Ruud van Nistelrooy bemoans gap between Premier League and Championship following relegation

Ruud van Nistelrooy bemoaned the size of the gap between Premier League and the Championship after his Leicester City side were relegated on Sunday.

The Foxes, like their fellow newly promoted sides, have looked doomed throughout the campaign, although the sacking of Steve Cooper accelerated their demise, with Van Nistelrooy unlikely to take charge of Leicester beyond the end of the season.

Leicester have now lost their last nine home games, failing to even score a goal in that time, and Van Nistelrooy says the difference in quality between the newly promoted sides and the rest of the Premier League is now too big to be competitive.

“I think over 32, 33 games it is the level of the three promoted sides has been too big compared to the other 17,” said Van Nistelrooy. “It is clear the difference in quality is there; the two teams relegated already and the other, 15 points behind with five games [to play], so the gap is big.

“I expected to get more points than I was able to from the games I was able to lead. There were some very good performances and also performances where we didn’t perform to our capabilities and you lose games in the first half and there were too many of them.

“I expected to bring more points to the table. Performances like Brighton and Liverpool are helpful towards that process so that’s where I think the club has to use this time.”

It used to be that 40 points was seen as the magic number for sides to avoid relegation, but the points totals of the side finishing 18th has got smaller in recent years.

In 2021, Fulham went down with 28 points, and while Burnley and Leicester went down with 35 and 34 points in 2022 and 2023 respectively, Luton went down with 26 last term, and Ipswich look set to follow suit, currently on 21 points with five games left to play.

It has reopened the conversation regarding teams coming up from the Championship. This will be the second straight season in which all three sides have gone straight back down with a whimper, and Roy Keane feels the newly promoted sides are struggling to attract players of sufficient quality.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Keane said: “Even clubs like Ipswich, you might say you’ve got £100m-odd to spend but it’s attracting the right players.

“Sometimes, these clubs have had to go and buy 11, 12 players; in an ideal world, you want to buy two or three real quality players who’ve got [Premier League] experience, but you can’t afford them, or you might be able to afford them, but you can’t afford their wages, so you spread it out and you end up with lots of players who are still lacking that real quality.”

Liam Williams

• Leicester City F.C.
• Premier League
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