IT COULD prove to be a bad year for the founder members of the Football League.
Of the 12 teams that banded together for the first formal season in 1888, incredibly seven are currently part of the Premier League elite.
But that number will almost certainly be lower by May, with perhaps all three relegated teams coming from the original dozen.
Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers and Wolverhampton Wanderers are under serious threat of playing in the Championship next year, while West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa and Stoke City can’t be too complacent with 13 games to go. But after a recent resurgence for the founder clubs, it may be that this is as good as it gets. There is the slow resurgence of clubs from big cities or with big hinterlands.
The founder clubs that have struggled are the ones that have found their space being squeezed.
More of the Lancashire and West Midlands clubs will have to find a way to overcome that challenge in the years ahead.
