Except for Leicester and Wolves who somehow morphed into big spenders on top quality players. Leicester to buy Tielemens this summer for £40m, whilst Wolves bought Jiminez last month for £30m. I haven’t a clue how they achieve that, with our comparable top fee currently £17m and wages cap £50k...
Which is what happened to Villa and Sunderland - they were both crap in the PL for several seasons, escaping relegation by a whisker, until their luck finally ran out.