The 10 football teams the world thought were “too good to go down”

Is a team ever too good to go down?

This week’s blog has been prompted by events at Aston Villa and the sacking of Paul Lambert. Defeat at Hull City on Tuesday night was the final straw for owner Randy Lerner, with Lambert fired the following day.

Dropping into the bottom three must have set off alarm bells, and has led to that time honoured question: ‘Are Villa too good to go down?’ Here we pick out ten examples of clubs who seemed or were too good to go down.

MANCHESTER UNITED (1974)

For many Manchester United fans, finishing seventh last season felt like the end of the world. Many of them had never known their team to finish so low.

Imagine how it must have felt then 40 years before, when just six years after becoming the first English winners of the European Cup, they found themselves in unfamiliar territory.

The once free-flowing team just couldn’t find the net, with less than a goal a game for the season. George Best had made his final appearances for United that season but he wasn’t the force he was and couldn’t inspire his team.

And so it came to pass that a backheeled goal from Denis Law, playing for rivals Manchester City, sent United into the old Second Division.

NOTTINGHAM FOREST (1993)

The beginning of a new era of Premier League football coincided with the end of another one at Nottingham Forest.

Brian Clough marked his final season at the City Ground in unfortunate circumstances as the twice European Champions finished bottom of this new competition.

The sales of Des Walker and Teddy Sheringham the previous summer left Forest vulnerable at centre-half and centre-forward and that remained the case for the whole season.

Everyone hoped Brian could turn it around but his magic was fading and their fate was sealed with a sad 2-0 home defeat by Sheffield United as Clough walked away from football for good.

FIORENTINA (1993)

The first year of Channel 4’s Football Italia coverage was marked by AC Milan’s outstanding play in winning Serie A and the demise of Fiorentina at the other end.

In the era of restrictions on foreign players, Fiorentina could count on the brilliant trio of Stefan Effenberg, Brian Laudrup and Gabriel Batistuta.

With that creativity, scoring goals was not a problem but conceding them was, most notably in a 7-3 home defeat by Milan, as they were relegated on the final day.

Effenberg and Laudrup left, but Batistuta remained to lead them to promotion at the first attempt. When ‘Bati-Gol’ left in 2000, he was the club’s all-time leading goalscorer and a statue had been erected in his honour.

ATLETICO MADRID (2000)

Atletico Madrid is the third biggest football club in Spain behind Real Madrid and Barcelona.

It has been great to witness their revival in the last couple of seasons in which they have become a genuine third powerhouse in La Liga and in Europe. But for many years, Atletico were one of the biggest jokes in Spain.

If there was a way something could be messed up, Atleti would find it. And in 2000, they surpassed themselves with relegation for the only time in their history.

In the same year as Real won an eighth European Cup, Atletico were heading into ‘Hell’ as newspapers described the Second Division.

And that was despite new signing Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scoring 24 league goals, including two in a famous 3-1 derby win over Real at the Bernabeu.

ATHLETIC BILBAO, REAL SOCIEDAD, OSASUNA (2001)

This trio survived the drop in La Liga in 2001, not so much through their own footballing merits, but thanks to neighbourhood help.

On the penultimate game of the season, Real Sociedad travelled to Athletic for the Basque derby with the home team already safe.

The Basques have been known to favour their own and so it proved that day as Sociedad claimed the 3-1 win under John Toshack that ensured their survival.

The following week, they laid out the welcome mat for their visitors from nearby Navarra (a region that is sympathetic to Basque principles) and Osasuna achieved the 1-0 win they needed to stay up, without too much opposition from Sociedad.

WEST HAM (2003)

If ever there was a team that WAS too good to go down in England, it was West Ham. They had a squad littered with big names, and had finished 7th the previous season.

Six of their players were England internationals James, Bowyer, Carrick, Cole, Sinclair and Ferdinand – while two more (Defoe and Glen Johnson) would represent their country at a later date, and they also included the gifted Paolo Di Canio in their ranks, too.

They even finished with a record number of Premier League points to go down 42. To put that into context, that was two more than the team achieved last season when they finished in 13th place.

But in that fateful season, the Hammers took the plunge.

JUVENTUS (2006)

Of course Juventus were too good to go down. They had been the Italian Champions in both 2005 and 2006 and contained players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alessandro Del Piero and Patrick Vieira.

But for their part in the ‘Calciopoli’ match-fixing scandal, The Old Lady (La Vecchia Signora) was stripped of those two titles and relegated to Serie B.

For many years, Juventus had been accused of underhand dealings and favourable refereeing decisions, but this case was proven.

Juventus got promoted immediately but their reputation was tainted and they have yet to return to a place among the European elite.

NEWCASTLE (2009)

Newcastle had come close to glory in the 1990s and early 2000s under Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson, but those memories were a far cry during the car crash of 2008/09.

Four managers, including Geordie icons, Keegan and Alan Shearer, could not save Newcastle from the drop, despite boasting Michael Owen up front and a host of other big names.

It was the season of Joe Kinnear’s ill-fated and foul-mouthed stint as manager as the team lurched from one problem to another and was best summed up by a tepid 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa on the final day of the season that confirmed their fate.

A draw would have kept them up and relegated Hull City, but they failed to muster a single shot on target.

RIVER PLATE (2011)

River Plate is the most successful club in Argentina with 36 titles. But arguably their most impressive ever achievement was being relegated in 2011. That’s because the odds were stacked overwhelmingly in their favour for that not to happen.

Authorities were desperate for River not to go down, so the Superclasico with Boca Juniors wouldn’t be lost and a clause was created so that teams’ results over a three-year period would determine relegation.

Things got so bad for River that in June 2011 they found themselves in a two-legged play-off against Belgrano, who had finished fourth in the division below.

Even then, the odds favoured River, as they had the crucial second leg at home, while Belgrano had to win the tie outright without relying on extra-time or away goals, even though those were open to River.

No matter, ‘The Millionaires’ proceeded to lose 2-0 away in the first leg, before only drawing 1-1 at home and losing 3-1 on aggregate.

As expected, the fans were not happy and a mass riot ensued with 50 people arrested and 40 ending up in hospital.

RANGERS (2012)

Rangers is a Scottish institution, so what has unfolded at the Glasgow club in the last three years is nothing short of tragic.

The club was docked 10 points on Valentine’s Day in 2012 for entering administration due to massive financial problems, but that was only the start of things.

Four months later, Rangers was liquidated, and the new business arm of the club was kicked out of the SPL and only accepted into the fourth tier of Scottish football.

For a club that had won 54 titles and more than 100 trophies, it was a staggering fall. Rangers have climbed back up two rungs of the ladder, but the club is still a basket case and so far from what it once was.