stop there. Blackburn went down from the Premier League again in 2011-12, then fell into League One in May 2017.

They won 3-1 at Brentford on the final day but went down on goal difference, level with Nottingham Forest on 51 points. Leicester City: seven seasons, then League One Leicester won the 2015-16 title from pre-season odds of 5,000-1, and were relegated seven seasons later.

Brendan Rodgers left on 2 April 2023 and Dean Smith took over until the end of the season. Leicester beat West Ham 2-1 on the final day, but Everton's 1-0 win over Bournemouth left them 18th on 34 points, two short of safety.

They bounced straight back, then went down again in 2024-25 with 25 points. A 1-0 home defeat to Liverpool on 20 April 2025 confirmed it.

Leicester were deducted six points on 5 February 2026 for breaching profit and sustainability rules, and a 2-2 draw with Hull City on 22 April 2026 sent them into League One. That came 10 years after the title.