Ten teams you forgot were once in the Premier League
Since its inception in 1992, fifty-one clubs have competed in the Premier League: 49 from England and two from Wales. Whilst the Premier League likes to boast of its wealth, quality and magnetism — this does not mean to say that all fifty-one of those contenders over the course of thirty years have provided us with a wealth of quality and stand out memories.
The following is a list of teams, who in my opinion, are the least memorable clubs to ever play in the Premier League from the semi-forgotten to the ones completely lost to time.
This isn’t about how poor these teams were — some were chaotic, some were entertaining, some even briefly successful. It’s about which clubs passed through the Premier League without leaving much behind.
The Almost-forgotten
- Watford (1999/2000, 2015–2020, 2021/22)
I can read your mind. Perhaps not the thoughts currently in it, but I know you were not thinking Watford Football Club all of 2 seconds ago. Let’s be honest, unless you are from Hertfordshire, no one really remembers Watford’s various spells in the Premier League. Watford have actually had 8 seasons in the PL, beginning in 1999/2000 and as of now their most recent being in 2021/22 when they finished 19th.
Sure, most people will be able to tell you that Watford have at times played in the Prem, but name me an outstanding moment from their Premier League years? Name me a ‘star’ who played for Watford in the top-flight? And don’t you dare say Troy Deeney. At a push I’ll accept Senegalese golden boy Ismaïla Sarr.
Watford recently enjoyed a 5 year stint in the Premier League between 2015 to 2020 which saw them make history — for the wrong reasons — when they were spread eagle and smashed 6–0 in the 2019 FA Cup final by Manchester City to equal the joint heaviest cup final defeat of all time.
Overall, Watford are so forgettable it’s like they were never there; a bit like the Silence from Doctor Who. Look away and you’ll forget them. I swear by the time you’ve finished this article you’ll have forgotten about them again.
2. Blackburn Rovers (1992/1999, 2001/02–2011/12)
Hear me out. Of all the teams on this list, Blackburn are by far the most successful. They won the thing for Pete’s sake. If Blackburn could have sustained the success they had in the early 1990s and carried it into the 2000s, there’s no way they would be on this list at all.
But here’s the key thing: they couldn’t. And they didn’t.
Only four seasons after being crowned champions, they were relegated. And yes, whilst they have since competed in the top-flight, even as recently as 2012 — they never again came anywhere close to replicating the glories of the Jack Walker/Kenny Dalglish years.
Rovers have now spent 13 years outside of the Premier League, a very long time in football, dipping as low as League One. To anyone too young to remember the 90s or 2000s, it’d be very easy to forget that Blackburn were for many years a decent Premier League mainstay.
3. Wigan Athletic (2005/06 — 2012/13)
Now I feel we are getting into less controversial territory, though there are obviously many who would disagree. But like Watford, name me a Wigan legend or star who would immediately spring to mind like Jay-Jay Okocha for Bolton, Adel Taarabt for QPR or Rory Delap for Stoke City. Arguably the Lactic’s most memorable names are the ones who never were actually on the pitch such as their manager Roberto Martinez who would go on to coach Everton and Belgium or their controversial owner, retail magnate Dave Whelan.
Wigan spent eight consecutive seasons sulking in the bottom half of the league table never finishing above 10th. A great achievement for a small town football club who’s history in the football league only goes back as far as 1978, but not one to exactly linger in the collective memory of football fandom. Indeed, the only reason Wigan are as high on this list as they are is for making a beautiful piece of ironic history in 2013 by becoming the first team to be relegated from the Premier League and win the FA Cup in the same season.
Wigan Athletic now live in League One, occasionally spending a season or two in the Championship before returning to their spiritual home in the third tier of English football.
The Semi-Forgotten
4. Huddersfield Town (2017/18 — 2018/19)
Now we are getting into the realms of the truly forgotten. They say every dog has their day. For the Terriers, that day was on 29 May 2017 at Wembley Stadium when they beat Reading on penalties to win promotion to the Premier League.
Against all the odds they did manage to survive their first season in the Premier League, even managing a 2–1 win over Manchester United then managed by Jose Mourinho. Sadly for the Yorkshire side it was not to be repeated.
The 2018/19 season was an incompetent disaster. From 38 games, Town recorded a woeful points tally of 16 and dropped out the division with barely a whimper. Let us be clear, Huddersfield were terrible, but not quite bad enough to be remembered for it.
Fanatics may point to Aaron Mooy as being something of a memorable player. Meh, maybe. As for their managers, they began with David Wagner and ended their Premier League life with someone called Jan Siewert manning the ship.
The only reason they appear this high on this list is because of recency bias. Anyone still playing FIFA 18 or 19 may come across them from time to time haunting the in-game Premier League like an unwanted ghost whilst the real club languishes in League One with any hopes and dreams of returning to the top-flight pretty much dead in the water.
If you do fancy reliving every minute of Huddersfield’s greatest Premier League moment, enjoy the video below:
5. Reading (2005/06–2007/08, 2012/13)
Speaking of Reading, the Royals themselves have had seasons in the Prem, three of them in fact, the first two coming as a back to back double headers between 2006–2008. Initially, it looked as if Reading were in for the long haul after a very respectable 8th place finish in their first season under Steve Coppell who had them churning out some excellent results.
Then the 2007/08 rolled around and with it a chronic case of the dreaded second season syndrome. Reading were unrecognisable from the season prior, suffering 8 straight defeats between 29 December 2007 to 24 February 2008. Again though, whilst they were poor, they were nowhere near bad enough to be remembered. Furthermore, that year the Royals were sharing the division with Derby County who for all the wrong reasons, were the gift that kept on giving for newspapers and hate watchers that season.
Despite going down like a poleaxed ox, it’s very important to note Reading did leave behind some history. On the 29th September 2007, they found themselves on the wrong end of a crazy 7–4 defeat to Portsmouth, the highest scoring game in Premier League history.
Their third and to date most recent top-flight venture? Well there’s not much to say really. They finished 19th in the 2012–13 Premier league with the manager who they started the season with, a chap called Brian McDermott, being replaced in March by Nigel Adkins who did nothing to stop Reading’s inevitable drop into the Championship. They also had Jobi McAnuff playing for them, the closest person they had who can be considered an icon I guess.
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There is one gem that remains from Reading’s 2012–13 season: a straight-to-Youtube, fly on the wall documentary produced by Reading’s inhouse media team offering fans a behind the scenes look at the final 10 weeks of the Royal’s last season in the top-flight. It’s quite a cute little film and very early 2010s.
The Truly Forgotten
6. Bradford City (1999/00 - 2000/01)
Yep. Believe it or not, Bradford City had a two season spell in the Premier League between 1999 to 2001. Like Huddersfield 16 years later, they survived their first season only to be sent down without a trace the next. That bloody second season syndrome again.
Again there’s very little to say on this one. They finished 17th in the 1999/2000 season with David Weatherall saving the Bantams from relegation with a 1–0 win over Liverpool on the final day. This goal arguably destroyed the club as chairman Geoff Richmond went absolutely mental with spending in the transfer window in the summer of 2000 only for Bradford to finish the 00/01 season rock bottom with 5 wins and 26 points.
Valley Parade has never hosted a Premier League fixture since, despite Bradford being the 10th largest city in England.
If you want to see the best of then Bradford boss Paul Jewell in action (purely in a football sense, if you know you know), here’s a link to a behind the scenes film documenting Bradford’s promotion to Premier League in 1999:
7. Barnsley (1997/98)
Now this is one for the fans. So forgotten is Barnsley’s season in the Prem I’ll confess I nearly forgot to include it on this list. But it happened alright. Little ol’ Barnsley, the third Yorkshire side on this list, stumbled into the 1997–98 Premier League finishing runners up in Division One, shat the bed and left.
Barely anyone remembers Barnsley’s Premier League misadventure, which is a real shame because by heck did it seem grim. It was a season full of goals, the only problem for the Tikes being was that the majority were against them. Across the season Barnsley lost by a margin of 5 goals or more four times. Unsurprisingly Barnsley were relegated with 35 points, which is probably enough to keep a team up now. It wasn’t all bad though. They had some decent players like Jan Åge Fjørtoft, Andy Liddell, Chris Morgan and skipper Neil Redfern. They were also managed by Danny Wilson who later did alright down the road at Sheffield Wednesday.
Barnsley’s greatest moment in the Premier League was probably beating Liverpool 1–0 at Anfield or Aston Villa by the same score line at Villa Park. Interestingly, they also managed to knock the mighty Manchester United out of the FA Cup that same season, winning 3–2 a fifth round replay.
8. Oldham Athletic (1992/93 - 1993/94)
Oldham were the OG minnow, a tiny club on a shoestring budget fighting against the odds to survive as founder members of the FA Premier League in 1992. Some might say the Premier League’s first victims.
I wonder though, is Oldham’s time in the Premier League really forgotten? I feel like despite not seeing top-flight football in over 30 years, quite a lot of people can remember that Oldham were once part of the Premier League. I think it’s because whenever a documentary or article comes out on the League’s formation, naturally Oldham’s name will be included in the list of founder members. This means that paradoxically whilst they themselves are utterly forgettable, history won’t allow them to be forgotten.
One thing Oldham Athletic must always be remembered for is for staging the Premier League’s first ever great escape. Somehow, with the longest being six points adrift with three games remaining, the Greater Manchester side managed to craw their way back from the brink winning their final three games against Villa, Liverpool and Southampton to ensure survival on the last day at the expense of Crystal Palace.
Sadly, they weren’t quite so lucky the following campaign and finished second from bottom in the 1993/94 season.
Here’s a link to a documentary pulling back the curtain on Oldham’s 1992–93 season:
9. Swindon Town
Alright no excuses here. I reckon even Swindon fans forget they were once part of the so-called ‘elite’. For one night only they danced amongst the big boys in the 1993/94 campaign — incidentally the first season to feature names and squad numbers on the back of players’ shirts.
Newcastle United’s Andy Cole finished as the league’s top scorer that season with 34 goals and Manchester United won their second title in a row.
Back to Swindon though, they were useless. They lost their manager Glenn Hoddle to Chelsea in pre-season with his assistant John Gorman stepping into the hot seat.
The Robins subsequently finished rock bottom of the 22 team league conceding 100 goals collecting only 29 points.
If you want to sample some Swindon style football from the early 90s on Sky Sports Super Sunday, I’ve got you covered:
10. Wimbledon
There’s good reason to forget that Wimbledon once competed in the Premier League — that reason being Wimbledon FC doesn’t exist anymore. The kidnapping and murder of Wimbledon is an atrocity up there with the very worst.
In 2005, the Wombles were snatched from their South London home by a club DJ called Pete Winkelman, driven up the M1 to Milton Keynes and forcibly reformed as the ‘MK Dons’.
This might come as a surprise to you, I was certainly surprised when I read this just now, but Wimbledon actually competed in the Premier League for eight years between 1992–2000 and enjoyed 14 successive years in the top-flight if you include their past in Division One. They were pretty decent as well, recording a 6th place finish in 1993–94 which would see them get into Europe now. It’s quite a mystery why Wimbledon’s Premier League era isn’t remembered better.
Despite doing well in the 90s, Wimbledon FC are best remembered for their pre-Premier League adventures.
The ‘Crazy Gang’, as they came to be known, beat Liverpool in the 1987 final to win the FA Cup, cementing their place in football folklore with legends like John Fashanu, Dean Holdsworth and big Vinnie Jones all turning out for the Dons.
However as of 2026, MK Dons have basically shrugged off all traces of their evil origin story with AFC Wimbledon, who play in League One, now considered to be the Wombles true spiritual successors.
Bonus round, the ones that got away:
- Charlton Athletic — The Addicks came dangerously close to making this list, but I think on the balance of probably were probably just about too remembered to be widely forgotten. Alan Curbishley gave the team some personality and on the whole it just wouldn’t make sense to include them.
- QPR — QPR in the Premier League, especially the Taarabt era, were just too sexy to be forgotten. Adel Taarabt is the original streets won’t forget player, they had Neil Warnock at the helm, Joey Barton threatening to kill man and his dog via Twitter and Charlie Austin’s incredible 2013–14 wonder season. Oh and never forget they were the ‘other’ team in Manchester City’s infamous 93:20 goal.
- Bolton Wanderers — This was more an error of judgement on my part. Bolton are stuffed so far down the pyramid these days, so far from Premier League glory for so long I made the assumption everyone had forgotten about them. Not the slightest. Bolton are probably one of the most beloved former teams from the 2000s. I underestimated the nostalgia and genuine affection many have for Bolton’s Premier League years. The spiritual home of Big Sam Alladyrce, England’s only manager to leave with a 100% winning record mind you, stars like Jay-Jay Okecha, Nicholas Anelka, European nights and semi-regular wins over the big four. Bolton were simply too memorable, and indeed beloved, to be forgotten.
