The fear of going down and not coming back is the greatest drama in football. Relegation is a shadow that stalks the bottom of the table and threatens to swallow up three teams per season.
This year Elche, Espanyol and Valladolid have been the victims of that dreaded fate. Now, with their eyes on the Second Division, they are beginning to fight to return.
This story is not new for Valladolid, on the contrary, it is a specialist on the subject. So far this century, Pucela has been relegated five times and has returned after the previous four.
First it was in 2003/04 and after three seasons they managed to return. Then it was in 2009/10 and they were out of Primera for two years.
In 2013/14 they fell again and it took them four seasons to get promoted. And they fell in 2020/21 in which they were only out of the top flight for a year. Now, after 2022/23, Valladolid returns to Second.
The Blanquivioletas will now try again to use the Second Division as a springboard, to bring the First Division football back to José Zorrilla as soon as possible.
But that ideal dream, to quickly return to the elite, does not always have a happy ending. In many cases, in fact, the descent is a black hole from which to get out is an almost impossible mission.
Since the 2000/01 season, 66 teams have dropped from the First to the Second category of Spanish football. Of them, only 15 managed to 'rebound' and return to the First Division one season later.
Zaragoza, Deportivo La Coruña and Levante are the only ones to have achieved that feat twice. Villarreal, Getafe, Betis, Celta, Huesca, Mallorca, Valladolid, Espanyol and Granada have done it once.
But that is what happens in the best of cases. However, so far this century, Cádiz is the one who testifies that falling can be a fatal sentence.
The yellow team achieved promotion to the First Division in the 2004/05 season, but their happiness was short-lived after being relegated in their first season back in the elite.
After that fall, the 'Tacita de Plata' had to wait 15 years to see his team again in the highest category. 14 seasons out of the First, seven of them in Second B, were the sentence served for falling.
The biggest drama, of course, is lived by those who have gone down and have not yet been able to rise again. Teams that have truly suffered the consequences of finishing at the bottom of the table.
So far this century, if you count those who have been out of the First Division for more than five years, there are 15 squads that have lost their category and that to this day continue to climb the endless ascent back to the top of Spanish football.
Real Oviedo, Albacete, Nàstic, Real Murcia, Numancia, Recreativo de Huelva, Tenerife, Xerez, Hércules, Racing de Santander, Zaragoza, Córdoba, Sporting de Gijón, Deportivo La Coruña and Málaga are those who are still serving sentences outside the First Division.
Many of them even wander into non-professional categories. Such is the case of Hércules and Recreativo, which are currently in the Second RFEF, or Xerez that survives in the Third RFEF.
For their part, Leganés, Huesca, Eibar, Levante and Alavés have fallen into relegation in the last five seasons, without yet being able to return and they will seek to prevent their passage away from First Division from being perpetuated.
In any case, descending crowns the teams with a weight on their backs, which season after season gets bigger and bigger. Everyone, of course, will strive to wear it for as short a time as possible.
