New boys face fight to beat Prem promotion hoodoo

RECENT history has proved that reaching the promised land is one thing, but remaining there is another altogether.

- BY JEREMY CROSS

The six sides in question, Ipswich, Leicester, and Southampton (below) last season and Luton, Burnley, and Sheffield United in the previous campaign, managed just 26 points or fewer.

Proof, if any were needed, of how big that leap now is, and how much money has to be spent to give a club a fighting chance of avoiding an immediate return.

And looking at the newcomers to the top flight ahead of this weekend's big kickoff, it is hard to image one of them bucking the recent status quo ~ unless Wolves find themselves thrown into the relegation equation, having chosen to sell most of their best players this summer.