Premier League survival is a goal very few clubs achieve

Yo-yo effect is set to see the three promoted teams relegated

- MIGUEL DELANEY

To walk around Ipswich Town's Playford Road training ground, you wouldn't think it is a club on the brink of relegation. The atmosphere is positive. Kieran McKenna is still committed to a sophisticated coaching approach that is admired by top clubs, and the players are largely content.

An obvious point is that they’ve had a lot of time to get used to their position, cut adrift in the bottom three, but the mood isn’t really a sense of resignation. The feeling has long been that they overperformed in earning back-to-back promotions from League One, and gave their attempt to stay in the Premier League an admirable go.

That is impossible to dispute, but it does raise some questions with more uncertain answers, which are becoming genuine philosophical issues for English football.

How much would have ever been enough for a club like Ipswich to give? When would a good time to come up even be?

This would be a particularly difficult moment for almost any promoted club. This weekend is already virtually certain to mark the earliest moment in a Premier League season that all of the relegation places will have been confirmed, but this season is absolutely certain to set another record. It will mark the second successive campaign that the three promoted clubs have gone straight back down. A clean sweep, again. Worse, it’s with so many whitewashes for Ipswich, Leicester City and Southampton. There have been many games when they've barely been competitive.

With a collective return of 0.5 points per game, as it stands, that is also set to be the worst haul for the three promoted clubs, as well as the three who end up relegated.