2003–04 in English football

The 2003-04 season was the 124th season of competitive football in England.

Overview

Arsenal completed the entire campaign without losing a single league game.

Leeds United narrowly avoided going into administration, but despite a valiant effort late in the season to claw back lost points, they were unable to avoid relegation and lost their place in the Premiership along with Leicester City and Wolves.

Norwich City won promotion back to the Premiership as Champions after nine years in Division 1. They were joined by runners-up West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace who beat West Ham in the play-off final. Wimbledon completed their controversial relocation to Milton Keynes and moved into the National Hockey Stadium, which would be used as a temporary home until a permanent home was built at Denbigh North. At the end of the season, following the Dons' relegation, club directors changed its name to Milton Keynes Dons.
Bradford City and Walsall joined them in relegation to League 1.

Plymouth Argyle were Division Two Champions and ensured that they would be playing in the second tier of English football for the first time in 11 years. QPR joined them with Brighton winning the play-offs.At the bottom Rushden & Diamonds were relegated back down to Division Three along with Grimsby Town who suffered a second straight relegation after losing the last game of the season. Debt-ridden Notts County and Wycombe Wanderers were the other relegation casualties.

Doncaster Rovers were crowned Division Three champions to earn their second successive promotion, having been Conference playoff winners the previous season. They had not played above the league's lowest tier for nearly 20 years. They were joined by Hull City, Torquay United and play-off winners Huddersfield Town.
Carlisle United were relegated to the Conference from Division Three. They had spent all but two of the last 17 seasons in the league's fourth tier, but had been members of the top division during the 1974-75 season and topped the league three games into the season despite getting relegated at the end of it. York City also followed them out of the Football League afer a dreadful second half to the season. Meanwhile, Chester City and Shrewsbury Town were promoted back to the Football League from the Nationwide Conference.

Telford United, who had been members of the Conference every season since its formation in 1979, went out of business at the end of a season in which they had reached the Fourth Round of the FA Cup. The club was quickly reformed as A.F.C. Telford United and joined the Northern Premier League.

Events

* 29 February 2004: Middlesbrough win their first ever trophy as a professional club by beating Bolton Wanderers in the League Cup final.
* 5 March 2004: Three Leicester City players, Paul Dickov, Keith Gillespie and Frank Sinclair, are charged with sexual assault while on a training camp in La Manga, Spain. All charges are dropped in May.
* 27 May 2004: Telford United are liquidated and removed from the Conference as a result.
* 2 June 2004: José Mourinho takes over as manager of Chelsea, replacing Claudio Ranieri.
* 16 June 2004: Rafael Benítez takes over as manager of Liverpool, replacing Gérard Houllier.
* 21 June 2004: Wimbledon announce that they will change their name to Milton Keynes Dons, reflecting its highly controversial move from South London to Milton Keynes.

National team

League tables

FA Premier League

The Premiership title race was a three-horse race for most of the season, but Arsenal remained unbeaten all season long and clinched the title with 90 points and an 11-point gap over runners-up Chelsea, who had been most people's favourites for the title after a £100million summer spending spree.

League Cup winners Middlesbrough qualified for the UEFA Cup for the first time in their history, joined by fifth-placed Newcastle United. Seventh-placed Charlton Athletic and eighth-placed Bolton Wanderers both achieved their highest league finishes since the 1950s, while ninth-placed Fulham (many people's pre-season relegation favourites) defied the odds under 33-year-old manager Chris Coleman and achieved the highest league finish of their history. Portsmouth, also considered favourites for relegation pre-season, finished a respectable 13th in their first top-flight season.

Newly promoted Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers both went down after just one season, while Leeds United's financial crisis saw them lose most of their key players and eventually saw them relegated from the top flight after 14 successive seasons among the elite.

* For more detail on the Premiership this season see FA Premier League 2003-04

Leading goalscorer: Andrew Johnson (Crystal Palace) - 27

Football League Second Division

Plymouth Argyle finished top of the division, though they lost manager Paul Sturrock to Southampton. Queens Park Rangers grabbed the second spot from under the noses of Bristol City, who proceeded to lose the play-off final to Brighton & Hove Albion, another side who bounced back from relegation the previous season.

Tony Adams, previously suggested by many as a possible future manager of Arsenal and England, failed to keep Wycombe Wanderers up, ending their ten-year spell in the division. Notts County nearly went bankrupt during the course of the season and the effect on the club was evident, as they slipped into Division Three (or League Two, as it would be called the next season), and Rushden & Diamonds' years of success came to a grinding halt as they crashed back out of the division after being promoted the previous year. Grimsby Town filled the final relegation spot, resulting in their second successive relegation.

Football Conference

* Champions:
** Chester City
* Playoff winners:
** Shrewsbury Town
* Relegated:
** Margate "(forced relegation to Conference South due to failing ground requirements)"

Northern Premier League

* Champions:
** Hucknall Town "(to Conference North)"
* Also promoted "(to Conference North)":
** Droylsden, Barrow, Alfreton Town, Harrogate Town, Southport, Worksop Town, Lancaster City, Vauxhall Motors, Gainsborough Trinity, Stalybridge Celtic, Altrincham, Runcorn FC Halton, Bradford Park Avenue "(playoff winners)"

outhern League

* Champions:
** Crawley Town "(to Conference National)"
* Also promoted "(to Conference North)":
** Stafford Rangers, Nuneaton Borough, Worcester City, Hinckley United, Moor Green
* Also promoted "(to Conference South)":
** Weymouth, Newport County, Cambridge City, Welling United, Weston-super-Mare, Eastbourne Borough, Havant & Waterlooville, Dorchester Town "(playoff winners)"

Isthmian League

* Champions:
** Canvey Island "(to Conference National)"
* Also promoted "(to Conference South)":
** Sutton United, Thurrock, Hornchurch, Grays Athletic, Carshalton Athletic, Hayes, Bognor Regis Town, Bishop's Stortford, Maidenhead United, Ford United, Basingstoke Town, St Albans City "(playoff winners)"
* Also promoted "(to Conference North)":
** Kettering Town

Other leagues

Transfer deals

ummer transfer window

The summer transfer window ran from the end of the previous season until 31 August 2003.

January transfer window

The mid-season transfer window runs from 1 January to 31 January 2004.

For subsequent transfer deals see 2004-05 in English football.

Retirements

*David Seaman (Manchester City)
*Marco Gabbiadini (Hartlepool United)
*Denis Irwin (Wolverhampton Wanderers)

Famous Debutants

* Scott Carson, 18, makes three appearances for troubled Leeds United, the first coming after his future England rival Paul Robinson is sent-off against Middlesbrough in January 2004.
* Aaron Lennon makes his Premier League debut, aged just 16, for Leeds United in a 2-1 loss to his future club Tottenham Hotspur in August 2003.
* Fellow future England winger Ashley Young, 18, comes off the bench to score for Watford as they beat Millwall in September 2003.
* Cesc Fabregas, 16, is given his first taste of first-team football at Arsenal in three Football League Cup ties, the first against Rotherham United in October 2003.

Deaths

* John Charles, 72, was the most famous Leeds United player in the pre Don Revie era. His exploits for Leeds United and the Welsh national team attracted attention from all over the world and he was sold to Italian side Juventus in 1958.
* Steve Cooper, 39, former striker who played nine Football League clubs during his career, most notably Tranmere Rovers and Plymouth Argyle, where he was a key member of promotion-winning sides. Later joined Scottish side Airdrie where he was a member of the side that surprisingly reached the Scottish FA Cup final in 1995.
* Jimmy Davis, 21, Manchester United and England U-21 striker, died in a car crash on the M40 just hours before he was due to play his first game for Watford on a season-long loan deal. He had played once for Manchester United in a League Cup game, and had spent part of the 2001-02 season on loan to Swindon Town.
* Ray Harford, 58, was best remembered for his managerial and coaching career - he was manager of Luton Town when they won the League Cup in 1988 and assistant manager of Blackburn Rovers when they were Premiership champions in 1995. He was promoted from the role of assistant manager to the manager's seat at three clubs - Luton Town, Wimbledon and Blackburn Rovers. He also had spells in charge of Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and finally Queens Park Rangers. His last post was as first-team coach at Millwall, and helped them win the Division Two title in 2001. He was still on the club's payroll at the time of his death from lung cancer.
* Bob Stokoe, 73, was manager of the Sunderland side who achieved a shock F.A Cup victory over Leeds United in the 1973 final. He later managed Carlisle United and returned to Sunderland during the 1986-87 season, but quit after failing to save them from relegation to the old Third Division for the first time in their history.