Is the double drop from the Premier League becoming more common?

One day Leicester were playing Liverpool in the Premier League, then within 15 months it was Notts County, Burton Albion and MK Dons in League One.

It is a path of back-to-back relegations to the third tier of English football which was exceptionally rare. Now statistically it is becoming more common.

With Burnley marooned in the Championship relegation zone, they could be the third team in three years to suffer the double drop,

For the 1,450 Burnley supporters who made the trip to Lincoln City last weekend, the threat is all too real.

Head coach Nicky Hayen was never likely to survive a 4-1 defeat by a Lincoln team who were in non-league football 10 years ago.

With Diego Lopez appointed as Burnley's new chief football officer, and Fabio Celestini installed as their new boss, the Clarets must now hope for a change in fortunes.

Is the Championship becoming ever-more competitive as well-run clubs like Lincoln make an impact?

Or it simply a case of clubs from the Premier League imploding after relegation?

'Mismanagement of the playing squad' to blame

Fifteen years ago, the suggestion a top-flight club could be relegated in successive seasons was unthinkable.

After all, in the first 20 seasons of the Premier League it happened just the once.

That was to Swindon Town, and even then there were special circumstances.

The Robins finished fourth bottom of the second tier in 1994-95 but were relegated because of the rebalancing of the divisions to reduce the Premier League to 20 teams.

In any other season they would not have suffered the double drop.

As such, it could be argued that Wolves were the first team to suffer a double drop from the Premier League after being relegated in 2011-12.

Since then it has happened four times in 14 seasons.

Or, after Sunderland went down in 2016-18, three times in nine seasons.

And then back-to-back seasons with Luton and Leicester.

Meanwhile, Wigan and Portsmouth were relegated to League One after a second season in the Championship, Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday after a third.

For Wolves, Sunderland and Leicester there was considerable turmoil on and off the pitch which contributed to their demise.

Burney fans may fear there are similarities at Turf Moor.

During their double drop descent, Wolves - who remarkably suffered a treble drop to the bottom tier in the 1980s - burned through four managers and made a series of poor transfers.

Sunderland did so with the ignominy of being the only club to finish bottom of both divisions, winning just 13 of 84 league matches.

The Black Cats had been in the top flight for 10 seasons - though they had only reached the 40-point barrier, usually the target to remain in the division, three times.

Leicester's relegation to League One was a direct result of poor boardroom decisions, with a six-point deduction for breaching profit and sustainability regulations ultimately sealing their fate. The Foxes finished 23rd in the Championship, five points from safety.

It took Sunderland four years to return to the Championship, and such is the turmoil at Leicester an immediate promotion looks unlikely. Russell Martin's Leicester side sit 13th in League One, with the club up for sale.

"Despite the fact we've seen Luton and Leicester suffer back-to-back relegations in recent years, I don't see it as a trend that will continue," former Watford and Reading midfielder Jobi McAnuff, now an EFL pundit, told BBC Sport.

"For both of those clubs, in my opinion, it was a case of mismanagement of the playing squad.

"From Luton's perspective, there were a few players there who maybe felt an entitlement to stay in the Premier League. They didn't readjust to being back at the Championship, where most of their players had actually been previously.

"And for Leicester City, they kept hold of too many that didn't really want to be there and then obviously weren't equipped to deal with a relegation battle."

While Luton may have got their recruitment wrong, they were much more responsibly run compared to the other double drop clubs.

The Hatters' progress off the pitch remains progressive rather than regressive, with work advancing on a new 25,000-capacity stadium at Power Court which is due to be completed for the start of 2028-29.

The fine line for success is shown by Luton's relegation from the Championship in 2024-25. They went down because of their inferior goal difference compared to Hull City, with the Tigers then promoted to the Premier League the following season.