The highs and lows of supporting a football club makes every season an entertaining one. From the pinnacle of gaining promotion, or maybe staying up on the final day of the season, to hitting rock bottom and facing relegation.
In years gone by, we have seen so many teams that have bounced between the Premier League and Championship, commonly referred to as ‘yoyo’ clubs. Norwich, Burnley, Fulham and West Bromwich Albion make up just a few on that list.
Teams who suffer from both extremes in short succession must face this overwhelming sense of uncertainty.
Take Norwich City for example, the canaries have experienced promotion six times and relegation seven times since 1995.
The Norfolk outfit completed a record sixth relegation from the Premier League in 2022.
In the space of a year, a club can go from winning the league and gaining promotion to then the complete opposite of getting relegated the following season.
And that’s forgetting all the attention from the media upon success, compared with the criticism from the media upon failure.
This can turn into an endless cycle that clubs struggle to get out of.
So, how does the constant change and movement in leagues impact on a club’s winning mentality?
There is no doubt that players and staff in a football club that is constantly getting wrapped up in a variety of different emotions is a totally different mentality altogether.
This isn’t necessarily because they have a weaker mentality as such, or any lack of desire to win. It’s a massive skill to be able to keep on achieving and build on season from season; and is often what separates the good teams from the elite in the Premier League.
To be able to increase performance and results each season is mentally challenging enough, but to do it in the climate of one of the best leagues in the world, with the investment and quality there is now, makes it a totally different beast altogether.
Darren Eadie played more than 200 games for Norwich in the mid to late 1990s and says “a change in mentality” is significant in preparation for the step up – immediately after getting promoted.
“A change in mentality is needed to survive”
Players experience a huge range of emotions and learning to deal with these emotions is now a essential requirement for footballers at the top of the game.
With top psychologists and coaches, the support and training is put in place to motivate players to strive for success. Some clubs are better at instilling this mentality than others. With ‘yoyo’ clubs though, it can be extremely challenging to increase this elite mentality when a team is struggling to adapt to a new league.
Upon promotion, players embrace the pride and dedication that has resulted in success, but then in the matter of a few months the new season begins and they can experience potential hangover and lack of adjustment to the league.
This is why it is important to not get too high, but also to never get to low.
Good preparation and a solid structure to knowing how they will approach games is key to breaking the curse of the ‘yoyo’ reputation.
Why do ‘yoyo’ clubs keep ‘yoyoing’?
There are many factors as to why a team might struggle to make the step up in a new league and progress in an upwards projection.
Firstly, it might simply be down to the lack of quality in the squad, especially in contemporary football and the Premier League gaining the reputation of having all the money, thus the best players from around the world.
The jump up from the Championship, for instance, is undoubtedly bigger now than it has ever been, therefore creating this huge gap between the top performing teams in the Championship with even the bottom sides in the Premier League. It proves too big of a task for some clubs.
Since the introduction of parachute payments in 2006, there have been more ‘yoyo’ clubs and the frequency of them jumping between leagues is much higher.
Since 2013, nine of the 27 relegated clubs have bounced back with immediate promotions, while 12 of the 27 promoted teams in that period have been relegated in their first year.
With the financial investment that goes into Premier League clubs compared to the rest of England, this gap isn’t going to close up anytime soon and clubs may keep facing struggles of promotion followed by relegation.
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