It may be open but it is not very good - 16 different clubs two-thirds of the

It may be open but it is not very good - 16 different clubs, two-thirds of the division, have filled the first three places at some time during the season In the Premiership only seven clubs have done so. "People say we would not survive if we went up but we would have a different team then," Noades said. "With our new income level we could buy three of four players."They would need them. If Bolton are relegated it will mean that, of 26 teams promoted since 1987, 15 have been relegated within four seasons. Ten will have gone straight back down (including six of the eight teams promoted through the play-offs).

Their squads will get bigger while the quality of lower division players declines. Any club that does go down and keeps its players will go straight back up as long as it is not suffering some kind of internal turmoil."A look at this year's First Division suggests the trend has already started. Coventry bought two players I could not afford to pay."Coventry are one of only two clubs never to have been relegated from the top division. At the other extreme, Birmingham and Leicester have gone down nine times with Manchester City in danger of joining them.For clubs of reasonable, but limited resources, such a yo-yo existence is increasingly likely. "I can see the same three clubs going up and down year after year," Noades said. "The Premiership clubs will be gaining so much income they will be able to cream off anybody of any ability in the lower divisions.

Some players wanted to go but, said Noades, sales were also forced by the bank."They reduced our overdraft facility by pounds 3.7m from pounds 6.7m. We had to sell to meet that and to cut wage bills - unless you do you are paying Premiership wages on Endsleigh income Some of those Premiership clubs must be crapping themselves. If you have to sell players it becomes very hard."Having kept most of their side in 1993, and gone straight back as champions, Palace sold the bulk of the team last summer. "You have to decide when you go down if you can afford to keep what you have got If you can you should be able to go back up.

Notts County and Swindon even went down again while seven remain in the First Division."If you fail to get straight back then you have real problems," Noades said. Four clubs have bounced straight back in the last five seasons, one of them Crystal Palace two years ago. But, of the 10 that failed to do so, only Middlesbrough later got up. But as this expires after two years, during which the clubs in the Premier League have been getting even richer, an instant return is imperative. The Endsleigh League have already signed a new deal (with Sky) which will push television income to pounds 750,000-pounds 1.2m for First Division clubs next year but, as Sheepshanks notes, "it will in no way make up the shortfall with the Premiership."Ipswich, like all relegated clubs, are cushioned by receiving half the base sum (about pounds 500,000) from the Premiership as well as Endsleigh TV money. The current Endsleigh deal is worth less than pounds 500,000. Anyone who goes down this season is kissing goodbye to four million on TV income alone.