The Championship/Old Division 1 class of 2000/01

eagle eye

I think this is worthy of a thread and I'm bored.

The Old Division One now known as the Championship promotes 3 sides to the Premier League each year, success for these clubs has not been that great though once they've reached the promised land.

This was a very special class though.

Mohammed Al-Fayed purchased League One outfit Fulham FC in the summer of 1997 and immediately caused a stir when he hired Ray Wilkins as manager and Kevin Keegan as Chief Operating Officer a role now more commonly know as Director of Football. Fayed promised Fulham fans Premier League football in the next five years. They destroyed all around them as they became League One/Division 2 champions. In their first season under Fayed's ownership they made the playoffs but failed to gain promotion. Wilkins left in the summer and Keegan took charge of the team and guided them to automatic and League One honours.
They were hit with a setback then as Kevin Keegan became England manager and his replacement Paul Bracewell didn't last long as a bright start to his time in charge went bad pretty quickly. Jean Tigana took the job and guided them to Championship glory and promotion the next season. Fayed had a achieved what he set out to do with a year to spare.

Blackburn Rovers sacked Roy Hodgson in December 1998 after a dreadful early run of form in the Premier League. Hodgson had guided Rovers to 6th place the previous season but the failure of his £7.5 million signing Kevin Davies allied with the poor results meant his departure came sooner rather than later. Brian Kidd replaced him but Blackburn Rovers were relegated four years after being Premier League Champions. Indeed things got a lot worse for them as it became quite clear that Brian Kidd was probably the worst manager ever to have managed a team in the top divisions of English football when after spending £29 million he had Blackburn in 19th place when the board finally seen the light on 3rd November 1999.

This isn't about the history of Blackburn Rovers though, its about the 1999/2000 Championship class. Graeme Souness was hired in November '99 and duly led Rovers to safety that season before leading them to 2nd place and automatic promotion.

Bolton Wanderers had been promoted and relegated twice in the late 1990's. Sam Allardyce came to the club in October 1999, that season Bolton reached the FA Cup semi-finals where they were beaten on penalties by Aston Villa, they reached the League Cup semi-final where they lost to John Aldridge's Tranmere Rovers and they reached the playoffs in the Championship.
The next season Bolton Wanderers finished 3rd in the Championship after a long hard fought battle with their bitter rivals Blackburn Rovers. They finished on 87 points which has won that division and 9 points clear of 4th placed Preston North End. There was no stopping Bolton this time though and they beat West Brom 5-2 in the semi-finals before despatching Preston in the final with a 3-0 win.
Fulham have had two close calls since that time finishing 17th two seasons back and 16th two years before that.
Blackburn's worst finish has been 15th on 3 occasions most recently in 2008/09 but for the most part Blackburn have spent their time in the top half of the table.
Bolton started off life in the Premier league with 16th place and only just survived the next season when finishing 17th, things got better for them after that and they achieved 4 top ten finishes under Allardyce before he left them. They have finished as low as 16th since them.

It rarely happens that three promoted clubs stay in the Premier League the next season but I salute the Championship class of 2000/01 as the promoted teams of that season all enter their 10th consecutive season in the top flight of English football.

Its important to look at why they might have been so successful and I would point to shrewd businessmen as the reason why these relatively small clubs have survived this long.
Mohammed Al-Fayed has beem Chairman of Fulham FC since he took in over and we all know how successful he has been in business.
John Williams became Chairman of Blackburn Rovers in 1997 and after a rough start has become one of the most highly respected Chairman in the Premier League.
Phil Gartside is another highly respected Chairman who took that position at Bolton Wanderers in October 1999 where his first move was to appoint Sam Allardyce.

Lemlin

Are these the only group of promoted teams who have all managed to stay up since being promoted?

I remember Mark Lawrenson having to shave his 'tache when Bolton stayed up!!

Blackburn and Fulham were both expected too. That Blackburn side had David Dunn, Brad Friedel, Damien Duff and Matt Jansen in it. Andy Cole was added to the team for 7 million as well and they won the League Cup that year. It was far too good a team to be in the first division.

The Fulham team were pretty alright too if I remember. They had Saha anyway. I remember they gave United a scare in the first game of the season when United just managed to scrape by them 3-2.

LuckyLloyd

Interesting bit of history!