Incidentally Arsenal should never have been promoted. They finished only 5th in the Second Division in the last season of football in 1914/15 before the league stopped because of the First World War.
Arsenal chairman Henry Norris then bribed the Football League and on the resumption of football in 1919 Arsenal got the promotion place which should rightfully have been Barnsley’s.
So an asterisk should be placed over all Arsenal’s titles since then.
And Tottenham were who lost out and relegated to second division . Arsenal had just moved to North London and league wanted to help them.
M?
No
W?
Yes.
West Bromwich Albion
Wolverhampton Wanderers
West Ham United
Woolwich Arsenal
Watford
Wimbledon
Wigan Athletic
Every single edition of the top division of English football has featured at least one of these.
Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United are currently the only two teams in the English top division beginning with W and they are both in the relegation zone.
Watford and Wrexham (who have never been in the top division) have a shout of promotion.
There have only been two seasons of top division English football that have not featured a team beginning with S.
These are 1958/59 and 1977/78.
Stoke City (then called Stoke) were founder members of the Football League but were turfed out after two seasons after twice finishing bottom of the then only division.
They were replaced by Sunderland, who remained in the top division until 1958, when they were relegated along with Stoke.
Sheffield Wednesday were then promoted in 1959 and and a continued S presence was maintained by various teams thereafter.
This ended when Sunderland and Stoke were again relegated together in 1977 to leave S without a team for 1977/78.
Then Soton were promoted in 1978 and remained until 2005.
Hapless Sunderland and Sheffield United teams kept an alternating presence in the top division between 2005 and 2008, when Stoke City were promoted.
Stoke remained in the top division for ten years until 2018.
By this time Southampton were back. They were relegated in 2023, but Sheffield United were promoted.
Sheffield United were then relegated in 2024, but Soton came back up.
Soton went back down again in 2025, but Sunderland came up.
I was reading earlier that Hamburg drew 2-2 at Kaiserslautern in the Bundesliga on 24 May 1983.
The following day, 25 May 1983 with 10 of the 11 starters from the Kaiserslautern game, Hamburg beat Juventus 1-0 in Athens in the European Cup final, a Juventus team that had 6 starters from the Italy World Cup winning team of 1982 and Michel Platini and Zbigniew Boniek.
A lot of that shit was going on in the 80’s. Sure Mark Hughes played for Wales and Bayern in the one day. Some going they beat Juve all the same.
And that’s all before we even mention Spurs .
Tottenham Hotspurs were relegated in 1977 along with Sunderland and Stoke, indeed they finished bottom of the First Division.
Trivia question:
Who is the only Irish League player to play in a World Cup finals game?
This refers to the league formerly sponsored by Smirnoff where the results come in on BBC1 Northun Auyyyeland at 5:03pm on Saturdays, NOT the League Of Ireland.
Was it George Dunlop, who replaced an injured Pat Jennings in one of the 2nd phase games in Espana 82. Either against Austria or France?
As Roy Walker would say, good guess but it’s not right.
Billy Hamilton
It’s not Billy Hamilton.
George Dunlop of Linfield made the bench as sub goalie against Spain and in the first second round group game against Austria but didn’t get on.
Jim Platt replaced Pat Jennings for the Austria game.
The player in question was NOT a Linfield player.
Is it Derry City’s Felix Healy?
Felix Healy is correct. Coleraine the club.
Who holds the record for most consecutive appearances for Manchester United by an outfield player?
Bruno ?
The person in question was an England international who played at the World Cup finals.