Luton and Leicester have already taken the express route down, and Burnley could be next to crash from the top flight to the third tier.
The plunge from the Premier League to League One in back-to-back seasons used to be football's rarest disaster. Now it looks like a trend, and Burnley are staring straight at it.
Luton Town and Leicester have both been caught in the slide, showing how quickly a club can lose its footing after leaving the top flight. Burnley could be the third name on that list if they cannot haul themselves clear of danger in the Championship this season.
The pattern is not hard to explain. Relegation usually brings a flood of departures, with star players leaving for bigger wages and squads gutted of top-flight experience. The Championship is a brutal 46-game grind with little mercy, and a club that stumbles into it without a clear plan can find itself in freefall.
Parachute payments soften the landing, but they do not guarantee stability. Clubs that rebuild badly, change managers too often or lose their identity can see the cushion disappear before results turn around.
For Burnley, the message is simple: survival in the Championship cannot be treated as a given. A hat-trick of double drops would be a grim milestone, and the fight to avoid it will shape the rest of their season.
