The varying fortunes of the Football League Founder Members

Football has changed hugely over the years, today if you asked people to name a well known football team you might get answers such as Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.  Fair enough you may say since they are all currently sat in the top half of the Premier League, however, none of these teams were founder members when the football league as we know it was first formed.  This honour went to 12 teams from the North West and the Midlands; they were Aston Villa, Accrington Stanley (of "who are they?" fame), Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Everton, Notts County, Preston North End, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

So where are they all now?  Well seven are currently plying their trade in the Premiership (Aston Villa, Blackburn, Bolton, Everton, Stoke, West Brom and Wolves), whilst Burnley and Derby are one below in the Championship, Notts County and Preston are playing in League 1 and Accrington are in League 2.  It is fair to say that despite the apparent success in having over half of the founder members in the top flight of football that each team has had its fair share of ups and downs over the years.  Let's take a look at the varying fortunes of each team over the last 10 years.


How the Founder Members have faired

Only 4 of the teams haven't been involved in promotion or relegation over the last 10 years: Aston Villa, Blackburn, Bolton and Everton (though at the time of writing, both Blackburn and Bolton are sitting in the relegation places in the Premier League) and all four have had good cup fortunes, either winning or being runners up in a competition.

West Brom win the yoyo team tag with no less than 3 relegations and 4 promotions over the last 10 years - plenty of bitten finger nails in the black country there then!

Yet a lot of credit should go out to two teams that many would consider unfashionable - Stoke City and, yes, the much maligned Accrington Stanley.  Both have been promoted twice in the last ten years and have thrown in a cup win for good measure.  Neither of them have endured relegation during this time, whereas all the other clubs mentioned in the table above that have been promoted in the last 10 years have also been relegated at some point too.

It just goes to show that success isn't always about being in the top half of the premiership, there's plenty going on in and around and outside of it and that's what makes football so interesting and unpredictable!  It would be nice to have all of the founder members back in the big league together, let's see what the next 10 years bring - you never know!