The Premier League's 9th Place Curse 

I've noticed an even more striking trend... Wait until you dig into what happens to the team that finishes 20th every year!!

Anything above 20th is open top bus worthy given how we played against Palace. Hopefully we grow into it because at the moment we're in trouble.

9th is the top of the EPL relegation zone.

The “rich six” love it.

9th is the "so what" place which offers no European place but isn't the bottom 10. There are professional mid table teams like Villa and West Ham whose goals are really to finish 8-10th and keep themselves in the PL. Some clubs feel they can improve on the 9th place but catastrophically fail. Leicester and Brighton are the exceptions but it was due to having particularly good squads who took advantage of the big 6 slipping up.

also I like how u put wolves in front of man utd in ur thumbnail lol

This is a world record for intro length, even for alfie

Updsted best player from every country??

Oh nice 😂 Brighton are over 300m in debt Guess what, they have agreed a deal worth 115m with sell on clause to sell Caicedo to Chelsea and signing his replacement for 16m

brentford 😢

🫡

There's a reason this Is HITC "Sevens" and not *"Nines"* Alfie was a visionary for avoiding the curse😤

How can we not bring up the 18th 19th and 20th place curse. Every club that finished in those positions got relegated.

I remember noticing this a few years ago with teams like Bournemouth and Sheffield utd achieving ninth and then never beating it, good luck to Brentford this year!

As a Brighton fan, I feel the reason we broke this is our ownership. After losing Potter and all of those players and staff, most other clubs would have brought in a well known manager and probably been relegated. But we took a risk and I think it's what led to our success. Tony Bloom is a poker player and he knows when to take a risk and when to play it safe. He doesn't always get it right, but he gets it right enough to be successful

IMO the problem with 9th is it's in that perfect spot of heightened expectations(which can get fans to expect too much) and lower Premiership TV payouts(which would mean you can't spend to the level you'd rationally need to bridge the gap to the top 7, especially with other clubs taxing your hype)

Curiously there's also a famous curse of the ninth that hangs over composers of classical music. It famously started with Beethoven who died while composing his tenth and then very shortly afterwards took down Schubert too. Since then it has curtailed the symphonic careers of (to name the most famous) Bruckner, Dvorak and Vaughan Williams and, most remarkably of all really, Gustav Mahler who believed in the superstition and so tried to sneakily sidestep its fatality by deliberately avoiding the cursed number when he released a symphony that stands in its place calling it simply "Das Lied von der Erde". Soon afterwards he then wrote another symphony that he did number his ninth but then in the midst of composing what would have been his tenth - seemingly inevitably - he died and so left it unfinished.

Brighton and Brentford are so analytical, that they do not believe in superstition, so clearly, the curse wouldn't affect them. That's how superstitions work. Right?

I know it's the norm in this channel so nobody mentions it, I just want to say 5 videos (all 20+ minutes) in 1 week is amazing. Alfie consistent deep dive content into Football is one of a kind. ❤🎉

Best German players in the premier league of all time. (Day 534) I will not give up until the video is made or Alfie himself tells me to stop. Everyone else telling me that will be ignored. If you don't believe my number, just go back to the previous videos. I'm at the bottom most of the time, but I'm there.

it's not a curse. it's players doing well and then sold to the bigger clubs

Stoke City finished 9th for 3 straight seasons and got relegated not long after although i expect the team was simply on a downward spiral by then already and they simply had been overachieving for years before that before it finally caught up with them but Ipswich finished 5th in the 2000/01 season to qualify for Europe but ended up getting relegated the following season and Reading finished 8th in their debut season in the EPL in 2006/07 but ended up getting relegated on goal difference the following season so it has happened that teams that maybe overperformed one season are simply brought crashing down to earth the following season and just simply aren't equipped to sustain such achievements

Please can you do a video on whether West Ham are any good? I can't make my mind up, they seem to both overachieving and underachieving at the same time

The biggest thing about the 9th place "curse" or superstition is that things are, at least in the Premier League, that if you detract from the processes that you'd done with the short term goal of improving, you'll end up self-destructing your own chances to survive. And the other stuff may be that "the bigger seven" with their backing by both stupid money and sovereign wealth fund money (that isn't beholden to democracy) and others would plunder your team and force you to have to replace a lot of the core that got you to that point.

Fun fact Man City are the only team to ever be relegated in English football the season after winning the league during the 1937/38 season although such a scenario is extremely unlikely to repeat itself as far as Man City is concerned

As a Stoke fan, our biggest problem is we played ourselves. We switched too much from what worked going from tough, physical football to a wannabe young Barcelona team and it didn't work and, we bought a lot of players with ego issues and not wanting to put in the hard work and the ones that did weren't rewarded and flopped hard.

The problem being, the rich six persuade players (by offering their Agents huge wads of cash) to join them, thus keeping the status quo. When Moises Caicedo made his debut in Brightons 2-1 victory at Arsenal a couple of seasons ago, the midfield consisted of Bissouma, Mwepu, Mac Allister, and Caicedo, three have been sold and one retired. Many pundits have likened Brighton to Southampton who sold off their Crown Jewels to Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs, the difference being, on the back if their success Southampton changed owners, and their managerial seat became a revolving door like Watford's. Tony Bloom, Brighton's Owner and Chairman believes in continuity, and will not dismiss manager in mid season but will give them a chance to rectify the situation, as he has said in the past relegation does not matter, but progress does. Potters team went 12 games without a victory including a run of sux successive games without scoring a goal, prime reasons for the sack in any other club, but progress was being made both on and off the pitch, whilst the Legend that is Chris Hughton met his untimely end due to Brighton being perceived as an anti-football club after their narrow 1-0 defeat to Man City in the FA Cup semi-final. Tony Bloom decided to change our football philosophy and appionted Grahame Potter (who?). The rest is history.

Brooo, if you think 9th Place Curse is crazy you should do a video about the 19th Place Curse!! I couldn't believe it at first but every single team finishing that place got relegated basically instantly! 🤯🤯

Can't wait for Chelsea to finish 9th

I think part of the problem with finishing 9th is that players are likely to be poached from teams above them and if the team doesn’t recruit well they’re weakened, often on larger wages than they’d like and with and unsettled dressing room.

My team just finished 9th in our 1st EPL season in Football Manager, I am now worried lol.

It goes even further back if you dig deep enough. Man City finished 9th in 1992/93, then went into decline and were relegated three seasons later; QPR finished 9th in 1993/94 and were relegated two seasons later; Nottingham Forest finished 9th in 1995/96 and were relegated the following season...

I thought Charlton escaped this curse, given that the season before we went down we finished 13th, and our highest Premiership season we finished 7th. But then I went a bit deeper, and it turned out we sealed our eventual fate in the very first season of our final run in the top flight. Spooky

I think a bert trautmann documentary would be cool

POV: You're a fulham fan and they finiashed 10th last season 😎😎😎😎

Tbf as a Newcastle fan, we got relegated all by ourselves without finishing 9th in the five years before 2009 and 2016. Though we were one win away from 9th in 2011 so we clearly were playing with fire

Brighton 21-22 definitely broke the curse

cant help but sense alfie's pessimism about english football/premier league in the recent or maybe not recent videos... maybe a massive 1hr long video about how broken football is (nvm he already made one) or maybe about the superleague's existence in the premier league? we need some banter videos back! bit depressing in the recent videos hahaha

Meanwhile Southampton, even never finished in 9th, still relegated. And next could be us (Wolverhampton), even we never finished in 9th.

What a marvelously well-researched and entertaining (to a neutral outside observer) video! My apologies to the fans of these ninth place finishers who are cursed. Thank you for the video!

All teams have a natural position Original big 5 (never go down since home teams kept the gate) - Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool. Utd. Spurs Next 5 (Go down but generally return swiftly - Villa, Chelsea, City, Newcastle, West Ham Next 7 (Go down, and generally come back - Leeds, Leicester, Middlesbrough, Southampton, Sunderland, West Brom, Wolves. =17 Premier League clubs. Everyone else is just visiting.

Finally as a Wigan fan found the reason we survived in the Premier League for so long. We just about avoided a 9th place finish in our first season.

Oh!!!Yet this is a totally harsh way though in the English First Division but those who finished in the ninth position since 2008 were financially mismanaged by their owners and some not so good signings,good friends!!!These are their mistakes but finishing in the position of a team is a sign of progression of the team runs on and off the pitch,good friends!!!🙏

As a Norwich fan i would take finishing 17th every year in exchange for a trophy. Most clubs like Villa , Leeds and Everton focus on league position rather than winning silverware, which is a shame as i imagine Everton fans would love a trophy win after nearly 30 years.

3/5 videos being about or loosely about Sheffield United is something I never thought I’d see

This is why palace simply choose to finish 12th every season

My thoughts on this video: 1. A three-peat only happens if you do something 3 times in a row. I couldn't tell if you were saying Stoke did that or 3 times in 4 years. 2. Brighton and Brentford have had great recruitment with data analytics over the past decade, but I think other teams will catch up and they will eventually be relegated

It is probably a combination of things. Being 9th (and overachieving) often comes along with losing talent to bigger clubs & not being able to compensate for lost talent with new talent as this usually takes time to rebuild. Also most clubs like Villa and West Ham are often managed by people who shouldn't hold a position of so much responsibility... With Brentford i'm less worried about that though.

I remember 1 year ago, looking at Man Utd's opening fixtures of Brighton and Brentford, and thinking "that's alright". I severely regret my naivety and have never looked at these two teams the same again.

Clubs like crystal palace etc should take loans amounting to hundreds of millions to spend on transfers eg offering 150 million for one player, offering salaries of 650,000 pounds per week for individual players to break into the top 6. Risk big win big

It hit Brentford Brentford finished 9th Now they are just 4 points off relegation

Day 69 Dream OFC XI all the OFC teams played as one nation in international Football not giving up on this

Oh come on, we survive second season syndrome just to have a new curse to deal with????

Crazy intro 🔥🔥🔥

You should do a Premier league prediction

Now I see the 9th place team and the 10th place team both desperately trying to lose their final games by as many goals as possible without raising suspicions... and then the Manager after the game asks "Have you not seen HITC Sevens Video? You just don't want to finish 9th!"

What is the narrators of HITC on RU-vid channel name?

By your logic, Brentford is going to be relegated this season.

You should do a video where you predict where a teams latest starting 11 will be in like 7 or less years

there is top 6 (top 7) rest 12 teams who can go up fight for European place or go down, and there is Crystal Palace just existing, looking miserable for so long yet comfortably safed by same old face season after season

Yes now Alfie. What did you think of our battering vs wednesday. Saw you above me in East

the fact that the top 6 clubs haven"t finished 9th despite all of them being 7th,8th,10th or even 12th in some seasons but never 9th is mad,it is bound to happen sooner or later i know that this video will forever be in the back of my mind whenever a big club finish 9th 😭

First of all.I do not think Brighton Will finish 9th this season or anything season. I think that Brighton will now only ever finish in the top 6. But the other difference is that Brighton have a totally different culture to all of these clubs

Absolutely loved this, thanks for the investigation. 9th is we are safe and are stable, no need to panic as we can stay up and if lucky europe calls. Love the channel mate and the work you do.

This channel might be the best channel of all time

Great video once again. Think a RU-vidr needs to take the step to discuss the Dark History of Scottish Football, the c*ild abuse that has knowingly plagued the league since the 70’s. The lack of coverage and limelight in general is appalling but it’s understandably a scary prospect to openly discuss. While Celtic were clearly the most prominent offenders, Rangers, Hibs, Dundee United and Partick Thistle were all heavily involved as well and not many RU-vidrs have the aptitude and ability to discuss such a sensitive topic but I feel that Alfie could portray this issue professionally and with maturity as he always do regarding a topic that needs to be brought to relevance even if it is such a disturbing topic.

Day (lost count +7): The despicable despotic president of Bangladesh Football Federation

Brentford it's your time to shine

Villa looking in such healthy shape….two knee disintegrations later….

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My immediate reaction of "WHO!?!?!" when you said savio nsereko

I wouldn’t consider the 9th place a curse for relegation, I do see the similarities between all the clubs who have finished in that spot over the years, even though someone like burnley have finished in 8th and met a similar fate, but the Premier League as a whole is a revolving door, as every club outside the top 6 and Everton (who will probably be there soon enough) has spent time in the championship in the same period you have mentioned in this video

#thepeopleschannel a video on the Bangladesh premier league and the rise of Bashundhara kings would be good A team who went into the top flight after promotion and won the last four league titles now! Are they the next Newcastle? Are they a team to keep a eye on next few years? Thanks Alfie 😊

If the ghost goal vs Villa was given, then Sheffield United would not have been relegated.

tottenham will finish 9th this season

How about making a video about managers who move on for a better career with a bigger club: Sam Allardyce (from Palace), Graham Potter (from BHA) etc. Where are they now?

Can we find a way to get City to finish 9th

Nice to see Alfie calling them the "rich 6" and not the "big 6," because Spurs are one of those teams, and I'm not sure how they can be classed as a big club.

need to do a video on birmingham alfie

What happened to the Irish lad

yes brentford finished 9th but its absolute bs that they will get relegated. thomas frank is an excellent manager and they have an excellent plan in place in order to preven this. sheffield united overachieved completely in 2019/20 and if you look at their squad and compare it with brentford's, there is a major disparity in terms of quality. brentford will be absolutely fine and I wouldn't be surprised if they finished top 10 again.

In 2004/05 Spurs qualified for the ChampionSHIP by finishing 9th in the Prem… but Tottenham stayed up and got a run of UCL qualifications which climaxed in the biggest game in Europe, a Champions League FINAL at Atlético de Madrid…

This is a new twist on what was the second season syndrome.

I'm loving this Premier League related content from the last videos.

As I write this (after 32 matches played), Brentford haven't won any of their last 9 matches, the only Premier League team to do so, and have dropped to 15th in the process. The only reason they aren't close to the relegation zone right now is that Everton and Nottingham Forest directly behind them have both suffered points deductions. If Brentford continue like this then they'd be lucky to avoid relegation.

In my bets Knowing the form West Ham are in they could go down if they continue like that and Brentford I think will go down too in the same season. And the other one I think will get relegated is Nottingham Forrest although they haven’t got 9th. As for the newly promoted teams. I think they’ll all stay up since Leicester just had an unlucky season before, Ipswich are a bit of a dark horse etc

1 arsenal🎉 2 newcastle 3man city 4 brighton 5man u 6 aston villa 7 chelsea 8tot● 9brentford 10 c palace 11 west ham 12fulham 13 luton 14 liverpool

Like you said, it's pretty much down to the fact that the top 6 or 7 teams (if you include Newcastle) will usually fill the top 7 or 8 places season after season, so 9th is likely to be filled by one the of the other clubs, all of whom are likely to go down at some point sometime in the future. Of these other teams, only Everton, who were once billed as one the the BIG 5 when the EPL began, have managed to dodge the dreaded drop for so long. Also, it's pretty amazing that in Scotland, Aberdeen, who cannot financially compete with the Old Firm, have managed to NEVER be relegated in their entire history.

Then I sure hope Palace finish 9th this season. Never thought I'd say that.

I think as long as Brentford are owned by Benham and managed by Frank, they will break the curse.

“Brighton are in over 300million in debt” No We Aren’t. Technically we are but in reality our lifelong fan owner bloom has already promised that they will never need to pay that back.

Seems like apart from spurs and brighton, since the premier league started every club that has finished 9th has been relegated at least once

Crystal Palace, now finally makes sense. 11th or 12th is the place to be.😂😂😂😂

Damn brentford finished 16th. No doubt they will be relegated next season

Any chance for a video about Maltese Football ⚽ 🇲🇹 Thank you

me : Hey Alfie should do a whats going on at Brentford vid... wait.. where did they finish last year? oh....

The reason why Leicester got relegated was because their owner was an airline company iirc, and they couldn’t afford to invest in the club during and after covid

Stoke finishing 9th trice! Absolutley... Hahaha

You've missed one quite obvious and possible the biggest point here, other other 14(13) clubs, show promise, and finish in the top half, its usually because of one/two/three outstanding players. who inevitably will go to the top 6 (7) clubs and that is a cycle that will never end under the current footballing model. that's why there even is an established top 6 (7) with Newcastle being the most obvious example in many ways, their team is mostly the best or most undervalued players from the rest of the prem, with a few top additions that would have gone to one of the other top 6 clubs if not for them already having slightly better and/or targeting only the best of the best and you could say Newcastle have gone for just under that bracket which is why everyone's viewing them as something they're not. (what they are is a team assembled with loads of money and nothing more). Its all money baby.

From Brentford’s current form, I think they aren’t gonna be relegated for the next couple years