10 Longest Absences From The Premier League

Nottingham Forest are one of the most successful teams in English footballing history thanks to their two European Cup successes under the legendary Brian Clough. One of just five teams from the country to lift the trophy, they hold the bizarre record of having won more European championships than domestic ones (having been league champions just once).

Forest were a shadow of their former selves by the time the Premier League formed, however, finishing bottom of the league in its inaugural campaign. Clough left the club after eighteen years in charge and they returned to the top flight at the first time of asking, but lasted just three more seasons before finishing last once again.

Another instant return followed, but this resulted in yet another last-placed finish in the final season of the twentieth century. This time there was no comeback.

Forest have now spent almost two decades in the Championship, a run interrupted only by three seasons in League One in the mid-2000s. Since being near-bankrupted by the reviled David Platt and his infamous ‘trio of Italians’, the club have been through a painful twenty-seven managers and fallen in the playoffs in four separate occasions, missing out on them this year after a dreadful run of form took them from being automatic promotion contenders to 7th.