The Premier League’s yo-yo clubs: which clubs have had the most top flight stints

Some Premier League clubs settle in for good; others treat the top flight like a revolving door. Norwich City, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Southampton, Sunderland and Burnley are six of English football’s most recognisable shuttle clubs, and their individual promotion and relegation records show just how hard staying up can be. This is all reflected in the Premier League markets ahead of kick off.

Norwich City

Founding Premier League members in 1992-93, Norwich have had six separate spells in the competition, more than any other club. Their first stint lasted three seasons before relegation in 1994-95.

Since then, they have bounced back up in 2004-05, 2011-12, 2015-16, 2019-20, and 2021-22, only to go straight back down every time except 2011-12, when they lasted three seasons before dropping in 2013-14. That gives Norwich five promotions and a record six relegations, and their last three promotions have each ended in immediate relegation.

Sunderland

Sunderland’s Premier League history is the most fragmented of the six. They have had five separate spells: 1996-97 (one season), 1999-2000 to 2002-03 (four seasons), 2005-06 (one season), 2007-08 to 2016-17 (ten seasons), and 2025-26 onward. Two of those five stints ended after a single season. After their 2016-17 relegation, they fell as far as League One and spent eight seasons outside the top flight before their most recent return.

Burnley

No club on this list has bounced around more recently than Burnley. They have been promoted to the Premier League five times, via the play-offs in 2009, automatically in 2014, as Championship champions in 2016, again in 2023, and again in 2025, and have been relegated on all five occasions. Three of those five spells lasted just a single season. Their 2025-26 relegation made them only the fourth club in Premier League history to go down at least five times.

West Bromwich Albion

West Brom have had five separate Premier League spells, and been relegated on all five occasions. They came up in 2002-03, went straight back down, returned for 2004-05 and 2005-06 before dropping again, and were relegated after a single season once more in 2008-09.

Their longest stint ran from 2010-11 to 2017-18, eight seasons before relegation finally caught up with them. A fifth promotion in 2019-20, a club record at the time, ended in relegation again after just one season in 2020-21.

Along the way they produced “The Great Escape” in 2004-05, surviving from bottom of the table at Christmas, only to go down the following year anyway.

Leicester City

Leicester City’s fall is the most dramatic on this list. Just a decade after winning the Premier League title in 2015-16, one of the great shocks in English football, Leicester have plummeted to League One, the third tier.

They have had five separate Premier League spells and been relegated five times: 1994-95, 2001-02, 2003-04, 2022-23, and 2024-25. The 2022-23 relegation was followed by an immediate bounce-back as Championship champions, but that return lasted only one season before Leicester went down again with five games still to play.

A further relegation from the Championship to League One followed at the end of 2025-26, making Leicester only the fifth club in English top-flight history to suffer back-to-back relegations across two divisions.

Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace show that the yo-yo tag does not have to be permanent. All four of their early Premier League spells ended in immediate relegation, in 1992-93, 1994-95, 1997-98, and 2004-05, each lasting just a single season.

Since returning for 2013-14, though, Palace have not been relegated again, an ever-present top-flight run now in its 13th season. Their trajectory has gone further still. In May 2025, they beat Manchester City 1-0 in the FA Cup final to win the first major trophy in their history, and the European place that success secured led to an even bigger prize a year later, a Conference League final win over Rayo Vallecano in May 2026 that gave Palace their first-ever European trophy.

Ipswich Town

Ipswich have become a more recent yo-yo club, having been in the Premier League twice in three seasons. They lasted three seasons in the top flight, being one of the 22 founding clubs in the 1992/93 season, before their first relegation in 1994-95. They returned via the play-offs in 2000-01, spent two seasons in the top flight, and went down again in 2001-02.

A 22-year absence followed before promotion in 2024-25, a season that ended in relegation alongside Leicester City and Southampton. Ipswich bounced back again at the first attempt, winning promotion for 2026-27. That is four separate Premier League spells, three promotions since their founding stint, and three relegations, with a fourth just starting.

Southampton

Southampton have had three Premier League spells and been relegated three times. Their first, as founding members, ran 13 seasons until 2004-05. The second, following promotion in 2012, lasted 11 seasons until relegation in 2022-23. Their third spell, secured by beating Leeds in the 2024 play-off final, lasted just one season. Southampton were relegated in 2024-25 with seven games still to play, the earliest confirmed relegation in Premier League history. The Saints had the opportunity to go up again last season, but the “Spy Gate” scandal led to them being disqualified from the play-offs and receiving a four-point deduction at the start of the season.