Half a century since Ipswich Town won the English title in their first season in the top-flight, we pick out a selection of sides to have claimed glory after winning promotion.
Liverpool (1905-06)
Having been champions in 1901 under manager Tom Watson, Liverpool endured a swift decline as they found themselves in the Second Division only three years later. However, they bounced back at the first time of asking, and would become the first ever newly promoted club to win the title.
They had appeared set for another tough top-flight campaign as they lost their first three games of the season, conceding 11 goals in the process. Watson had kept faith in goalkeeper Ned Doig, the ageing former Scotland international, despite having invested around £350 in the highly-regarded Chesterfield goalkeeper Sam Hardy but, after a 3-2 defeat left the club in 16th in October, Watson finally brought Hardy into the team.
It was the catalyst for their glorious return. They improved at the back immediately, finishing the campaign with the second-best defensive record in the division, and remained at the top of the table from mid-December onwards, ultimately finishing four points clear of Preston.
Ajax (1917-18)
Having been relegated in 1914, Ajax were frustrated in their initial attempts to bounce back, with the disruption caused by World War I costing them promotion at the first attempt.
In 1915, Jack Reynolds took charge. A young Englishman who had impressed in management with Swiss side St Gallen, he was to revolutionise Ajax's approach, putting the emphasis on skill rather than power and ultimately introducing professional training techniques.
He secured a return to the top-flight in his second season in Amsterdam, winning the KNVB beker the same year, and the following campaign they finished five points clear at the top of the table before winning six of their eight play-off games to become champions for the first time. The following season, they retained the title.
Everton (1931-32)
Everton's fall from grace after the title success of 1927-28, when the great Dixie Dean netted 60 goals in 39 league appearances, had come as something of a shock. They had finished 18th in the season that followed and, in 1929-30, went down for the first time in their history.
Nonetheless, the quality of their play - even in their relegation season - was sufficient to stave off excessive pessimism, and the pre-season confidence proved accurate: Dean hit 39 goals in 1930-31 season as Everton finished top of the Second Division.
The following campaign, Everton matched the achievement of their Merseyside rivals as they finished two points clear of Arsenal, with Dean netting 45 goals.
FC Girondins de Bordeaux (1949-50)
The multi-sport Girondins de Bordeaux had not been a football club until 1910, and did not play a football league match until August 1937. However, in 1941, Bordeaux - then known as Girondins ASP - claimed their first major trophy as they won the Coupe de France. They performed well during the wartime championships, and when football restarted in earnest in the 1945-46 season, they played their first season in the top-flight.
Relegation followed in the second season, but they secured promotion with a second-placed finish in 1948-49 and won the title by six points in 1949-50, with the most goals scored and fewest conceded, and would become established as one of France's finest clubs in the years that followed.
Saint-Etienne, in 1964, and Monaco, in 1978, have since repeated the feat in France.
Tottenham Hotspur (1950-51)
Tottenham had spent only two seasons in the First Division since 1928 when manager Arthur Rowe arrived in 1949. Rowe, a Tottenham-born former Spurs captain, sparked a revolution at White Hart Lane and won the Second Division title by nine points in his first season. He offered much of the credit for the success to Alf Ramsey, saying the right-back - a £21,000 signing from Southampton at the start of the season - had "influenced the team to an incredible extent".
More significant, though, were the revolutionary tactics he was to introduce. Having had a coaching spell in Hungary in 1939, he set about developing his "push and run" approach, which saw players pass to a team-mate and then run on for the return pass. He told the Daily Express in 1951 that the "long ball was guv'nor" in English football in the post-war period, and that he had told his players that three one-twos would have the same impact with a lower risk than a 40-yard direct ball.
It was incredibly successful, and it took some time for the rest of English football to catch up: in their first season after promotion, little-fancied Spurs took the First Division title for the first time in their history.
Ipswich Town (1961-62)
Ipswich had only entered the Football League in 1938, and were in Division Three (South) at the time of Alf Ramsey's arrival in 1955. The former Spurs and England right-back was only 35 years old, but 'The General', as he had become known during his playing days, soon showed himself to adept at the art of management.
He secured promotion to the second tier in 1956-57, and in 1960-61 took Ipswich into the top-flight for the first time in their existence. Ipswich, a relatively impoverished club, had been expected to struggle in a division containing Matt Busby's Manchester United and Double winners Tottenham. "Money is my only worry," a defiant Ramsey said ahead of the new campaign. "I am not worried about the First Division. I think it's a wonderful thing for us, although I must admit the fixture list, at first glance, was frightening."
Ramsey realised that, to compete, he would need revolutionary tactics. He instructed Jimmy Leadbetter, an outside left during the promotion campaign, to forget about hugging the touchline and to act as a deep-lying playmaker. The tactic - a prototype for England's World Cup-winning "Wingless Wonders" - proved astonishingly successful as Ipswich finished three points clear at the top of the table.
Nottingham Forest (1977-78)
In six years with Derby County, Brian Clough had shown his managerial capabilities as he took the club from the Second Division to the First Division title. With Nottingham Forest, he took things a step further.
His arrival at the City Ground in January 1975 had come after a chastening spell. He had resigned as Derby manager in a failed bid to wrest power from chairman Sam Longson, and afterwards headed to Brighton for a brief and unsuccessful spell in the Third Division. After that came an even briefer spell with Leeds United, as he attempted to dismantle the squad established by his great rival, Don Revie.
At Forest, though, Old Big 'Ead rediscovered his magic touch. As the man himself put it in Cloughie: Walking on Water: "It was success virtually all the way once I'd settled in, sorted things out and freshened up a decaying club that was dying on its feet." Having been joined by his highly regarded assistant, Peter Taylor, in the summer of 1976, the duo took the club to promotion by finishing third in the 1976-77 season, beat Liverpool in a League Cup final replay in March 1978 and then finished seven points clear of the Reds at the top of the First Division.
In the two seasons that followed, Forest won and then retained the European Cup.
Rosario Central (1986-87)
The most successful Argentinean side from outside Buenos Aires, Rosario Central had been three-time title winners but found themselves in the second tier for the first time in their history in 1984: the AFA had changed relegation rules in 1983 so that demotion would be based on a two-season aggregate, and Central paid the price for two bad years.
Nonetheless, relegation sparked a revival, and Central eased to promotion the following season before winning the title, becoming the first, and still only, Argentinean side to achieve the feat.
1.FC Kaiserslautern (1997-98)
In 1996, Kaiserslautern were relegated from the Bundesliga for the first time in their history. In the aftermath, there were major changes behind the scenes as new faces were brought in to refresh the board and coaching staff. Most significantly, Otto Rehhagel, a two-time Bundesliga winning coach who had spent the final seven years as a player with Kaiserslautern, took charge two weeks before the start of the season.
They returned to the top-flight at the first attempt, finishing ten points clear at the top of the 2. Bundesliga. The following season, as defending champions Bayern Munich imploded amid some very public infighting, Kaiserslautern became the only newly-promoted club in the history of German football to take the title.
Chicago Fire (1998)
Chicago Fire were not newly-promoted when they did the Double in 1998: they were playing their first ever campaign. Bob Bradley agreed to take charge of the new side, having spent the previous two years as assistant to Bruce Arena with two-time MLS champions DC United, and the Fire performed well in the Western Conference, finishing second.
In the MLS Cup, they battled their way to the final, where Bradley faced former club DC United and claimed a surprise 2-0 victory to take the title. ''I felt from the beginning that we had a unique team,'' Bradley said afterwards.
A week later, they added their second trophy with a 2-1 victory over Columbus Crew in the US Open Cup final.
Guangzhou Evergrande (2011)
Guangzhou had become China's first professional club in 1993, and had come close to glory when they finished runners-up in the top-flight in 1992 and 1994. In February 2010, despite having finished ninth in the 2009 Super League campaign, they were relegated, along with Chengdu Blades, after they were embroiled in a match-fixing scandal.
The following week, though, Guangzhou GPC were subject of a takeover from the Evergrande Real Estate Group, whose chairman, Xu Jiayin, was among the richest men in China.
The club was rebranded, and Xu offered the players a bonus worth at least five million yuan - around £500,000 - to secure promotion back to the Super League. To improve their chances, they re-signed Sun Xiang - who had previously played on loan at PSV Eindhoven - plus former Charlton and Celtic midfielder Zheng Zhi, and soon afterwards broke the country's domestic transfer record when paying around 22 million yuan (£2.25 million) for Atletico Mineiro striker Muriqui.
Evergrande were promoted as champions and, after signing Argentinean midfielder Dario Conca for around 64 million yuan (£6.4 million) and Brazilian striker Cleo for around 29 million yuan (£2.8 million), they finished 15 points clear at the top of the Super League.
