Oliver Norwood Is Officially The Master Of Championship Promotion

Sheffield United's promotion to the Premier League, confirmed after Leeds United's controversial draw with Aston Villa, officially made Oliver Norwood the king of promotion to the Premier League.

Some people have called it the Huckerby Zone, others the David Nugent Paradox, but however you refer to it there is a group of players that will forever be considered 'too good for the Championship but not good enough for the Premier League.'

Normally that group of players are strikers because you can easily graph how good they've been in the second tier of English football compared to the top tier, but it's not just strikers that can exist in the zone.

But what if a player is so good in the Championship he gets three teams promoted in three years but never steps foot in the Premier League? Can he be considered a member of the zone?

Such a player does exist with Sheffield United's Oliver Norwood confirming his third promotion from the Championship for three seasons in a row.

Norwood, a youth player at Manchester United, helped Brighton and Fulham get promoted in the previous two seasons but was sold on both occasions before playing a single minute in the Premier League.

This season, playing for the Blades since initially joining on loan from Brighton in the summer, the midfielder has scored three goals and given eight assists to his teammates.

The Blades have been brilliant this season and ended up in a scrap with Leeds for the final automatic promotion spot, behind Norwich City, and managed to get ahead of their Yorkshire rivals a few weeks ago.

Chris Wilder's team all but confirmed their promotion on Saturday when they beat Ipswich Town but Leeds' draw with Villa on Sunday did make sure of it.

Billy Sharp leads his teammates in celebrating the win over Ipswich. Image: PA Images

With Norwood joining on a permanent deal, following the loan, for £2 million in January it seems that he will finally make it into the Premier League next season.

The 28 year old, Northern Ireland international, was also named in the Championship Team of the Year last month.

After three promotions in a row it'll now be up to Norwood, and his teammates, to make sure he doesn't end up back in the Championship any time soon and leaves Huckerby and Nugent way behind.

Topics: Chris Wilder, Football News, Sheffield United, Premier League, norwich city, Leeds United, Fulham, championship, Brighton

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

@Sidler28