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PICS: The quality in these relegated teams would make your eyes water

It's not a cliché if it's actually true and in the case of "being too good to go down", th...



PICS: The quality in these rel...
Soccer

PICS: The quality in these relegated teams would make your eyes water

It's not a cliché if it's actually true and in the case of "being too good to go down", that is certainly the case.

Over the years, many teams which on paper appeared unrelegatable (not an actual word) have endured demotion for one reason or another.

On this week's Team 33, we told the story of four clubs who defied their own talents to experience the drop down to a lower division.

One of those was Juventus 2006, who went down on a technicality, in the sense that they got caught up in a match-fixing scandal rather than poor results on the pitch.

But between Joe, Adrian, Dan and I we did discuss the stories of three other clubs: Fiorentina 1992/93, West Ham 2003/04 and Real Zaragoza 2007/08.

Listen in via the final part of the podcast player or also on iTunes:

 

Real Zaragoza 07/08

Chosen by Adrian Collins, the La Liga side had Inter's 2010 Champions League final goalscorer Diego Milito up front, one of Lionel Messi's heroes in Pablo Aimar and ex-Argentina and Valencia defensive rock Roberto Ayala.

 

 

West Ham 02/03

Michael Carrick and Joe Cole both went on to win the Premier League with Manchester United and Chelsea respectively which says a lot. Also David James was an England squad member at the 2006 and 2010 which doesn't say a huge deal about the Three Lions' depth in that position in that post-David Seaman era.

 

Fiorentina 92/93

Any team with Argentina's record goalscorer Gabriel Batistuta in it should be too good to go down. 

Also (dis)honorable mentions should go to Atletico Madrid 1999/00, Sampdoria 2010/11 and Middlesbrough 1996-97 (which we discussed with then manager Bryan Robson last year) among others as clubs which could also fit the bill. 

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