Tottenham, be warned: These five clubs thought they were too big to go down

It is one among this season’s most compelling and surprising Premier League plot traces: the shock unravelling of Tottenham Hotspur.

After dropping to Sunderland, the north Londoners are within the relegation locations with six video games left and are nonetheless ready for his or her first league win of the calendar yr. The prospect of Tottenham dropping out of the highest flight for the primary time for the reason that Nineteen Seventies is starting to really feel actual.

Two-time champions of England, members of the home sport’s ‘Big Six’, reigning Europa League winners, with a £1.2billion ($1.6bn on the present fee) stadium and having made it to this season’s Champions League final 16 — Spurs going down to the Championship would be an almighty shock.

But they wouldn’t be the primary membership to undergo a beforehand unthinkable relegation from throughout Europe and past. The Athletic takes a have a look at five of essentially the most stunning demotions in soccer historical past.

Atletico Madrid, 1999-2000

Few, if any, clubs are literally too big to go down. Atletico, one among Spain’s largest and most storied groups, realised that in the beginning of this century as they dropped out of La Liga.

Wracked by monetary worries and a felony investigation, Atletico tumbled out of the Spanish high flight after 65 years on the conclusion of the 1999-2000 season when they completed second-bottom of the 20-team desk.

They began that season with ambition and a squad that includes worldwide stars resembling newly-signed Netherlands worldwide striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, prised away from Leeds United, Argentina’s Santiago Solari, and Spain midfielders Ruben Baraja and Juan Carlos Valeron. However, within the December, Atletico’s president Jesus Gil and his board were suspended pending an investigation into the misuse of membership funds, and the workforce’s type started to flounder.

Future Premier League-winning supervisor Claudio Ranieri was in cost, however by March, with Atletico in seventeenth place, he resigned. His substitute Radomir Antic was unable to steer them away from the underside three.

“It was an extremely bizarre year,” says Atletico fan and DAZN commentator Fran Guillen. “It began as a very promising project and it fell apart little by little, in a very agonising way, buried by the many non-sporting problems.”

Just 4 years beforehand, Atletico had gained a La Liga and Copa del Rey double. Their success even attracted the nice Italian coach Arrigo Sacchi to take his solely job exterior his homeland in summer time 1998 (although he lasted lower than a yr and left with them within the backside half of the league).

It made their sudden fall from grace much more bewildering.

“It was a season so full of paradoxes,” says Guillen. “Atletico ended up being relegated despite having Hasselbaink in their squad, who finished the competition with 24 goals (only one player in La Liga scored more). Nobody could expect an outcome like that. But it is extremely unfair to analyse that season only through the football. It was a perfect storm caused by what happened with Gil, and it ended up pushing the project to the abyss.

“Some of the players have since said that Atletico was a victim of what happened to Gil (who was also mayor of the Spanish resort city of Marbella at the time) and Kiko, who was one of the main leaders in the dressing room, said they didn’t talk about football during the whole year. It is impossible to compete in an environment like that.”

Atletico were relegated in 2000 regardless of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scoring 24 La Liga targets (Shaun Botterill/Allsport/Getty)

For many supporters, the setback finally introduced them nearer to their membership. “Once the initial shock was overcome, the fans became even more loyal,” says Guillen. “They sold a record number of season tickets for the first season in the second division. The worse the team was, the more the stands responded.”

Although Guillen says it’s arduous to discover many different positives from that interval, Atletico solely spent two seasons out of the highest flight. Returning membership icon Luis Aragones, who had gained La Liga with Atletico each as a participant and supervisor within the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies, led them to promotion in 2002, whereas additionally unleashing a future hero in teenage striker Fernando Torres.

River Plate, 2010-11

River Plate are, alongside fierce Buenos Aires rivals Boca Juniors, essentially the most profitable membership within the historical past of Argentine home soccer. So when they went down in 2011, it made headlines around the globe.

The sport that sealed their destiny, at River’s Monumental stadium, had to be deserted and gamers helped to get off the pitch as the group rioted with the house aspect 3-1 down on combination in a promotion/relegation play-off with a minute of the 90 to go. Police then battled to disperse rampaging supporters after the primary relegation within the membership’s then 110-year historical past. Dozens of individuals were reportedly injured.

Riot police confront followers angered by River Plate’s relegation (Alejandro Pagni/AFP by way of Getty Images)

“There’s a state of mourning,” Marcelo Roffe, president of the Argentine Association of Sports Psychology, told La Nacion that yr. “Because River Plate is the most successful Argentine club, and their established tradition makes it difficult for them to process the idea of ​​what’s about to happen.”

The newspaper even reported a spike in River Plate followers taking antidepressants and struggling relationship issues throughout that season. “Some face the situation, but many choose to shut themselves away, miss work, or not interact with their office colleagues,” Roffe additionally informed La Nacion.

In an interview with The Athletic in 2018, the membership’s then teenage defender Leandro Gonzalez Pirez recalled being a part of that doomed aspect. “You find yourself in a situation that you hadn’t dreamed about,” he stated. “I was forced to grow up quickly. There was a lot of pressure and tension.”

River Plate returned to the highest flight in 2012, ending high of the second-division desk, and were topped champions of Argentina two years later.

Leeds United, 2003-04

In England, Aston Villa and Newcastle United were main tales when they were relegated from the Premier League (Villa in 2016, Newcastle in 2009 and likewise in 2016). Both have since returned to the highest division and blossomed into clubs competing for main honours.

But one different present Premier League membership fell more durable and sooner.

Leeds were a conventional powerhouse of the English sport and within the early 2000s appeared to be on the up as soon as once more. They completed third within the 1999-00 Premier League and fourth in 2000-01, whereas additionally reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League within the latter season. The following yr, they completed fifth within the high flight.

But then all of it fell to items.

It began with relegation in 2004 for a squad that appeared to have far too a lot expertise to go down, together with Paul Robinson, Alan Smith, Mark Viduka, Jermaine Pennant, Ian Harte and a younger James Milner. Manager Peter Reid left within the November, and substitute Eddie Gray couldn’t maintain them up.

Goalkeeper Paul Robinson is dejected in a defeat as Leeds are relegated (Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Three years later, Leeds dropped into League One (the English third tier) after being docked 10 factors for going into administration. That deduction meant the Yorkshire membership completed backside of the 24-team Championship. A legacy of spending past their means had bitten arduous, and they spent three seasons within the third division earlier than profitable promotion in 2010. Leeds returned to the Premier League in 2020, bought relegated once more in 2023 however got here again up for the present marketing campaign.

‘They are an important membership,” wrote The Athletic’s Leeds correspondent Phil Hay in 2024, “a famous club who didn’t so much fall on hard times as get skewered by them.”

Manchester City, 1995-96 and 1997-98

If it’s arduous to think about a aspect as big as Leeds sinking so low, then what of a clubwho have gained eight Premier League titles since 2012?

Huge funding from Abu Dhabi and supervisor Pep Guardiola’s brilliance have reworked Manchester City into one among Europe’s main gamers, however in 1998 they suffered the ignominy of dropping to the home third tier nearly a decade earlier than it occurred to Leeds.

Relegated from the Premier League in 1996, City spent two years within the second tier earlier than going down once more to what’s now League One in 1998.

Then owned by a consortium of British businessmen, together with their former participant Francis Lee, City were removed from the massively rich membership they would change into, besides, they had anticipated to go again up that season as champions of the First Division — at present’s Championship.

“I arrived in the belief we would win the First Division and go straight back to the Premier League,“ says Gerard Wiekens, a Dutch midfielder signed in summer 1997. “It didn’t work out like that.

“Of course, this was before the huge wealth came, but City were still a big club. We had a big fanbase and the expectation was we would not long be out of the top flight.”

Wiekens recollects a squad that was ill-suited to the problem of a second-tier relegation battle.

“We had Georgi Kinkladze (their Georgian playmaker), who was a wonderful, skilful player, and we had bought (striker) Lee Bradbury from Portsmouth for a club-record £3million ($4m at the current rate). We all thought we would be fine at first, but we lost a lot of games and suddenly were in a relegation battle. Georgi had done really well in the Premier League but he didn’t play as much (in the First Division) because we suddenly needed different qualities, like fight and graft over flair.”

By the ultimate day of that 1997-98 season, they had to beat Stoke City away and hope different outcomes went of their favour. Wiekens and firm gained 5-2, however fellow relegation candidates Port Vale and Portsmouth additionally took three factors on their travels, condemning City to an unprecedented low.

Manchester City followers dejected by relegation to the third tier (Alex Livesey/Allsport/Getty)

“I don’t remember what I did that night, probably cried,“ says Wiekens, who experienced three promotions and two relegations during his five seasons at City.

“My advice to Tottenham fans would be to support the team. Try not to become too negative, because even though it is understandable, it makes things worse. The Tottenham players are probably good enough to stay there (in the Premier League) but when you are in that position, and it’s unexpected, it is difficult.”

Schalke, 2020-21

Schalke have certified for the Champions League eight instances this century, and reached its semi-finals in 2011. They have 200,000 club members, the third-most in Germany and the sixth-highest quantity in world soccer. But within the 2020-21 season, ravaged financially by the Covid-19 pandemic and a succession of managerial modifications, they were relegated to the two.Bundesliga.

“When I speak to other fans about the relegation sometimes, we’re still not quite sure how it happened,” says Niklas Heising, a Schalke supporter who’s a journalist for main German newspaper Bild. “It caught us by surprise.”

The Gelsenkirchen-based aspect burned by way of five managers in that 2020-21 marketing campaign, earlier than finally ending backside of the 18-team Bundesliga.

Their ill-fated marketing campaign started with an 8-0 defeat at Bayern Munich and worries over ailing funds.

“Gelsenkirchen is one of the poorest regions in Germany, with areas of low employment. The club means so much to the area,” says Heising. “Covid was a tough time for everyone, all clubs and businesses, but it was particularly bad timing for Schalke.

“I remember when relegation was confirmed by a 1-0 defeat at Arminia Bielefeld (in the April). I was at home, isolating alone and watching it on the TV. I didn’t cry — I think I was in shock. It was miserable.”

Devastated Schalke gamers after they were relegated from the 2020-21 Bundesliga (Ronny Hartmann/AFP by way of Getty Images)

By the ultimate sport of the season, a 1-0 loss at Koln, the disaster had change into nearly existential. “I texted a friend saying that may be the last game we ever watch,” he says. “It really wasn’t certain the club would survive the pandemic at that stage.”

Following that Bielefeld defeat, the gamers had returned by coach to their Veltins-Arena stadium to meet with 500 followers. The occasion didn’t go nicely.

Angry supporters pelted them with eggs and chased them across the stadium earlier than police arrived. German web site Sport 1 quoted an unnamed Schalke player as saying: “The fans attacked us. We just ran. It was fear, pure fear. I was just running. Some of us got kicked and punched.”

Schalke bounced straight again as champions however were relegated once more a yr later. They are presently high of the two.Bundesliga with eight video games to go and hopeful of a return to the highest flight.

It might have gotten tense, even poisonous, on the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this season, however latest historical past from the River Plate to the Rhine suggests issues can at all times worsen.

“You might think, or even know, it’s going to happen,” says Heising of relegation, “but nothing prepares you for the shock when it does.”