#125 How To Escape The Championship (& Avoid Doing A Leicester)

#125 How To Escape The Championship (& Avoid Doing A Leicester)

From The West Ham Breakdown by Jack Elderton

July 9, 2026 · 1h 2m · Season 3 · Episode 46

About this episode

Cal and Darcy discuss lessons West Ham can learn from relegated teams and how to avoid their pitfalls in the Championship.

Support the show and get more from Analytics United: https://www.patreon.com/AnalyticsUnited Cal & Darcy break down the lessons West Ham can learn from analysing last season's relegated sides, Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton, and how they attempted to return to the Premier League at the first time of asking. They discuss how West Ham compares to the state each club was in before last season, how the transfer business they did succeeded and failed, how they performed on the pitch against more tenured Championship sides and much more. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (04:38) What lessons West Ham can take from Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton (06:41) What state were the relegated sides in before the season started? (12:12) Are West Ham in a better or worse starting position comparatively? (17:31) What went wrong with Leicester's transfers last summer? (23:18) How West Ham can avoid the same fate as Leicester (27:33) Southampton's sensible and balanced rebuild worked (32:20) Retention and consistency is key to transition successfully (37:39) The importance of experience in squad building (38:29) Avoid selling players unnecessarily (41:41) How Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton…

People in this episode

Host: Jack Elderton

Guests: Cal, Darcy

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Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Analytics United, Leicester, Ipswich, Southampton

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