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Who Are the Newly Promoted Teams in the Premier League for the 2024/25 Season?
This Premier League campaign will feature returning clubs Leicester City, Ipswich Town, and Southampton.
You know what August means, right? Yes, it’s the dog days of a long baseball summer. Sure, this year it’s the month where millions, if not billions, of sports fans nurse their Olympics hangover. But more than anything else, it means that the Premier League is back.
The titans of the English top flight are set to clash again, seeking to carve out campaigns to thrill their fans and maybe even earn some silverware. And as is the tradition, three new clubs will join the fray, having won promotion from the Championship.
That’s right, gone are Luton Town, Burnley, and Sheffield United, last season’s bottom feeders. Up with hopes of making the Premier League their long-term home are Leicester City, Ipswich Town, and Southampton.
Here’s what to know about the new kids on the block:
Leicester City
Established: 1884
Home ground: King Power Stadium
Nickname: The Foxes
Leicester are certainly no strangers to the Premier League, authoring arguably the most impressive underdog story in sports history when they won the league title in 2015-16, besting by at least 10 points heavy hitters like Arsenal and Manchester City. Sure, they were punching well above their weight, certainly in terms of financial resources. But in the years that followed, they were always a safe bet to turn in solid, mid-table performances, if not a bit better. But then the bottom dropped out in 2022/23, when they finished a squalid 18th and were relegated to the Championship.
Still, they responded about as well as a team could. Under the guidance of new coach Enzo Maresca, Leicester finished atop England’s second division, ensuring their return ticket to the Prem.
However, they’ll have a bit of a different look this season. For one, Maresca is gone, having been poached by Chelsea to oversee the momentous challenge of returning them to true relevance. And Maresca took with him midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who was a dynamo for Leicester last year, scoring 12 goals and assisting on 14 more, which earned him player of the season honors.
Steve Cooper, who steered Nottingham Forest into the Premier League in 2022 but was sacked by the club last December, will take the reins as manager. And they’ve welcomed in winger Abdul Fatawu, center back Caleb Okoli, and forward Bobby De Cordova-Reid, as well as teenage midfielders Michael Golding and Facundo Buonanotte, but only De Cordova-Reid has experience in the Premier League.
They do still have stalwart striker and club legend Jamie Vardy, but at 37, it’s fair to wonder how many goals are left in his right foot.
Ipswich Town
Established: 1878
Home ground: Portman Road
Nickname(s): The Tractor Boys, The Blues
If you’re a neutral fan with a soft spot for underdog stories, you’ll love Ipswich Town. It’s been 22 years since the Tractor Boys have been in the Premier League, with the club falling as low as League One (England’s third division) In fact, they won promotion in back-to-back years to make it to the Prem for this season, becoming only the fifth team in history to make the climb from League One to the Championship to the Premier League in consecutive years (Watford from 1997-99; Manchester City from 1998-2000; Norwich City from 2009-2011; and Southampton from 2010-2012).
Ipswich are led by Kieran McKenna, the promising young manager who had been linked to bigger jobs like Chelsea and Manchester City before committing his future to his current club, inking a four-year contract extension.
On the pitch, Ipswich are anchored in the midfield by captain Samy Morsy, the club’s player of the season last year, with Nathan Broadhead and Conor Chaplin firing the attack. The duo were joint top scorers for the club last campaign with 13 goals each.
Omari Hutchinson, who came over from Chelsea last year on loan and had a stellar season, notching 10 goals, has made a permanent move to Ipswich, providing youth, potential and a proven record of being able to work within McKenna’s system. Joining him are new additions Jacob Greaves (center back), Liam Delap (forward), Conor Townsend (left back), Ben Johnson (right back), and Arijanet Muric (goalkeeper). They’ve also brought in midfielder Kalvin Johnson on loan from Manchester City.
Southampton
Established: 1885
Home ground: St. Mary’s Stadium
Nickname(s): The Saints
Much like Leicester City, Southampton spent one season in the Championship wilderness before earning their way back into the Premier League. The Saints had enjoyed 11 seasons in the top flight, finishing in the top half of the table four times, before crashing to the very bottom in 2022/23. Fortunately for their fans, they didn’t waste much time in booking their return trip, making the Championship Playoffs under new manager Russell Martin and emerging victorious over Leeds in the final.
Martin will be returning many of the club’s key players, including top scorer Adam Armstrong (24 goals in all competitions); defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who came over on a permanent move from Manchester City following a successful loan spell last year; as well as midfielder Flynn Downes, who was on loan from West Ham last season but made the move permanent over the summer.
Southampton did lose attacker Che Adams to Torino and midfielder Stuart Armstrong to Brentford. But Martin will be hoping the additions of forward Ben Brereton Díaz, as well as young defenders Ronnie Edwards and Nathan Wood will sufficiently bolster the squad.
And then there’s the return of Adam Lallana to the club that gave him his professional debut 18 years ago. Lallana, 37, joined Southampton’s academy as a 12-year-old in 2000, finally making his debut in August 2006, the first of 235 appearances for the Saints. He left for Liverpool in 2014, spending the next six seasons on Merseyside before moving to Brighton and Hove Albion, where he spent the last four years. But now he’s back, surely much to Southampton supporters’ delight.
