Tottenham next? Six Premier League sides that were ‘too good to go down’ | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur are six games away from an unthinkable Premier League relegation and their first season outside of the top flight since the 1970s.

An awful season on the pitch and several years of bad-decisions off it have left Spurs floundering far below their usual European-challenging habitat.

Despite everything, Spurs firmly belong in the category of ‘too good to go down’ – but that hasn’t saved several other big clubs from the drop in years gone by.

Middlesbrough (1996-97)

Middlesbrough aren’t exactly one of English football’s glamour clubs, but they’ve been in the top flight more seasons than they’ve been out of it in their proud history.

The 1996-97 campaign was only their second successive back in the top flight, but they’d built a quite ridiculous squad that featured Fabrizio Ravanelli and Juninho under player-manager Bryan Robson.

Ravanelli scored 31 goals in all competitions that year, 15 of which came in the FA Cup and League Cup – where Boro finished runners-up in each.

The club were also docked three points for postponing a fixture against Blackburn Rovers at short notice without FA approval amid an injury and illness crisis – which proved pivotal in them finishing 19th on 39 points.

Boro came straight back up, but the lightening-in-a-bottle feeling a talented, cosmopolitan squad gave Teesiders has never quite been emulated since.

Blackburn (1998-99)

Blackburn went from Premier League champions to Division One in the space of just four years, and they finished as high as sixth 12 months before they dropped.

The evergreen Roy Hodgson was sacked in November and Brian Kidd failed to turn Rovers’ form around.

The days of Alan Shearer banging in the goals were long gone, while his former strike partner Chris Sutton’s form fell off a cliff. Kevin Gallacher and Ashley Ward finished as Blackburn’s top scorers with just five goals apiece.

Blackburn mustered just 38 goals in 38 games; Shearer managed 34 when they won the title in 1994-95. A miserable fall from grace.

West Ham (2002-03)

Only one side in Premier League history has been relegated with more than 40 points – the West Ham side of 2002-03.

The Hammers squad that season boasted David James, Glen Johnson, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Trevor Sinclair, Frederic Kanoute, Jermain Defoe and Paolo Di Canio. No team has ever been more ‘too good to go down’.

It was a particularly gut-wrenching way to get relegated, given they looked doomed for the drop during a miserable winter before coming miraculously close to achieving the greatest of great escapes.

Glenn Roeder’s side picked up just 20 points and four wins from the first 27 games of the season.

They then picked up 22 points from their final 11 games, winning six and losing just one – away at 17th placed Bolton Wanderers.

The Hammers had lined up Didier Drogba for the summer window, alongside rebuilding the fourth stand at Upton Park. What might’ve been.

Leeds (2003-04)

Even now, the phrase ‘doing a Leeds’ is a synonym for “falling into the abyss” in football terminology. The term even has its own Wikipedia page.

From Champions League semi-finalists to humilated basketcase in the space of three years. Leeds flew close to the sun and got themselves burnt.

Newcastle (2008-09)

Newcastle weren’t one of the clubs in the Premier League when it was rebranded in 1992, but they provided the competition with some of its earliest iconic moments.

They’d fallen since those lofty heights by the mid-noughties, but come 2008 there was renewed hope that Keegan was to bring the good times back.

King Kev steadied the ship and led the Magpies to a strong finish in 2007-08, and, eventually, a respectable 12th-place finish – a placing it was hoped could be built upon.

But few foresaw what kind of owner Mike Ashley would turn out to be. Keegan resigned a few weeks into the campaign after a major falling out with the board.

Then came Joe Kinnear. Then came Shearer in his first and only job as manager – and the legendary striker was unable to save them from the drop.

To make things worse, Sunderland survived at their expense. It feels very similar to the season Tottenham are currently going through.

Leicester (2022-23)

Following their historic title win in 2016, Leicester solidified in the top third of the Premier League under Brendan Rodgers.

The Foxes finished fifth in 2020 and 2021, the latter year also marked by winning the first FA Cup in the club’s history.

But Leicester were beginning to strain financially and sold legendary goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel in the summer of 2022.

Rodgers’ team began the 2022-23 campaign dreadfully, before picking up form around the World Cup break.

Results spiralled again in the New Year and the manager was sacked at the start of April with Leicester staring down the barrel.

Dean Smith took over and won nine points from the final eight games, not enough to prevent Everton from overhauling them.

A squad containing James Maddison, Harvey Barnes, Youri Tielemans and Jamie Vardy slipped into the Championship. Three years on and Leicester are facing relegation to League One.