Barnsley's home defeat to Peterborough two weeks ago already left their hopes of survival improbable (Photo via barnsleychronicle.com)
Barnsley's season overview:
After a promising 2020-21 season in which they finished 5th, Barnsley's hopes of replicating their previous achievements were dealt a blow when manager Valerien Ismael left for West Brom. After Barnsley's growing history of appointing managers who had no experience in England, they appointed Austrian Markus Schopp. Barnsley's appointments of foreign managers in the past have had varied levels of success, but unfortunately Schopp, like many before him, struggled and after 13 games without a win was shown the door.
In November, Barnsley then appointed Sweden's U21's manager Poya Asbaghi. Despite a promising January transfer window, bringing in the like of Domingos Quina and Amine Bassi, and promising wins against Hull and Middlesbrough, just 4 Championship wins during Asbaghi's reign meant Barnsley were relegated and Asbaghi was relieved of his duties.
Overall, managerial and player recruitment has this time left Barnsley falling back into League One where once they cut their losses their budget will be around the ninth best in League one. It is fair to say, Barnsley face a tough task of returning to the Championship next season.
peterborough's season overview:
After finally reaching the Championship that had thwarted Posh for years, their first season in the Championship in 7 years certainly never lived up to their expectations. Despite having joint owner Darragh MacAnthony's full backing, Darren Ferguson resigned after a 1-0 defeat to fellow strugglers Derby County that left them in 23rd.
Former manager Grant McCann then re-joined the club with the difficult task of keeping Peterborough in the Championship. Despite a spirited attempt at keeping the club up, Peterborough joined Derby and Barnsley and became the final club to be relegated to League One after a 1-0 defeat to promotion chasers Nottingham Forest.
Derby county's season overview
For Derby, it has been a season where their fighting on the pitch has not been enough to overcome their struggles off it. After narrowly avoiding relegation last season, hopes of a successful season weren't high. Any hopes were soon slashed as Wayne Rooney's Derby were placed under a transfer embargo. In September, things went from bad to worse for Derby as they were then placed into administration by Mel Morris and faced a 12 point deduction.
In November, the club then faced another 9 point deduction for breaching EFL's accounting rules. Despite these off field struggles, on the pitch they were putting up a spirited attempt at keeping the club in the league. Rooney managed to delay relegation until the 18th of April were a late QPR winner, and Reading's last minute equaliser against Swansea saw Derby relegated despite the fact that without point deductions, they would be 17th.
The announcement of a preferred bidder for Derby means the prospect of survival is very much alive. Their drop into League One will no doubt mean a big rebuild at the club which may take some time to come into fruition. Will Derby return to the Championship straight away? It will be difficult, as we've seen with the likes of Sunderland and Charlton, League One is difficult to get out of.
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