Thirteenth-placed Manchester United are simply 10 factors away from the relegation zone; Tottenham are two points worse off down in 15th.
Fortunately for them, the present Premier League backside 4 or 5 all look poor sufficient that sleepless nights are unlikely for United and Spurs followers – however they shouldn’t be so complacent as to assume it’s completely unthinkable. In spite of everything, there have been loads of well-established sides who’ve gone down inside a number of brief years of their peaks…
6) Fulham 2013/14
An especially context-specific decide, on condition that Fulham have spent extra time within the Championship than the Premier League within the 11 years since – however Fulham’s descent to such wretched type was a little bit of a shock on the time. Fulham had completed within the high half in three of the earlier 5 seasons, by no means coming decrease than twelfth, in addition to making a run all the way in which to the 2010 Europa League remaining.
Sadly, the Cottagers appeared pretty content material to proceed on with a lot the identical squad with out, you recognize, introducing any youth or vitality or tempo or something, and their ageing squad degenerated right into a hopeless state.
Martin Jol, Rene Meulensteen and the altogether unusual Felix Magath all fielded a number of sides with a mean age over 30, and not one of the three managers might get a tune out of them, not helped by star January centre-forward signing Konstantinos Mitroglou lacking many of the season injured. They shipped 85 objectives and went down in nineteenth.
5) Newcastle United 2008/09
That Newcastle have been in decline within the put up Sir Bobby Robson period was past doubt: Newcastle went being constant Champions League contenders to schlepping round mid-table nearly from the second he was much-too-hastily sacked for making a poor begin to the 2004/05 marketing campaign amid rumours of disharmony each within the boardroom and the dressing room.
Nonetheless, few would have foreseen simply how terrible and messy issues would get for Newcastle. Kevin Keegan finally fired Newcastle away from a relegation battle in 2007/08 because of a superb run of late-season type, however give up early within the following season after growing unhappy with the board’s transfer interference, together with promoting James Milner and signing Xisco. Keegan later received a £2m compensation pay-out for breach of contract.
Within the meantime, Joe Kinnear’s weird and bad-tempered spell as interim supervisor didn’t encourage, and so they have been simply 4 factors from the drop zone when Kinnear left to have coronary heart surgical procedure. Chris Hughton and Colin Calderwood went winless in his absence, prompting the Hail Mary appointment of Alan Shearer as supervisor. He received simply one in every of his eight video games in cost as Newcastle went down.
4) West Ham United 2002/03
With a surprising academy manufacturing line that included Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Jermain Defoe and Glenn Johnson, in addition to boasting one of many Premier League’s most spectacular gamers in Paolo Di Canio, West Ham seemed to be in fine condition across the daybreak of the brand new millennium.
Harry Redknapp had established the Hammers as a top-half facet, peaking in fifth place in 1998/99, however was sacked after taking them to a disappointing fifteenth in 2000/01. Glenn Roeder restored enterprise as standard by taking them to seventh the next season – however the gradual departure of half their finest younger prospects to get replaced by ageing and unproven gamers finally caught as much as them.
Roeder oversaw an terrible first 5 months of the 2002/03 season as West Ham received simply three of their first 24 video games, however had simply began to show issues round when he was all of the sudden compelled to depart with a mind tumour. Membership legend Trevor Brooking stepped in and led the Hammers to their strongest run of type of the season; sadly, the relegation battle was significantly fierce that yr, and West Ham went down regardless of accumulating 42 factors – a document for a relegated facet in a 38-game Premier League season.
3) Leicester Metropolis 2022/23
Leicester followers have been decidedly uncertain of what to anticipate from their membership after their completely ridiculous title win in 2015/16. What they bought was a right away backslide right into a relegation battle that necessitated the dismissal of the beloved Claudio Ranieri, which was vindicated as his successor Craig Shakespeare instantly bought Leicester onto a successful run that pulled them effectively away from the underside three.
The worst appeared to be over from there, and Leicester fairly fortunately pootled alongside as a part of the higher mid-table pack for 5 years, having fun with some good runs within the cups alongside the way in which. They claimed back-to-back fifth-place finishes below Brendan Rodgers in 2019/20 and 2020/21, lifting the FA Cup within the latter.
So it was a precipitous drop-off for Leicester once they all of the sudden discovered themselves backside of the desk simply 4 video games into the 2022/23 marketing campaign amid mounting prices and monetary pressures. A revival in type in October-November gave solution to one other dismal run of type that lasted for just about the remainder of the season, regardless of Dean Smith’s arrival as Rodgers’ substitute, and Leicester have been relegated on the ultimate day as Everton matched their victory over West Ham by beating Bournemouth.
2) Leeds United 2003/04
The best story of the lot to inform, to the extent that ‘doing a Leeds’ stays the shorthand of alternative for a facet utterly bottoming out from a lofty place.
UEFA Cup semi-finalists in 2000. Champions League semi-finalists in 2001. Missed out on the Champions League and spent an absolute boatload of cash anyway, playing that they might qualify once more. Didn’t. Needed to promote nearly everybody to remain solvent. Obtained relegated in 2004. Relegated once more in 2007. Didn’t get again to the Premier League till 2020.
1) Blackburn Rovers 1998/99
Leicester went from title winners to relegated in seven years. Leeds went from Champions League to relegated in three. So it’s solely proper that we put Blackburn high of the pile, given they beat Leicester by three years and matched Leeds.
They’d even completed as excessive as sixth below Roy Hodgson in 1997/98, and seemed to have lastly tailored to the lack of the Premier League’s most prolific striker, Alan Shearer. Even with the worth of Premier League success skyrocketing from the place it had been when Jack Walker financed Blackburn’s 1995 title triumph, Blackburn have been well-respected, nonetheless spending, and anticipated to do effectively.
Star striker Chris Sutton had hit 18 objectives the earlier season, however began the brand new marketing campaign in terrible type. No one else stepped in to select up the slack as summer season signings Matt Jansen and Nathan Blake didn’t impress. By November it was clear they have been in a critical relegation battle, and Roy Hodgson was sacked to get replaced by Brian Kidd. The brand new supervisor bounced lasted simply six weeks, and toothless Blackburn went down with a sport nonetheless to spare.