Glorifying the bare minimum in the quest for survival

As Fulham found out last season, spending is no guarantee of survival in the Premier League. An outlay of over £100m last summer made Fulham — promoted via the play-offs — an outside bet for relegation, but by the time Claudio Ranieri arrived in November the club had picked up just five points from 12 games.

Spending big — and cleverly — did work for Wolves who achieved the highest finish of a newly-promoted team since a Matt Holland-inspired Ipswich finished fifth in the 2000/01 season. But that was a Wolves side that had already bought Premier League pedigree players to fuel their promotion, a position that none of the newly-promoted sides — Norwich City, Sheffield United and Aston Villa — find themselves in.