Fulham secured their place back in the Premier League after the Cottagers’ 3-0 win against Preston North End saw the west London side claim promotion back up the pinnacle of English football.
Their third promotion in five years, Fulham fans will be hopeful that Marco Silva’s side can actually keep the club up next season after becoming something of a joke amongst Premier League supporters for coming up and then going straight back down seemingly every other year.
Indeed, maintaining a Premier League status after promotion is difficult for any ambitious second-tier side, so here are four clubs from the annals of Championship history that Fulham can take inspiration from ahead of next season.
Manchester City, 2001/02
Given Manchester City’s current status as one of the best clubs in world football, it seems crazy to think that just under 20 years ago, the now-five-time Premier League champions were in the second tier.
Yet the 2001/02 season saw the Cityzens escape the Championship for good under Kevin Keegan, and an incredible year in the second-tier which brought 99 points and 108 goals saw the Manchester side promoted back up to the Premier League, where the rest, they say, is history.
Sunderland, 2006/07
The original yo-yo club, Sunderland are no strangers to relegation, yet the 2006/07 season saw the Black Cats return to the Premier League from the Championship and actually stay in the English top-flight.
Whilst the northeast side currently find themselves still struggling to escape League One, Sunderland’s promotion in 2007 saw the Tyneside club spend ten years in the top flight before their fall from grace to the third-tier of English football.
Leicester City, 2013/14
Leicester City’s promotion to the Premier League in 2014 was something of a miracle in of itself, yet as we know, what the Foxes managed to pull off two years later would go on to become arguably the greatest story in all of modern sport.
Yet the road to the Premier League began with Nigel Pearson’s incredible run in the Championship as manager of the Foxes, where the likes of Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy exploded onto the scene during a campaign where many club records, which still stand today, were broken in a 102 point season.
Wolverhampton Wanderers, 2017/18
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2017/18 side were one of the most ground-breaking and entertaining the second-tier had seen in a while, and their success in the Championship carried over big time into the Premier League in the following season.
Wolves qualified for Europe in their comeback campaign in the top flight, and under new manager Bruno Lage, the Molineux side have an exciting future ahead of them that could see the club once again evolve into another level of success.
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