Famous players/best teams that got relegated

Discussion in 'The Beautiful Game' started by schwuppe, Jan 29, 2019.

  1. schwuppe

    schwuppe Member+

    Sep 17, 2009
    Club:
    FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
    Let's exclude teams that got relegated due to non-sporting reasons like Juventus 05/06.

    I'm looking for cases were seemingly strong teams and/or teams with well known players got relegated.
    Examples could satisfy both criteria or only one, just post everything that might be interesting.

    Fiorentina had some amazing players in 1992/93 when they got relegated. Brian Laudrup, Dunga, Batistuta and Effenberg.

    Kaiserslautern's finishes in the mid 90s look really odd. 2nd in 93/94, 4th in 94/95, got relegated in 95/96, but won the DFB-Cup that season. Got promoted immediately and won the Bundesliga in 1997/98.

    Manchester City got relegated in 37/38 after winning the league in 36/37. Not sure how their squad changed. There was just a lot of parity at that time, City were 4 points from finishing 12th out of 22 teams and had a positive GD. The most remarkable stat however is that they finished 1st in goal scored!

    Nürnberg is another team that got relegated (68/69) after winning the title (67/68). Just like in City's case the bottom half of the table was really close together.

    Atletico Madrid in 1999/00 had a lot of familiar names. Hasselbaink, Molina, Carlos Gamarra, Baraja, Solari, Valeron, Capdevila, Kiko....

    Another squad with famous players who got relegated (which should be well known though) is Man United in 1972/73.
     
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  2. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel Member+

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
    Nice thread.

    One thing I know about this is Hasselbaink (& Catanha of Malaga) was almost topscorer of the league, only beaten by a guy (Salva) who had 11 penalty goals in the league.... while getting relegated.
     
  3. Ariaga II

    Ariaga II Member

    Dec 8, 2018
    You ruined your own thread by already naming all the choices. Leave something to the rest of us. :D

    Leeds in the early 00s and Newcastle a bit later?
     
  4. unclesox

    unclesox BigSoccer Supporter

    Mar 8, 2003
    209, California
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    River Plate 2011 although the only player I can remember is Matías Almeyda who was in his mid-30s.
     
  5. Kevin Woo

    Kevin Woo New Member

    Real Madrid
    United States
    Jan 29, 2019
    Didn't know about the man city stat. Very interesting
     
  6. peterhrt

    peterhrt Member+

    Oct 21, 2015
    Club:
    Leeds United AFC
  7. schwuppe

    schwuppe Member+

    Sep 17, 2009
    Club:
    FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
    Good call. Lost Rio, Woodgate... but they still had some decent players at that point.

    TIL James Milner played for Leeds
     
  8. schwuppe

    schwuppe Member+

    Sep 17, 2009
    Club:
    FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
  9. schwuppe

    schwuppe Member+

    Sep 17, 2009
    Club:
    FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
    Almeyda also got relegated with Sevilla in 96/97, Salva was on that team too. So were Prosinecki and Bebeto.
     
  10. PDG1978

    PDG1978 Member+

    Mar 8, 2009
    Club:
    Nottingham Forest FC
    Roy Keane got relegated with Forest of course. As did John Robertson actually.

    In the case of Keane, the Forest team of the previous few seasons would IMO be a good candidate as among the 'best teams' it happened to, but although the build-up play stayed similar, losing Des Walker the best defender, and Teddy Sheringham the top goalscorer (who was already becoming an excellent link player too) changed things! They were still among the teams (West Ham a few seasons earlier comes to mind too) deemed 'too good to go down' until they actually did though.

    I don't think it was a similar situation for Robertson and team-mates, and at that stage he was a central midfield player not the left winger now deemed the club's best ever player who assisted one EC winning goal and scored another. The club had finished runners-up 5 years earlier, but that was before Robertson's time at the club started of course.

    Stuart Pearce was in the same team as Keane (as was for example Nigel Clough, the manager's son) and tends to challenge Robertson the most when it comes to 'best player' polls among fans.
     
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  11. PDG1978

    PDG1978 Member+

    Mar 8, 2009
    Club:
    Nottingham Forest FC
    I feel like lanman might have set us some relevant criteria in one of the Sheep Draft rounds regarding this actually. I can't even think which Sheep Draft it would have been right now though.

    George Best at Manchester United will probably be the ultimate example I guess anyway? Although he hadn't played since New Years Day according to Wikipedia:
    "Best's last competitive game for the club was on 1 January 1974 against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road, which United lost 3–0.[63] He failed to turn up for training three days later and was dropped by Docherty, though he claimed Docherty was deceitful with him.[64] Best was arrested and charged with stealing a fur coat, passport, and cheque book from Marjorie Wallace, but was later cleared of all charges.[65] United went on to suffer relegation into the Second Division in 1973–74. "
     
  12. schwuppe

    schwuppe Member+

    Sep 17, 2009
    Club:
    FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
    Tom Finney is another great player who got relegated. Even played 2 seasons in the 2nd division.
     
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  13. PDG1978

    PDG1978 Member+

    Mar 8, 2009
    Club:
    Nottingham Forest FC
    Another one who didn't play the whole season I think too wasn't he (due to injury, not accusations of theft etc etc in his case)....and if lanman did set us criteria along these lines it could well be I picked him in a Sheep Draft team using them!
     
  14. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel Member+

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
  15. schwuppe

    schwuppe Member+

    Sep 17, 2009
    Club:
    FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
    Correction Fiorentina 92/93:
    Looks like Dunga didn't actually play that season, despite being listed on wikipedia.

    Batistuta, Laudrup, Effenberg however played pretty much every games, all of them were also in their mid 20s at the time.

    Fiorentina finished 5th in goals scored. Can't imagine how frustrating that season was....
     
  16. schwuppe

    schwuppe Member+

    Sep 17, 2009
    Club:
    FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
    I remember them being known for buying every washed up semi-star player in sight. Still looks too much quality to get relegated for sure.
     
  17. PDG1978

    PDG1978 Member+

    Mar 8, 2009
    Club:
    Nottingham Forest FC
    The mention of QPR brought Rodney Marsh to mind, not as a top tier name but as a semi-famous one at least.

    1992/93 seems like a 'season of death' for famous players in terms of relegations as there was Gheorghe Hagi with Brescia too, also from Serie A. 1993/94 saw Brescia (with Hagi, although he went to Barcelona after the World Cup rather than playing in Serie A again), Fiorentina and Forest all get promoted straight back up again though.

    I think at least there was a round in one of cr7torossi's Premier League/CL era drafts relating to Premier League, or maybe global, relegations. But I still think maybe something like it in one of lanman's drafts too, with a decent amount of notable names selected or banned.
     
  18. comme

    comme Moderator
    Staff Member

    Feb 21, 2003
    Stoke last season must have been somewhere close to that.
     
  19. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel Member+

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
    Yes, 692 caps although this includes more caps from the less competitive countries as Scotland, Wales, Senegal, Egypt, United States, Greece, Cameroon, Switzerland (??) that add up to 300+ caps or so.

    Also more guys than QPR who are still in the middle of their career so the number will increase.
     
  20. annoyedbyneedoflogin

    Juventus Football Clube Ajax Mineiro de Deportes
    Jun 11, 2012
    Everton 1930 relegated with Dixie Dean. However they were champs in 28 and 32.
     
  21. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    In 1937-1938, Derby County and Leicester City tied for the worst GD at -21, which was exactly -0.5 per game. They were 13th and 16th of 22. Derby County was ahead of Everton, who was +4, and both -21 clubs were ahead of Manchester City, who was +3. These days I don't think a club could ever have the worst GD and more points than a club with a positive GD.
     
  22. Excape Goat

    Excape Goat Member+

    Mar 18, 1999
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    Real Zaragoza finished 6th in the 2006/2007 season. Diego Milito finished 3rd in the European Golden Shoe. They also had Aimar, Gabriel Milito, Pique, and D'Alessandro. It was a very good team. Their 6th place finish was not justified.

    The following seaosn, they lost lost Gabriel Milito and Pique, but they signed Ricardo Oliveira and Roberto Ayala. They still had Diego Milito and Aimar. Oh well, they went down.
     
  23. Xylophone

    Xylophone Member

    Fiorentina
    Jan 30, 2018
    Villarreal in the 11/12 season had some good players: Mateo Musacchio, Carlos Marchena, Marcos Senna, Bruno Soriano, Nilmar, Julian de Guzmán, Gonzalo Rodríguez, Cristián Zapata, Borja Valero...

    Fiorentina ended up buying three of them in the next season. :D
     
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  24. schwuppe

    schwuppe Member+

    Sep 17, 2009
    Club:
    FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih
    Pique played for Zaragoza :eek:
     
  25. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel Member+

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
    Pique was even possible man of the match against his former and later club ;)

    [​IMG]

    Received as only player on the field an 8 by Don Balon. Barcelona was #1 in the table at the time.
     

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