Top 5 biggest clubs to be relegated in Premier League era | OneFootball

The 2022-23 Premier League season has seen several so-called “big clubs” finding themselves in danger of relegation.

Southampton and Everton both sacked their managers, whilst David Moyes and Jesse Marsch were under pressure due to West Ham United and Leeds United being in the bottom half of the table.

All of these clubs have enjoyed lengthy tenures in the Premier League over the last 30 years, but as many can testify, no one is too big or too good to down.

Let’s take a look at the five biggest clubs to be relegated during the Premier League era. These five clubs are simply bigger and their relegations are more shocking.

Blackburn Rovers

Local businessman and lifelong Rovers fan Jack Walker and his wallet helped Blackburn challenge for and eventually win the Premier League in 1994/95. Managed by Kenny Dalglish and spearheaded by the goals of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton, Rovers pipped Fergie and United.

However, Dalglish moved upstairs the following season and Shearer joined his boyhood club Newcastle United in 1996. This saw Rovers gradually slip down the table, however, UEFA Cup football was still achieved in 1997/98.

This was a false dawn as 1998/99 saw the side start poorly and never recover – Roy Hodgson was sacked and replaced by then-United assistant Brian Kidd (his sole job as a No.1), while title-winning skipper Tim Sherwood was sold to Spurs.

Despite boasting Champions Tim Flowers, Jason Wilcox and Sutton, Rovers were relegated just four years after their greatest day. That it was confirmed following failure to beat United was salt in the wounds to both the club and Kidd.

West Ham United

Having been promoted from Division One in time for the second-ever Premier League season, West Ham have been a stalwart of the top flight for all but two of the years since.

Their first relegation was certainly the most shocking, given an all-star cast of Paolo Di Canio, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe amongst others had finished seventh the season before. This was not built on, with the Irons rooted to the bottom of the table – by January, they had won just 3 of 24 games.

Winning seven of their remaining 14 games, they came agonisingly close to survival with their 42 points still the highest tally to go down with. Not one to celebrate is it though?

Their second relegation in 2010/11 was more predictable given they’d finished 17th the year before. Coached by Avram Grant, the Irons were a rather desperate side, finishing rock bottom and seven points off safety.

To crystallise how bad that season and side was, Scott Parker won Football Writers Player of the Year. One shudders to think how adrift they’d have been without him.

Aston Villa

The Villains are another absolute stalwart of the top flight, having spent 109 seasons there (the second highest behind Everton, which tells you how big relegation for the Toffees would be this season). They had also never been relegated from the Premier League before 2015/16.

By then though, Villa were a shadow of Martin O’Neill’s late ‘00s side that had threatened to crack the top four, and their relegation had been coming for several seasons as they slid further down the table.

When it did come, it came in spectacular fashion with the side accruing just three wins and 17 points, which was 22 less than 17th-placed Sunderland. They also had four managers during the season, two permanents in Tim Sherwood and Remi Garde and two interims in Kevin McDonald and Eric Black.

An absolute shambles that eventually saw the end of Randy Lerner’s faltering ownership of the club. The club is now in much safer hands and seemingly established once again in the top flight.

Newcastle United

Like West Ham, Newcastle were promoted after the first Premier League season and have spent just two years outside of it since. And similar to Villa, Newcastle’s decline and relegations can solely be attributed to the reviled ownership of Mike Ashley.

The Magpies had challenged for the title and dined at European football’s top tables several times prior to the Sports Direct magnet’s purchase of the club in 2007 and subsequent negligent care of it.

In just his second season, the club fell into the Championship after a season of epically farcical proportions. Kevin Keegan was sacked after a fall-out, Joe Kinnear briefly took charge before health issues forced him to step down and Alan Shearer in his sole managerial gig couldn’t save his beloved club like he had so many times as a player. Chris Hughton also had two caretaker stints.

Following a brief uplift under Alan Pardew and with Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba, the Toon Army once again saw their club slide into the abyss. Not even the late-season arrival of Rafael Benitez could prevent their second relegation in 2015/16 alongside the Villains.

Leeds United

It is debatable who the biggest club on this list with Villa having the claim to the sole European Cup amongst the five and Blackburn the only champion of the Premier League (Leeds did win the final Division One in 1991/92). However, their declines were more sustained. Leeds’ came quickly and hard, and again mismanagement was to blame.

Financial to be precise with chairman Peter Ridsdale’s frivolous spending wagered on consistent Champions League qualification a recipe for disaster. David O’Leary’s young side had briefly threatened United and Arsenal’s duopoly of the league, even making a Champions League semi-final in 2000/01.

While Ridsdale later claimed “we lived the dream”, the Elland Road club would soon be stuck in a never-ending nightmare. A fifth-place finish in 2001/02 saw top players like Rio Ferdinand, Jonathan Woodgate and Robbie Keane sold in a fire-sale of epic proportions.

Survival just about came the following season but 2003/04 saw the club hurtling toward the Championship at a rate of knots. The side still had Alan Smith, Mark Viduka and Paul Robinson amongst others, as well as a young James Milner and Aaron Lennon, but the club had been engulfed in a crisis too deep to control.

Relegation came and the club spent the following 16 years in the purgatory of the Championship and even League One at a point. The lean years have made their current status in the top flight all the more precious, if not also precarious.

As seen in some of these horror stories, no club is too big down to go down from the Premier League. Today’s clubs would do well to heed this warning in the coming months.

An honourable mention must also go to Bryan Robson’s Middlesbrough side of 1996/97, who despite having Juninho and Fabrizio Ravanelli, suffered relegation having been cruelly docked three points for being unable to fulfil a fixture with Blackburn Rovers. They also lost both domestic cup finals in one of the most heart-breaking seasons ever.

Manchester United’s in 1974, coming just six years after winning the European Cup.