BURNLEY will hope that an increase in parachute payments will help them avoid the pitfalls of those who have been relegated from the Premier League in recent years.

The Clarets have been made 10/1 second favourites behind Nottingham Forest to win the Championship in the forthcoming campaign, with the other two sides to drop out of the top flight in May – Hull and Portsmouth – suffering from financial problems.

Cardiff and Middlesbrough are also 10/1, with Leeds and Leicester 12/1.

Relegated sides are often made favourites to return at the first attempt but, in the last 10 years, only eight teams out of 30 have actually succeeded.

A total of 14 finished in the top six.

Three teams returned to the Premier League after two seasons away, but eight have remained in the Championship ever since relegation.

Worse still, eight have been relegated to the lower leagues - even if Leeds, Norwich and Leicester are now back in the second tier.

But Burnley should be in a position to challenge because of their sound financial position and the new parachute payments on offer to relegated clubs.

The Clarets will receive £16m in each of the next two seasons and a further £8m in the two seasons after that.

That compares favourably to the previous arrangement, which saw relegated clubs receive only £11.2m in each of their first two seasons after the drop - but nothing after that.

And, even under the old system, Newcastle and West Bromwich Albion bounced straight back to take the two automatic promotion spots in the Championship in May.

Newcastle's tally of 102 points surpassed the 99 that Manchester City amassed when they were promoted at the first attempt in 2001/02.

The last time Burnley dropped out of the top flight in 1976, they finished 16th in Division Two the season afterwards.

Three years later, they were relegated again and few Clarets fans need reminding that they were within a match of dropping out of the Football League altogether in 1987 before their rise back through the leagues.

Hopefully, they should be in a better position to bounce back this time around.