United's failure was largely put down to the inability to find a suitable replacement for Jaap Stam, the Dutch central defender who had been sold to Lazio for £16.25 million just after the start of the season.

Another disappointment was the failure of Juan Sebastián Verón, at £28.1 million the most expensive player ever to sign for an English club, to never live up to his hefty price tag.

After the season concluded, rumours began to circulate that Ferguson was about to break the English transfer record once again and sign Leeds United central-back Rio Ferdinand in the hope that his side would return to their winning ways in 2002–03.

Joining Ipswich in Division One would be already doomed Derby County and Leicester City, both going down after six seasons in the Premiership, the last of which had seen three different men take charge of the team.

Albion had overtaken another local rival in Wolverhampton Wanderers, which had been out of the top flight even longer, in the race for the run for second place by winning seven of their final nine league games.

Just after the end of the Division one season, a three-man panel of The FA gave permission for Wimbledon FC to move from their historic South London home to Milton Keynes.

Leeds United and Chelsea had to settle for UEFA Cup qualification after losing ground in the closing stages of the title race.

Fulham survived relatively comfortably, though a 13th-place finish was considered underwhelming, as their being managed by the highly regarded Jean Tigana and a substantial investment in players had caused most pundits[who?]

Leicester City's final season at Filbert Street, their home for 111 years, ended in relegation after just five league game wins.

The play-offs were won by Birmingham City, finally earning promotion after two successive disappointments, and also returning to the top flight for the first time since 1986.

Local rivals Preston finished eighth, with former Scotland manager Craig Brown now at the helm after David Moyes left for Everton.

Stockport County endured a dismal season despite the high-profile appointment of Carlton Palmer as manager, and fell into Division Two.

Wigan Athletic finished a disappointing tenth after successive playoff appearances, but kept faith in manager Paul Jewell to deliver promotion in his second season at the helm.

Bury suffered a financial crisis off the pitch and the effects of this ultimately affected the team's performance and sent them down to the League's bottom tier.

Ultimately there proved to be little drama about who would go down, as it became obvious from the first few weeks that Halifax Town were doomed, never managing to earn enough wins to have any serious chance of survival.

August September October November December January February March May June July 9 November 2001: Tony Ford, 42-year-old midfielder with one of the highest appearance records of any postwar English footballer, retires from playing after leaving Rochdale and following their manager Steve Parkin to Barnsley as his assistant and deciding that he was not capable of playing second-tier football.

[24][dead link‍] 10 May 2002: Lee Dixon, 38-year-old right back who signed for Arsenal in January 1988 and played more than 600 games for them, retires after winning his second double in five seasons (and his fourth league title) for the North London club.