Are all three promoted sides doomed to Premier League relegation? | OneFootball

While Sunderland and Leeds bucked the trend last season, remaining in the Premier League is an almighty ask for promoted teams.

Coventry City, Ipswich Town and Hull City have returned to the top flight and were all immediately tipped by the bookies as favourites to go back down.

With a growing financial chasm between the Premier League and the Championship, and a recent trend of all three promoted sides returning to the second division at the first time of asking, are this season’s trio doomed for relegation?

Can Hull City survive in Premier League?

Hull did not make a lot of sense last year.

Only two teams conceded more goals in the entire division and their performance against their xG is the kind of thing that has critics claiming the data is a load of rubbish.

It’s fair to say it was a minor miracle Hull were promoted. They were managed by Sergej Jakirovic, who had no experience in England before his appointment, and tipped for relegation. He failed in his promise to keep them in the division but their play-off win does come with the caveat that Southampton – the strongest, most in-form team – were booted out due to the Spygate affair. Not that Hull fans would care.

But the squad was light even for the Championship. Oli McBurnie was the club’s top scorer with 19 goals last season but he is 30 now and only has 13 goals in 96 Premier League appearances. Second top scorer Joe Gelhardt has returned to Leeds from his loan and is tipped to be heading to Birmingham. They also love a booking with a league-high 115 last season.

Outspoken owner Acun Ilıcalı will be a welcome addition to the Premier League with his most recent highlight coming in the form of cryptic tweets about which players they could sign. But there is no escaping the fact that there is a financial gap between the $100m-valued man and the rest of the league.

It is hardly surprising then that Hull have not yet splashed the cash. Goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis arrived for a club-record fee of £20m. The undisclosed fee spent on Jack Butland is the only other expenditure of the summer so far and while it is funny for outsiders to see how close Hull are to completing deals, it is perhaps not the wisest negotiation tactic.

Barring another miracle, it is hard to see how the word ‘Derby’ does not get mentioned when talking about Hull this season but this is a team that defied all reason last year. Can they repeat that trick? Probably not, no.

Can Ipswich Town survive in Premier League?

A summer of change would be a fair way to describe Ipswich’s 2026.

Kieran McKenna left, needing a break from football after his first managerial job. To put into context how woven into the fabric he was, Mikel Arteta would have been the only Premier League boss to have held his current job for longer, had he stayed.

In his place, the Ipswich board opted for Gary O’Neil, who they are hoping can repeat the trick for a third time having kept Bournemouth and Wolves up in the past.

The challenge is immense though. This time 12 months ago, Ipswich were backed to set a points record in the Championship but fell short of that goal, finishing second behind Coventry.

As to what is different from their promotion two years ago, the short answer would be vibes. The Ipswich squad that came up in 2024 was built on a squad that had mostly been together in League One. This current collection has few faces from that era and has been expensively assembled.

In theory, that should put them in better stead. Club captain Dara O’Shea played every minute of the Championship campaign and the signing of Issa Diop looks a smart piece of business.

The problem though will be goals. Ipswich scored 12 fewer goals last season than they did in their promotion-winning 2023-24 run. The goals primarily came from the wing with Jack Clarke and Jaden Philogene the top scorers. Talk that the latter may move could be a blessing in disguise with both proven to only be effective on the left wing.

Up front, Ipswich have signed 21-year-old Emersonn in the hope he can be the man to provide the goals to keep them up, but if a Brazilian who only scored eight goals in 34 games for Toulouse does not represent a gamble then we do not know what does.

Daizen Maeda has arrived from Celtic, coming with the warning from Hoops fans that for every piece of wonderful skill he can produce, a miss of a good chance will follow. Big money was also spent on Leicester’s Abdul Fatawu. Kjell Scherpen has arrived as one of two new keeper signings and is already a Premier League record holder as the tallest player to ever grace the league (6ft 9in for those of you wondering.)

Unlike last time, Ipswich’s fixtures have been a little kinder with a home fixture against Sunderland to kick off. It’s a visit to Old Trafford before welcoming Liverpool to Portman Road, but there are some winnable games after that.

Momentum will be key. Start well and the mood will be optimistic. Come out of September without a win and Ipswich fans will be missing their former manager more than they are already.

Can Coventry City survive in Premier League?

Coventry’s defining strength of last season was how spread out the goals were.

Haji Wright was the club’s top scorer on 17 but behind him Ellis Simms, Brandon Thomas-Asante, Ephron Mason-Clark and Victor Top all got double digits. A total of seven players scored seven goals or more and 16 of them netted at least once. That seems far more sustainable than relying on a talismanic striker to produce similar levels in the Premier League.

At the other end, the permanent signing of Carl Rushworth from Brighton is an excellent piece of business while their creativity came from right back Milan van Ewijk, who registered a club-high eight assists. There is precedent for an attacking full-back failing to have a similar impact in the Premier League though; Ipswich’s Leif Davis got 18 assists in the club’s promotion-winning season of 2023-24 but managed just two in the following year’s Premier League.

Recruitment-wise, Gustavo Hamer is rumoured to be in line for a return while Mykhailo Mudryk has emerged as a surprise transfer target although even the most optimistic Coventry fan would have to concede that is a gamble. Aurele Amenda has joined to bolster the defence along with central midfielder Frank Onyeka and winger Loum Tchaouna.

Coventry have also not been helped by their fixtures. A home game against Hull is sandwiched between trips to the Emirates and the Etihad.

But Coventry fans’ main source of optimism will be their manager. Frank Lampard’s stint has shaken off concerns he is not a good manager but there is still the question of whether he can do it in the Premier League. His first stint at Chelsea was encouraging but came with the caveat that he was operating against the lower expectations of a transfer ban, while he managed a win rate of just 27.3% at Everton.

There will also be some concern from their mid-season slump. Coventry started incredibly but stumbled in the festive period, including 3-0 and 2-0 defeats to title rivals Ipswich. They recovered from February, losing just one of their final 14 games, but they unmistakably benefited from other promotion chasers also failing to capitalise.

As it stands, Coventry’s attacking options plus their continuity with Lampard make them the most likely contender of the promoted sides to stay up, but it will be a case of which existing teams underperform as much as how the Robins fare.

A season in which they scored 97 goals and bought their own stadium back has brought a lot of goodwill to the fanbase but that can only last so long and a May schedule featuring Manchester United, Newcastle and Tottenham means they will hope to be safe by then.