10 Longest Absences From The Premier League

Situated between the major metropolitan centres of Leeds and Sheffield, there’s not a great deal that can be said about the town of Barnsley. Their football team had never played in the top flight in their history when they achieved an unlikely promotion to the Premier League in 1997.

The 1997/98 season is memorable only for the fact that Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal won the league for the first time, shutting out Manchester United after a prolonged period of dominance for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men. Barnsley compounded their misery by dumping them out of the FA Cup, ensuring that they went trophyless for just the second time in the entire decade.

Bar this cup run, which took them to the quarter finals, Barnsley had a torrid time and were ultimately relegated alongside Bolton and Crystal Palace, the only time in the league’s history that all three promoted teams have then been relegated at the first time of asking.

Though their relegated companions would eventually bounce back, Barnsley have yet to do so after twenty-two years. They are just one of three clubs to have only spent a single season in the Premier League in total. Having yo-yoed between the Championship and League One in recent years, don’t expect them to change that anytime soon.