2008–09 in English football
The 2008–09 season was the 129th season of competitive football in England. The Premier League started on 16 August 2008, while the Championship, League One, and League Two matches started on 9 August 2008. The regular season of the Football League ended on 3 May 2009, while the Premier League ended on 24 May 2009. Diary of the season. 1 July 2008: Luiz Felipe Scolari, who managed Brazil to World Cup glory in 2002, is appointed manager of Chelsea. 22 July 2008: Luke McCormick, on bail after being charged with causing death by dangerous driving, has  his contract terminated by Plymouth Argyle. 29 July 2008: Liverpool pay £20.3 million for 28-year-old Tottenham Hotspur and Ireland striker Robbie Keane. 9 August 2008: The first Football League matches of the season are played. 10 August 2008: The FA Community Shield is won by Manchester United on penalties against Portsmouth after a goalless draw at Wembley Stadium. 16 August 2008: The first Premier League matches of the season are played. 31 August 2008: The first month of the Premier League season ends with Chelsea top of the league under their new manager Luiz Felipe Scolari and  West Bromwich Albion being bottom of the table. The race to get into the Premier League is being headed by Wolverhampton Wanderers, Preston North End and Birmingham City who are level on 10 points at the top of the Football League Championship after four games. 1 September 2008: Manchester City are taken over by the Abu Dhabi group to become the richest club in England, and pay a national record £32.4million for Real Madrid CF and Brazil striker Robinho, while Manchester United pay a club record £30.75 million for Tottenham Hotspur and Bulgaria striker Dimitar Berbatov. In League  Two, Kevin Bond becomes the first manager to be removed of the season when his contract is terminated by Bournemouth after two years in charge. 3 September 2008: West Ham United manager Alan Curbishley resigns after 21 months in charge, the first Premier League managerial resignation of the season. 5 September 2008: Kevin Keegan resigns after eight months back in charge at Newcastle United, leading to dissatisfaction from fans at Chairman Mike Ashley, who allegedly forced Keegan out of the club with a series of disputes about team selection and transfers. 11 September 2008: Gianfranco Zola, former Chelsea and Italy  striker, becomes West Ham United's first non-British manager. 26 September 2008: Joe Kinnear, 61, returns to football as interim manager of Newcastle United, four years after leaving Nottingham Forest due to health reasons. 27 September 2008: Hull City win 2–1 over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Their first win against Arsenal in English football. 30 September 2008: Chelsea and Liverpool finish September level on points at the top of the Premier League, with Aston Villa, Arsenal and West Ham United completing the top five. Blackburn Rovers, sixth in the league making Paul Ince the most successful ethnic minority  manager to start a Premier League season. Hull City, playing top division football for the first time are seventh in the Premier League. Defending champions Manchester United are ninth in the league, with a game in hand over the teams above them, while Tottenham Hotspur are bottom of the table. Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham City are first and second respectively in the Championship. 6 October 2008: Luke McCormick is found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court and sentenced to 7 years and 4 months in prison. 26 October 2008: Tottenham Hotspur, bottom of  Premier League, terminate the contract of manager Juande Ramos and hire Portsmouth's Harry Redknapp to fill the vacancy. 28 October 2008: Portsmouth promote assistant manager Tony Adams to manager following Harry Redknapp joining Tottenham Hotspurs. 31 October 2008: Liverpool finish October as Premier League leaders, with Chelsea, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Hull City completing the top five. Manchester United are sixth with a game in hand over the top five clubs. Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham City are first and second respectively in the Championship. 22 November 2008: Charlton Athletic, bottom of the Football League Championship 18 months after being  relegated from the Premier League, sack manager Alan Pardew after nearly two years in charge. 30 November 2008: Chelsea and Liverpool are level on points at the top of the Premier League, with Manchester United in third place. Aston Villa and Arsenal complete the top five, with Hull City in sixth place in the league. Tottenham Hotspur are bottom of the table with West Bromwich Albion second-bottom in the league. Blackburn Rovers complete the bottom three relegation places. Wolverhampton Wanderers lead the Championship by 6 points ahead of second placed Birmingham City and 13 points ahead of third placed  Reading. 6 December 2008: Darren Anderton retires from playing after a career of nearly 20 years. In his final game, Anderton scores AFC Bournemouth's winning goal against Chester City in League Two. 16 December 2008: Blackburn Rovers terminate the contract of Paul Ince after six months as manager. 17 December 2008: Sam Allardyce is appointed manager of Blackburn Rovers. 22 December 2008: Leeds United terminate the contract of manager Gary McAllister after 11 months as manager. 23 December 2008: Simon Grayson resigns as Blackpool manager to take the managers job at Leeds United. 25 December 2008: Sheffield United striker  Jordan Robertson, 20, suffers minor injuries in a car crash on the M1 motorway in Leicestershire; a 38-year-old Coventry man, Omar Mohammed, is seriously injured. 26 December 2008: Nottingham Forest, 22nd in Football League Championship, terminate the contract of manager Colin Calderwood after two and a half years in charge. Omar Mohammed dies in hospital. 29 December 2008: Paul Jewell resigns as Derby County manager after one year, with the East Midlands side 18th in the Football League Championship. 31 December 2008: Liverpool end 2008 as Premier League leaders, three points ahead of second placed Chelsea, while third  placed Manchester United are 10 points off the top of the table but have three games in hand. Arsenal and Aston Villa complete the top five, while Everton and Wigan Athletic occupy sixth and seventh place respectively. West Bromwich Albion, Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City occupy the relegation places. Wolverhampton Wanderers remain top of the Championship, with Reading and Birmingham level on points in second and third respectively. 3 January 2009: Billy Davies returns to management by accepting an offer to take over as Nottingham Forest manager. 6 January 2009: Nigel Clough ends 10 years as manager of Conference National  leaders Burton Albion to take the managers jobs at Derby County. Tottenham Hotspur pay a club record £15million for Portsmouth striker Jermain Defoe, a year after he left them for half that fee. 20 January 2009: Four Tottenham Hotspur fans are banned from all football grounds in England for four years after being found guilty of making indecent chants at the club's former defender Sol Campbell in reference to his transfer to Arsenal in 2001. The incidents took place at Fratton Park, where Tottenham were playing Campbell's current club Portsmouth, on 28 September the previous year. 31  January 2009: Manchester United are top of the Premier League while the rest of the top seven remains unchanged from the end of December. West Bromwich Albion, Stoke City and Middlesbrough are in the relegation places all on 21 points at the bottom of the Premier League. Wolverhampton Wanderers, Reading and Birmingham City continue occupy the top three positions in the Championship. 2 February 2009: Robbie Keane returns to Tottenham Hotspur after six months at Liverpool for a fee of £12 million. 8 February 2009: Portsmouth terminate the contract of Tony Adams after 14 weeks as manager. Paul Hart  is appointed caretaker manager. 9 February 2009: Chelsea terminate the contract of Luiz Felipe Scolari after eight months as manager. 11 February 2009: Dutchman Guus Hiddink, manager of the Russia national football team, accepts an offer to manage Chelsea until the end of the season. 28 February 2009: Manchester United end February as Premier League leaders ahead of Chelsea by seven points and with a game in hand. Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton and Wigan Athletic complete the top seven. West Bromwich Albion, Blackburn Rovers and Stoke City occupy the relegation places. Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham City and Reading continue in the top  threeplaces respectively in the Championship. 1 March 2009: Manchester United win the 2008–09 Football League Cup defeating Tottenham Hotspur 4–1 on penalties, following a 0–0 draw after extra time. 14 March 2009: Liverpool beat Manchester United 4–1 at Old Trafford. 31 March 2009: Manchester United's lead at the top of the Premier League is one point over Liverpool, with a game in hand. The whole top seven remains unchanged again at the end of the month. West Bromwich Albion, Middlesbrough and Newcastle United occupy the relegation zone. Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham City and Reading continue in the top three places  in the Championship. 5 April 2009: Luton Town win the 2008–09 Football League Trophy by defeating Scunthorpe United 3–2 in extra time. 13 April 2009: The first two relegations of the season take place, with Hereford United relegated from League One to League Two one season after promotion and Luton Town are relegated from League Two into the Conference National. Their third successive relegation resulting in the loss of league status. 18 April 2009: Wolverhampton Wanderers are promoted to the Premier League and Leicester City are promoted to the Football League Championship, while Charlton Athletic are relegated to League One . 21 April 2009: Ipswich Town sack manager Jim Magilton after failing to reach the Play-offs. 22 April 2009: Roy Keane appointed new manager of Ipswich Town on a two-year contract. 25 April 2009: Peterborough United are promoted to the Football League Championship. 25 April 2009: Brentford are promoted to League One as well as winning the League Two title with a 3–1 win over Darlington. 25 April 2009: Cardiff City played their last game at Ninian Park. 30 April 2009: Manchester United end April with a three-point lead over Liverpool with a game in hand in the  Premier League, with Chelsea the only other team still in contention for the title. Arsenal, Aston Villa, Everton and Fulham complete the top seven who will qualify for Europe club competitions for next this season. West Bromwich Albion, Newcastle United and Middlesbrough occupy the relegation zone. Birmingham City and Sheffield United the final two teams in contention for automatic promotion to the Premier League, while playoff qualification is being contested between Reading, Cardiff City, Burnley and Preston North End. 2 May 2009: Chester City are relegated to the Conference, resulting in the loss of league status for second time. 2  May 2009: Wycombe Wanderers and Exeter City win promotion to League One. 3 May 2009: Birmingham City are promoted to the Premier League after a last day 2–1 win over Reading. Norwich City are relegated to League One, and Crewe Alexandra and Northampton Town are relegated to League Two. 5 May 2009: Manchester United win 4–1 on aggregate over Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals to reach the final. 6 May 2009: Chelsea lose on away goals in the Champions League semi-final with FC Barcelona, ending their hopes of a final against Manchester United. 16 May 2009 : Manchester United earn a 0–0 draw with Arsenal at Old Trafford to win the Premier League. 17 May 2009: West Bromwich Albion are relegated from the Premier League to the Championship. 23 May 2009: Gillingham win promotion to League One after defeating Shrewsbury Town 1–0 in the League Two play-off final. 24 May 2009: On the final day of the Premiership season Newcastle United and Middlesbrough are relegated to the Championship after both lost away at Aston Villa and West Ham United respectively. This ends Newcastle United's 16-year spell in the Premier League. Also Scunthorpe United win  promotion to the Championship with a 3–2 win over Millwall in the League One play-off final at Wembley. 25 May 2009: Burnley win promotion to the Premier League, defeating Sheffield United 1–0 at Wembley in the Championship play-off final. 27 May 2009: Manchester United lose 2–0 to Barcelona in 2009 UEFA Champions League Final 30 May 2009: Chelsea win the FA Cup final beating Everton 2–1. National team. The home team is on the left column; the away team is on the right column. World Cup qualifiers. England is currently in Group 6 of the 2010 FIFA World  Cup qualification process. League tables. Premier League. Manchester United won their 18th league title, drawing level with Liverpool for the record of most league titles. Liverpool pushed them all the way; they actually had a superior goal difference and completed the double over United, even winning 4–1 at Old Trafford in March, but also suffered 11 draws which enabled United to overtake and win the title. Chelsea broke records for all the wrong reasons as their 86-game unbeaten home record finally came to an end, with several surprise away losses effectively ending their title challenge (as well as resulting  in manager Luiz Felipe Scolari being sacked), though they did win the FA Cup under caretaker manager Guus Hiddink. Arsenal finished fourth to claim the final Champions League spot, which meant that last season's top 4 all qualified for Europe's elite for the fifth time in six seasons. Aston Villa had looked like breaking into the Champions League spots for most of the season, but a late collapse that saw them win just twice in their last 13 league games saw them join FA Cup finalists Everton in qualifying for the newly formed UEFA Europa League (which replaced  the UEFA Cup). Fulham were the other team to qualify for Europe, marking a remarkable turnaround since Roy Hodgson had taken over 18 months earlier when relegation from the Premier League looked a certainty. This was not only the first time they had qualified for Europe via their league position, but in finishing 7th in the first tier, this was also the highest ever league finish in the club's history. Stoke City, despite being pre-season relegation favourites for many, defied their critics and finishing comfortably in mid-table. West Bromwich Albion made an immediate return to the Championship  after propping up the table for most of the season. Joining them on the final day were Middlesbrough and Newcastle United, ending 11 and 16-year spells in the top flight respectively, the latter going through four managers in Kevin Keegan, Joe Kinnear, Chris Hughton and even former striker Alan Shearer during the campaign. Sunderland survived relegation, thanks to the efforts of caretaker manager Ricky Sbragia after Roy Keane's surprise resignation in December; meaning next season they would be the only North-East team in top flight football. Despite a brilliant start to the season (Which included victories at  Arsenal and Tottenham, a draw at Liverpool and a narrow 4–3 loss at Manchester United, and climbing as high as third place in October), Hull City won just one league game after the new year, but avoided relegation by a single point. Leading goalscorer: Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea) – 19 Football League Championship. Five years after being relegated from the Premier League, Wolverhampton Wanderers returned to the top flight in style as champions, having been in the top 2 for virtually all the season since August. Birmingham City were runners-up, making this the fourth season in a row that they had  swapped divisions. Burnley joined them by beating Sheffield United in the play-off final, earning their place in the top flight after a 33-year absence. Cardiff City occupied a play-off position for much of the season, but agonisingly slipped out of them on the final day after obtaining just one point in their final four league games. Preston North End in contrast, took twelve points from their final four league games, including a 6–0 win over Cardiff to finish ahead of them by courtesy of having scored one goal more throughout the season. Doncaster Rovers who were favourites  to go straight back down and in the second tier after half a century out, achieved a respectable mid-table finish ahead of former Premier League teams in Crystal Palace, Coventry City, Blackpool, Derby County, Nottingham Forest and Barnsley. Charlton suffered their second relegation in three years, despite a run of just one loss out of eight games at the end of the season. Southampton also crashed out of the division amid financial worries, which also meant they would be starting the 2009–10 season in League One with a ten-point deduction for entering administration. Norwich were the third relegated  club, meaning that all three relegated clubs had been in the Premier League as recently as 2005 and had long left the third tier (Charlton last competed in the third tier in 1981, Southampton and Norwich in 1960). Leading goalscorer: Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (Wolverhampton Wanderers) – 25 Football League One. Leicester comfortably won promotion in their first-ever season at this level, leading the table for virtually the entire season, going half the season (23 consecutive games) unbeaten and losing just 4 games in the process. Nigel Pearson brought stability to the club in becoming their first manager in five years  to last an entire season as they looked to turn the corner after several years of struggle. Peterborough were runners-up, winning their second successive promotion and entering the second tier for only the second time in their history. Scunthorpe grabbed the final play-off place on the last day of the season in a winner takes all match v 7th place Tranmere Rovers and won promotion through them, making an immediate return to the Championship after being relegated the previous year. Stockport went into administration before the final match of the season and so suffered a 10-point penalty ; however, there was no real chance of them being relegated as a result of this penalty, barring an extremely unlikely set of results on the final day. Hereford made an immediate return to League Two, finishing bottom in their first campaign at this level for thirty years. Cheltenham improved late in the season, but it proved too late to prevent relegation. Crewe suffered a late collapse and went down to League Two, having looked safe a few weeks previously. Northampton were relegated on the final day of the season after losing at Leeds and other results went against them. Brighton  had looked certainties for relegation in the closing weeks, but the appointment of Russell Slade as manager saw them claim 16 points out of a possible 21 to survive. Carlisle and Hartlepool both survived on the last day. Leading goalscorer: Simon Cox (Swindon Town) – 29, and Rickie Lambert (Bristol Rovers) – 29 Football League Two. Brentford made a return to League One as champions, the second club to win the fourth tier three times since Doncaster Rovers. Exeter won their second successive promotion, and on the final day of the season managed to pip Wycombe Wanderers for the runners-up spot . Wycombe themselves managed the final automatic promotion spot by virtue of a single goal over Bury. The play-offs were won by Gillingham, who made an immediate return to League One after the previous season's relegation. Several teams suffered heavy points deductions during the season. Rotherham were docked 17 points at the start of the season and Darlington 10 points later on. Without these penalties they would have both qualified for the play-offs, but instead managed only mid table. Bournemouth also suffered a 17-point deduction pre-season, and halfway through it looked to be enough to cost  them their League status; however, a fightback under new manager Eddie Howe saw them climb to safety and secure survival with a game to spare. Luton suffered the heaviest deduction however, and the loss of 30 points proved too much for them to survive (though they would still have been relegated, albeit while finishing a place higher, had they only suffered the same 17-point deduction as Bournemouth and Rotherham). They suffered their third successive relegation and dropped out of the league, making them only the third English team to suffer three successive relegations, and the first to drop from  the second tier to the Conference in successive years. The other relegated team was Chester City, who were statistically the worst team in the division and returned to the Conference after only five years. This would ultimately be the final season that the club completed, as they folded in March 2010, before the end of the following campaign. Grimsby would also have suffered relegation, if not for Luton's points deduction. Leading goalscorers: Simeon Jackson (Gillingham) – 20, Grant Holt (Shrewsbury Town) – 20, and Jack Lester (Chesterfield) – 20