Too good to go down? Ranking shock Premier League relegations

From financial mismanagement to scandals, awful decision-making to just dreadful form - across the footballing globe, big clubsdogo down.

Tottenham Hotspur, though, with a world-class arena, elite training centre, roll-away pitch and pints that fill up from the bottom, would surely be the Premier League's all-time shock relegation.

So with things getting dicey in north London, we're looking at the most surprising clubs to drop since the competition began in 1992.

Champions have tumbled, legends fallen, cup winners crumbled and ever-presents become also-rans - have your say and rank the clubs "too good to go down".

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Nottingham Forest1992-93 Position: 20 Points: 40
Brian Clough'sNottingham Foresthad been league champions and clinched back-to-back European Cups.

Even as the Premier League era began, they were perennial cup finalists – winning League Cups in 1989 and 1990.

And things started brightly in August 1992, Teddy Sheringham scoring the only goal as Forest beatLiverpoolduring Sky Sports' first Super Sunday broadcast.

Only Sheringham was then sold to Spurs - another big departure for Forest, who had already lost Des Walker to Sampdoria.

Forest's slump quickly set in and the impact of tenacious young Irish midfielder Roy Keane, named in the PFA Team of the Year, was not enough to stop Clough's imperious 18-year reign at the City Ground coming to an emotional end.

Wigan won the FA Cup and were relegated four days later
QPR - 2012-13 - Position: 20th.

Points: 25
Queens Park Rangers' demise was less nostalgia-tinged decline and more a combustible two-season spell fuelled by big reputations earning bigger bucks.

QPR narrowly survived their first term back in the Premier League, despite the drama-filled final-day "Aguerooo!" moment, and proceeded to hoover up veterans - Park Ji-Sung fromManchester United, Jose Bosingwa fromChelsea, ex-England internationals Rob Green and Jermaine Jenas.

They forked out for Esteban Granero from Real Madrid, Christopher Samba from Anzhi and Loic Remy from Marseille.

Even Brazil goalkeeper Julio Cesar swapped San Siro for Loftus Road.

Mark Hughes started the season, but Harry Redknapp was in the dugout come the end of a campaign in which QPR registered just four league wins.

Wigan 2012-13 - Position: 18.

Points 36
Wigan also went down that season, but did so as FA Cup winners.

Perhaps the quirkiest fortnight in football peaked for Roberto Martinez's side when Ben Watson flicked a 91st-minute header beyondManchester Citystopper Joe Hart to send Wigan fans wild at Wembley.

Four days later, the Latics were waving goodbye to an eight-year top-flight stint with an inevitable defeat atArsenal.

"I never, ever expected us to get relegated," sighed Martinez who, come Monday, joined the parade to celebrate their cup triumph, an open-top bus weaving through a sea of blue and white with a 'Believe in Wigan' banner strapped to the front.

Fabrizio Ravanelli joined Middlesbrough for £7m in summer 1996
Aston Villa2015-16 - Position: 20.

Points 17
Talking of FA Cup finals, it was gilet out, shirt and tie in as Tim Sherwood ledAston Villato Wembley in 2015, his tactics "bamboozling"Liverpoolen route before a heavy final defeat byArsenal.

Sherwood also steered Villa away from the drop but, shorn of influential stars Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph in the summer, was sacked after six successive defeats left them bottom in October.

Kevin Macdonald, briefly, Remi Garde and Eric Black all had a stab at getting a tune from the young prospects Villa reinvested in but, with ownership issues rumbling, the club - one of only seven Premier League ever-presents at the time - dropped out of the top flight for the first time since 1988.

Middlesbrough 1996-97 - Position: 19th.

Points 39
Silver hair shimmering in the Teesside sunshine, the sight of Fabrizio Ravanelli celebrating a debut hat-trick againstLiverpool- months after scoring in Juventus' Champions League triumph - had Middlesbrough fans dreaming.

Throw in Brazilian trio Juninho, Emerson and Branco, with Bryan Robson in the dugout, and the Riverside faithful felt they could win the lot.

They almost did an FA and League Cup double, losing both finals, but those dazzling runs could not be replicated in the league.

Ravanelli, reportedly the highest-paid man in the league, scored at almost the same rate he bemoaned the club's professionalism in the Italian press, suggesting Juventus coaches were having to fax him fitness plans.

Emerson went missing, his wife not very complimentary about Teesside.

But what effectively sent Middlesbrough down was the decision to not play against Blackburn because of an illness and injury crisis - the FA docked Boro three points, they finished two from survival.

Blackburn 1998-99 - Position: 19th.

Points 35
"They're down?

They needed a win tonight?

I thought they needed a point," confessed a shockedManchester Unitedboss Sir Alex Ferguson after a goalless draw with Blackburn, and his former assistant Brian Kidd, confirmed Rovers' relegation.

David Beckham said Blackburn didn't deserve it.

Kenny Dalglish reflected on a sad day.

Jack Walker, the man who bankrolled Rovers' Premier League title four years earlier, was tearful in the Ewood Park terraces.

Leicester 2022-23 - Position: 18th.

Points 34
Leicester City are the only other members of the undesirable 'Premier League champions to be relegated' club.

The Foxes just threw an FA Cup triumph in between for good measure.

Odds on the drop were not quite as high as Claudio Ranieri's boys dilly-donging their way to a miracle title seven years earlier - and major protagonists like N'Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez and Danny Drinkwater had long been picked off - but relegation was still a shock.

Leicester got off to an awful start and, despite momentary glimmers of hope, relegation was out of their hands come the final day.

Sean Dyche'sEvertonedgedBournemouthat Goodison, meaning even a win againstWest Hamwas not enough for James Maddison, Harvey Barnes, Jamie Vardy, Youri Tielemans and co.

Newcastle were relegated on the final day of the 2008-09 season at Villa Park
Newcastle2008-09 - Position: 18th Points: 34
In their hour of need,Newcastleturned to a hometown hero.

The man who'd given them so much, whose goals lit up the Gallowgate, whose iconic celebration would one day be immortalised in bronze outside St James' Park.

If anyone could save the Toon, sports store tycoon Mike Ashley reasoned, it was Alan Shearer.

But, with eight games to go, the task was too much.

Shearer wasNewcastle's fourth manager of a season that began with Kevin Keegan resigning over the club's summer transfer business.

Fan fury fixed on owner Ashley and executive director Dennis Wise.

Chris Hughton and then Joe Kinnear followed asNewcastle's handsomely paid stars tumbled towards the drop, the likes of Michael Owen, Alan Smith, Damien Duff, Fabricio Coloccini, Obafemi Martins and Joey Barton only managing to muster two wins after Christmas.

Leeds2003-04 - Position:19th Points: 33
On Saturday mornings in South Korea, you can tune in for a weekly dose of "LeedsEra Once Again", a TV show aimed at helping contestants rediscover their heyday.

It evolved from a popular Korean term,'Leeds Days',which - you may have guessed - has roots at Elland Road, particularly with Alan Smith, the bottle-blonde forward who never quite rediscovered his fledgling form after joiningManchester United.

Perhaps more pertinent is the footballing idiom 'doing aLeeds', which addresses the Whites' fall during that era from the dizzying heights of a Champions League semi-final to relegation three years later.

Overspending cost them dearly - making Rio Ferdinand the world's most expensive defender, splashing out on Robbie Keane, Mark Viduka, Robbie Fowler and others - and saw the club eventually spiral into League One.

Missing out on a return to Europe's elite competition sparked a fire-sale and come May 2004 the game was up, defeat atChelseaconfirming the 1992 champions' relegation, with the bottom three all finishing on the same points.

West Ham2002-03 - Position: 18th.

Points 42
Times were good at Upton Park.

Having finished seventh the previous season,Liverpoolboss Gerard Houllier tippedWest Hamto reach the Champions League and, despite selling Ferdinand toLeeds, they boasted a homegrown core after winning the FA Youth Cup in 1999.

Joe Cole, Jermain Defoe, Michael Carrick and Glen Johnson were complemented by enigmatic genius Paolo di Canio, and internationals Frederic Kanoute, David James, Trevor Sinclair, Tomas Repka and Christian Dailly.

Even as injuries, suspensions and Di Canio falling out with boss Glenn Roeder saw them trickle surprisingly into the drop zone, the consensus was this side were too good to go down.

The Hammers only lost one of their final 11 games - at Bolton - they took 25 points from their last 14 outings to reach 42 overall and finish 16 points above 19th-placed West Brom.

But that was two shy of Sam Allardyce's Wanderers.

West Hamwent down with the highest points total of any team to be relegated in a 38-game Premier League season.

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