“This season, Bayer Leverkusen and Stuttgart improved on their previous seasons’ points tallies by 40 – as did Leicester City in 2015-16, ” tweets Ben Janeson. “Which other clubs have improved on their previous seasons’ points tally by 40 or more (playing the same amount of matches, in the same league)?”
Leverkusen’s extraordinary success has been the story of the European season. In 2022-23 they finished sixth with 50 points from 34 games; a year later they romped to their first Bundesliga title, finishing unbeaten with 90 points. They finished 17 points clear of runners-up Stuttgart, who made an equally remarkable improvement this season. A year after finishing 16th – and needing to beat Hamburg in a relegation playoff – Sebastian Hoeness’s side more than doubled their points tally (from 33 to 73) and pipped the mighty Bayern Munich to second place.
There were loads of answers to this question – thanks one and all – so let’s start with Antonio Conte taking the Premier League by storm. While the aforementioned Leicester were lifting the title in 2015-16, previous champions Chelsea finished 10th with 50 points, thanks largely to the most spectacular of all José Mourinho meltdowns. Conte replaced him in the summer, as the arrival of Mourinho and Pep Guardiola in Manchester grabbed the headlines. Nobody paid attention to Chelsea until they were well on their way to winning the league at a canter. Conte’s side finished the season with 93 points, an improvement of 43 on 2015-16.
Chelsea’s improvement is the highest of the Premier League era, and the highest points-per-game jump across England’s four top divisions. (Other teams added more points than Chelsea but across a 46-game season.) Chris Roe also points out that, if we adjust all the seasons before 1981 to three points for a win, the biggest increase is a whopping 52 points by Grimsby in the Third Division North in 1955-56. That was also in a 46-game season, but even their adjusted PPG is fractionally below Chelsea’s.
As for the biggest improvement worldwide, it’s so extraordinary that we’re slightly worried the culture of fake news has infected football trivia. In San Marino, there is a single amateur league, Campionato Sammarinese di Calcio. There’s no relegation, which explains how Cosmos were able to survive in 2021-22 despite collecting only five points from 28 games. The following season they picked up 67 points and finished just one behind the champions Tre Penne. That’s a season-by-season improvement of 62 points, or 1240%. Thanks to Dirk Maas for that particular nugget.
Here’s a list of some of the other teams you mentioned, all with an improvement of at least 40 points. We’ve put the points-per-game increase at the end.
40 Distillery Irish League, 1992-93 (62 points, PPG 1.33)
41 Wolves Championship, 2017-18 (99 pts, PPG 0.89); Chelsea Division Two, 1983-84, (88 pts, PPG 0.98)
43 Chelsea Premier League, 2016-17 (97 pts, PPG 1.13)
44 Newcastle Division One, 1992-93 (96 pts, PPG 0.96)
45 Portsmouth Championship, 2002-03 (98 pts, PPG 0.98)
46 Notts County League Two, 2009-10 (93 pts, PPG 1.00)
47 Preston North End Division Four, 1986-87 (90 pts, PPG 1.02)
48 FC Noah Armenian Premier League, 2023-24 (80 pts, PPG 1.33)
52* Grimsby Town Third Division North, 1955-56 (97 pts*, PPG 1.13)
62 Cosmos Campionato Sammarinese di Calcio, 2022-23 (67 pts, PPG 2.21)
* Adjusted to three points for a win
Early ups and downs
“What is the earliest a team in the Football League has been confirmed as promoted or relegated, ie after how many matches – and what percentage was that of the total number of matches they played that season?” tweets Martin.
“This turned out to be complicated to answer,” writes Daniel Seppings, “and almost killed my laptop running the data but here goes. Northampton hold the record, both for matches remaining (nine) and percentage of the season left (19.6%), with their promotion from Division Four in 1986-87. Spurs and Middlesbrough share the record for a 42-match season with seven matches.”
Three teams were promoted automatically from Division Four, and Northampton went up on 7 April 1987 when eighth-placed Swansea – the only team outside the top three with a chance of catching the Cobblers – lost 1-0 at home to Torquay.
“Four teams share the record for relegation with eight matches of the season to go,” continues Daniel. “Watford and Stoke City share the record for percentage of the season remaining (19.0%) as they were in 42-game leagues.”
“Obviously, this can also be done by the earliest date as well!” adds Dan, his laptop begging for mercy in the background. “Stockport County were relegated from the second tier on 16 March 2002 (before beating leaders Manchester City 2-1 two days later). Middlesbrough were promoted to the top flight on 23 March 1974. That team was managed by Jack Charlton and contained, among others, Graeme Souness.”
Many cups, no league titles
“Queens Park have won the Scottish Cup 10 times but have never won the league,” notes Sean Campbell. “Have any other clubs won more major domestic or European trophies without winning a top division league title?”
It’s a bit unusual to win so many cups without becoming league champions, so thesaurus lovers will be delighted with the first answer. “Odd won the Norwegian Cup (a joint record) 12 times between 1903 and 2014 without winning the league,” writes Dirk Maas. “They were runners-up in 1950-51 and 1956-57.”
Inevitably, the best – if slightly impure – answers to this question involve countries within a country. “In the time of the Soviet Union, some of the country’s republics had their own cup competitions,” writes Jack Hayward. “The modern national cups are either recognised as successor competitions, or officially incorporate the lineage of communist times.
“The answer among teams under this arrangement is Selmashevets Frunze, who won the Kyrgyzstan Cup 13 times between 1965 and the final Soviet-era edition in 1991. The team existed as Selmashevets Bishkek – reflecting the Kyrgyz capital’s new name – until it merged with Instrumentalschik in 1994 to form FC Rotor Bishkek, not winning the new Kyrgyzstan League in the interim. Since they never played in the Soviet top flight, I believe they beat Queen’s Park.”
As do a number of clubs in another Celtic country. “Wales is a good place to look for teams that have won ‘major’ domestic trophies (if you count the Welsh Cup as a major trophy) without winning a top division league title,” says Pete Tomlin. “Wrexham have won the Welsh Cup a record 23 times. They have also won the FA Trophy, the National League, two Welsh Senior Leagues (not a top division title), four ‘The Combination’ titles (an early league for teams in Wales & North West England), one Football League North Cup, five FAW Premier Cups and 1 shared Supporters Direct Cup.
“Cardiff have won the FA Cup and Charity Shield but also 22 Welsh Cups, the Division Two, Three and Four titles, one FAW Premier Cup, a playoff final and the Southern League Division two title. Swansea have won the League Cup, two league trophies, 10 Welsh Cups, Division Three twice, Division Four, two FAW Premier Cups and two playoff finals.
“The only other club I have managed to find with more trophies than Queen’s Park and no national titles is FC Balzers,” Pete concludes. “They have won the Liechtenstein Football Cup a total of 11 times.” There is no league system in the Alpine microstate, with seven clubs competing in the Swiss pyramid instead. FC Vaduz have won their national cup 50 [FIFTY] times – but also won Liechtenstein’s short-lived league twice in the six years it ran from 1932 to 1937.
KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE
“Down at the pub the other night, a friend of mine bullishly claimed he’d heard that a match was once postponed on almost 30 separate occasions. Is he having me on?” asked Jonathan Gainter in 2006.
Hail your friend, Jonathan, as he speaks the truth. Back in the icy winter of 1979, the Scottish Cup second-round clash between Inverness Thistle and Falkirk had to be postponed no fewer than 29 times. The original date for the game was 6 January, but the clubs had to wait 47 days until the Kings Mills ground was eventually declared playable, on 22 February. When the match finally took place, four first-half goals helped Falkirk seal their spot in the third round. However, because of the 71-day period between the second-round draw and Falkirk’s win, Billy Little’s side were forced to visit Dundee just three days later, where a late penalty ended their cup journey.
Incredible as these 29 postponements are, the tie is still eclipsed by another Scottish Cup game that took place 16 years earlier, when sub-zero conditions again played havoc with the fixture list across Britain. More than 400 English league and cup matches fell victim to the weather and the season had to be extended by a month on both sides of the border. While one FA Cup third-round tie between Coventry and Lincoln eventually took place at the 16th time of asking, the clash between Airdrie and Stranraer was busy setting a British record of 33 postponements. For Airdrie it was 34th time lucky as they ran out 3-0 victors.
Incidentally, the worst day of domestic cancellations didn’t occur in 1962-63. That honour went to 3 February 1940, when only one of 56 wartime league matches beat the weather. Plymouth made the most of their moment in the limelight with a 10-3 thumping of Bristol City.
Can you help?
“Last week, in their Ligue 1 relegation play-off quarter-final, Rodez beat Paris FC in a penalty shootout despite missing their first three kicks,” notes Neal Parsons. “Has this happened before?”
“Lyn won the Norwegian title in 1968 despite losing 10-1 and 6-1 to Strømsgodset, who finished fourth. Is the combined score of 16-2 a record against a team that went on to become champions?” wonders Espen Larsen.
“What would have happened if Leeds or Southampton had also reached this year’s FA Cup final?” wonders Jason Walsh. “Surely they wouldn’t have been expected to play two games in two days.”
In a US Open Cup match between @SJEarthquakes and @SacRepublicFC this week, there were four lead changes (1-0 SJ, 2-1 Sac, 3-2 SJ, 4-3 Sac). Has a game ever had more than 4 lead changes, which would require a score line of 5-4 or higher and a precise sequencing of goals?
— Nicolas Kranz (@NorCalNickW4C) May 23, 2024
“What’s the biggest age gap between opposing managers in history?” asks Jack Hayward. “I’ll start the bidding at Jupp Heynckes with Bayern Munich going up against Schalke 04 under Domenico Tedesco – 41 years his junior – during the 2017-18 Bundesliga season.”
“To ask the opposite of your first entry last week: what is the record for the most different Cup winners in a row without a repeat?” wonders Barry McCarthy.
Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.
