10 Longest Absences From The Premier League

The League Cup is seen as a waste of time by many clubs, who field youth and fringe players to avoid fatiguing their regular starters, but Bradford City almost turned it into a Cinderella story in 2013. Having finished in 18th place in League Two the season before, they went all the way to the final of the competition, dumping out Arsenal and Aston Villa before coming up short against Swansea.

It was hard to believe that the Yorkshire club had been in the Premier League just over a decade prior. Bradford earned promotion from Division One in 1999 to return to the top flight for the first time in eighty years, most of which had been spent in Divisions Three and Four.

They found the going tough, narrowly avoiding relegation by virtue of the horrendous seasons endured by the three teams beneath them, before finishing rock bottom by some margin in their second campaign.

Two administrations and two further relegations followed over the course of the next few years and the Bantams have not even played in the Championship since 2004. They are currently plying their trade in League Two, having ended a six-year stint in League One the season before last.