Credit: Imago/Championship on X

James Barker

Tue 21 April 2026 7:10, UK

Tottenham Hotspur fans: please don’t fall into the trap of thinking an instant return to the Premier League would be guaranteed if relegation is to happen.

With just five games of the season to go, Tottenham are still staring at the possibility of Championship football for 2026-27.

Roberto De Zerbi came mightily close to registering Spurs’ first league win of 2026 against Brighton on Saturday, but a 95th-minute Seagulls equaliser stunned the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Seeing a number of their rivals such as Nottingham Forest and Leeds United begin to pull away into the distance too, the runners and riders in this relegation run-in are getting fewer and fewer.

All the while though, Tottenham remain in the relegation race, but not to worry, because even if Spurs go down they’ll no doubt come straight back up from the Championship. Right?

Tottenham are not guaranteed to win Championship promotion

Tottenham fans could enjoy the Championship more than the time they’re having in the Premier League right now, as it’s a brilliant league in its own right.

Proper football clubs, old-school grounds, some hard old pitches and no VAR: I’m not doing too bad a job of selling it, am I?

And with Spurs coming down with all their riches and saleable assets etc, you would be forgiven for thinking there’s no way it would be nothing more than a one-year detour before getting back to Premier League business.

But I’m here to tell you that whilst that could of course be the case, it’s in absolutely no way guaranteed to be Tottenham’s reality, so please don’t get into that mindset in this relegation run-in.

Over the last four seasons, one team in the Championship’s top two automatic promotion spots has not been a side that came straight down from the Premier League the season prior.

Also, four of the last five teams to win promotion via the play-offs were also not a team that had been in the top flight the campaign before.

Not only this, but Tottenham would be getting every single one of the other 23 teams’ very best every single week, as they of course would be the main attraction in the division.

As such, every match would have somewhat of a cup final feel for the opposition side and their fans, which over the course of 46 league games, well that’s incredibly taxing on Spurs’ players.

In short, the Championship can be a very tricky division to get out of once you’re in it, and we’ve seen many clubs over the years get bogged down there after failing to win an instant promotion.

The Championship has form for back-to-back relegations too

Now of course, you’d like to think Tottenham would be nowhere near another relegation battle if they were to get relegated to the Championship.

But, that’s exactly what Luton Town supporters said last season before finishing 22nd and relegated to League One.

Sunderland fans can also testify to that when they witnessed their team finish rock-bottom in 24th back in the 2017-18 campaign, having finished 20th in the Premier League the term prior.

It took Coventry City 25 years to return to the top flight this season, and Leicester City are set to provide the latest example of a team going straight into League One after their Premier League relegation.

It can happen, and with what would be with no doubt an almost entirely new starting XI and playing squad all together, whose to say the signings brought in don’t totally flop and that the youngsters aren’t ready either?

You often hear the phrase ‘I wouldn’t mind getting relegated because then we can reset and rebuild’. Nonsense. Relegation is never the answer to a team’s problems.

Tottenham can clear just as much deadwood this summer as a Premier League team. The Championship is not the league you want to enter holding a naive preconception that you’re just going to go straight back up anyway.

The second tier would be ready and waiting to teach Tottenham a humbling lesson if that’s to be the case.