Could Spurs go down? The most shocking relegations from Europe’s top five leagues | OneFootball

Tottenham are in trouble right now with the North Londoners sinking to a new low this weekend.

Ange Postecoglou’s side have lost four straight Premier League games, including back-to-back losses to struggling Everton and Leicester City. The latter saw Spurs surrender a lead to lose to a Leicester side on a seven-game losing run heading into the contest.

It leaves Spurs just seven points above the drop zone and staring at a potential scrap for safety. Should Spurs drop into the Championship, it would surely be the biggest shock relegation Europe’s top five leagues has seen in the 21st century.

That’s not to say there haven’t been big surprises before…

The most shocking relegations in Europe’s top five leagues this century.

West Ham – 2002/03

The phrase too good to go down is often uttered in the Premier League and was a tag West Ham were labelled with in 2002/03. West Ham had finished seventh the previous season and boasted a squad stacked with talent.

Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Trevor Sinclair, Lee Bowyer, David James and Jermain Defoe were all current or future England internationals, while Paolo Di Canio and Frederic Kanoute provided real firepower.

The Hammers, however, were less than the sum of their individual parts. A run of 14 games without a win between October and January left the East Londoners in trouble and a mini-revival under caretaker manager Trevor Brooking came too late. West Ham went down despite winning 42 points, the highest a Premier League side has earned and still gone down.

Sampdoria – 2010/11

Sampdoria were not quite the heavyweights who won Serie A and reached a European Cup final in the early nineties, but relegation two decades later was still a seismic shock.

Il Doria had dropped out of Italy’s top tier in 1998/99 but returned in 2003/04 and consolidated back in Serie A. The following seven seasons saw Sampdoria never finish lower than 13th and in the top half on five occasions.

A season before their 2010/11 relegation, the club secured a fourth-placed finish and a place in the Champions League qualifiers. However, a dramatic decline saw them slump into Serie B, winning just three times in the league after the turn of the new year.

Deportivo La Coruna – 2010/11

There was something in the water in 2010/11.

Deportivo La Coruna brought in the 21st century as Spanish champions, as the club’s famous ‘Super Depor’ side won La Liga for the first time in 2000. The following seasons saw Depor compete in the business end of the Champions League, reaching two quarter-finals and the last four in 2003/04.

Just seven seasons after being a whisker from the Champions League final, Deportivo were relegated to the Segunda Division. A gradual decline caught up with the club, who slipped out of La Liga on the final weekend.

Villarreal – 2011/12

It’s not often a team that competes in the Champions League and is relegated in the same season. But that’s exactly what happened to Villarreal in 2011/12.

The Yellow Submarine had finished fourth in La Liga the previous team, earning their place in Europe’s elite. Though key figures in Santi Cazorla and Joan Capdevila were sold in the summer, a talented squad still contained the likes of Marcos Senna, Mateo Mussachio and Giuseppe Rossi.

The latter had scored 32 goals in all competitions the previous year but mustered just five in an injury-hit 2011/12 season. He was not the only big name who faltered, as Villarreal ended the campaign 18th in the table to drop into the second tier. An 88th-minute winner from Atletico Madrid’s Radamel Falcao condemned them to the drop on the final day.

Leicester City – 2022/23

Tottenham should take caution from Leicester City’s 2022/23 vintage.

The Foxes had exactly the same points as Spurs after 23 games (24) and were widely considered too good to go down. This was a team that had shocked football to win the Premier League in 2016 and won a maiden FA Cup in 2021. Leicester, it proved, were not too good at all.

Two wins from their final 15 games saw Leicester sink into the second tier.

Read – The lowest-scoring teams in Premier League history

See more – 30 of the most iconic football photos ever taken: Pele, Maradona, and Pickles the dog

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