Could we get actually get relegated again this season?

[AKCJ]

3 hours ago, Ashley said:

4 years ago I and many others were ready for PSV away partying in that square. 

 

Now look at us 😂😂

Yesterday I was going through old videos on my camera roll and came across the celebrations as we had gone 2-0 up against Napoli in the Europa League.

IIRC we were joint favourites and that goal was a proper statement until Osimhen walked all over us to bring them back into it.

 

Downhill since then  

[Ashley]

14 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

Yesterday I was going through old videos on my camera roll and came across the celebrations as we had gone 2-0 up against Napoli in the Europa League.

IIRC we were joint favourites and that goal was a proper statement until Osimhen walked all over us to bring them back into it.

 

Downhill since then  

Mate, 

 

I can remember going home and saying to my dad, how do I tell my lad these times wont last forever 🤯🤯

 

 

[LCFCJohn]

46 minutes ago, teblin said:

Not sure if I ever voiced it on here, but I live on Derbyshire/staffs border and have Derby and stoke fans as friends and said early we could go down, they thought I was mad.

I feel I somehow managed to be one of the biggest critics of this team/ownership and yet still manage to underestimate the levels of shit we will stoop to. Even when I think I am just being negative, somehow in hindsight that negative outlook was actually overly positive!

 

October 2021, similar to you, didn’t voice on here (I was just a reader of the forum then and didn’t join and start contributing until after), I said to a Newcastle supporting mate we would be relegated inside 3 years and he laughed. I know it was then as their takeover had happened and it was before they appointed Howe. I was saying to him I hoped they took Rodgers off us as I could see he was falling apart. Anyway, I said 3 years and we managed it inside 18 months, the following season!

 

In this thread, I said I thought we would be relegated in the coming years and we entering a 2004-2008 type circling the drain time again and yet we have outdone ourselves and managed it in one season (let’s be honest, barring a major major shock turnaround, we are gone).

 

So when @Finnegan(I forgot to reply but did see the comment back to me yesterday sorry) says I was being melodramatic saying we will not play PL football again under this ownership, I really don’t think I am! As my what seem like negative or over dramatic predictions have ended up coming true even sooner 

 

 

[Finnegan]

1 hour ago, LCFCJohn said:

I feel I somehow managed to be one of the biggest critics of this team/ownership and yet still manage to underestimate the levels of shit we will stoop to. Even when I think I am just being negative, somehow in hindsight that negative outlook was actually overly positive!

 

October 2021, similar to you, didn’t voice on here (I was just a reader of the forum then and didn’t join and start contributing until after), I said to a Newcastle supporting mate we would be relegated inside 3 years and he laughed. I know it was then as their takeover had happened and it was before they appointed Howe. I was saying to him I hoped they took Rodgers off us as I could see he was falling apart. Anyway, I said 3 years and we managed it inside 18 months, the following season!

 

In this thread, I said I thought we would be relegated in the coming years and we entering a 2004-2008 type circling the drain time again and yet we have outdone ourselves and managed it in one season (let’s be honest, barring a major major shock turnaround, we are gone).

 

So when @Finnegan(I forgot to reply but did see the comment back to me yesterday sorry) says I was being melodramatic saying we will not play PL football again under this ownership, I really don’t think I am! As my what seem like negative or over dramatic predictions have ended up coming true even sooner 

 

 

 

It's certainly possible I just think the idea of claiming anything definitive is a bit extreme. 

 

It doesn't take an enormous amount to get promoted from this league. 

 

[LCFCJohn]

20 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

It's certainly possible I just think the idea of claiming anything definitive is a bit extreme. 

 

It doesn't take an enormous amount to get promoted from this league. 

 

I think saying ‘we will never ever get promoted to the PL again’ would of course be daft.

 

My point was more I cannot see any scenario where this ownership turns things around now to make us a serious football club again. 
 

If we were to pull a couple of results out the bag and stumble over the line and stay up, look at the league next season;

 

Burnley - always a force in this league

Wolves - done what we should have. Accepted they were going to come down and built some momentum according under the new manager.

 

West Ham/Spurs - either of these should have the resources to dominate.

 

Plus other sides who miss out this year. Norwich will be strong. Sheffield United likely stronger although they have trailed off again. We would be nowhere near that end of the league.

 

I wouldn’t put timeframes on it as it does depend on the ownership situation. I think 12 is the longest we have spent outside the top flight for consecutive seasons (post WW1 anyway). Right now, I would say we are at the start of a period in which we will look back on as our new record longest run outside. But KP/Aiyawatt could sell next a year and we could as easily have a Sunderland type revival if the new owner was clued up. My only personal certainty is it won’t happen again under this ownership. I understand others will disagree.

[The Year Of The Fox]

46 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

It's certainly possible I just think the idea of claiming anything definitive is a bit extreme. 

 

It doesn't take an enormous amount to get promoted from this league. 

 

What about when you claimed that playing the ball out from the back starting with the Keeper categorically doesn’t lead to more goals being conceded? 

[bovril]

7 hours ago, AKCJ said:

Yesterday I was going through old videos on my camera roll and came across the celebrations as we had gone 2-0 up against Napoli in the Europa League.

IIRC we were joint favourites and that goal was a proper statement until Osimhen walked all over us to bring them back into it.

 

Downhill since then  

[Jon the Hat]

On 21/08/2025 at 11:35, Jon the Hat said:

We are not going up, but I have confidence that the bottom of this league is so appallingly bad that worst case sees us lower mid table.

@JonnyBoy who knew we could indeed be the appallingly bad? 

[indierich06]

I think we probably could get relegated. 

[Bevan]

Just bumping this as I can’t genuinely believe I called it and we went down 

[LCFCJohn]

More to the point, we have to ask the same question of next season. It seems inconceivable that we could but what we know is that there is no floor at all in how far we can fall under this ownership.

 

I see a lot of other fans assuming we will win the league (plenty saying we will struggle too). But the rot has set in. You don’t go from winning 18 games in 84 across the last 2 seasons and suddenly flip to being able to win 30 or however many this coming season. Not without wholesale change which we know we aren’t getting.

 

So I’m personally resigned to another season of struggle. Will that mean relegation? Maybe not. It might look like mid table but that’s the best I can see us doing. But you’d be a fool not to consider relegation again a real possibility. More likely than promotion anyway.

Edited 27 May by LCFCJohn

[ian__marshall]

1 hour ago, LCFCJohn said:

More to the point, we have to ask the same question of next season. It seems inconceivable that we could but what we know is that there is no floor at all in how far we can fall under this ownership.

 

I see a lot of other fans assuming we will win the league (plenty saying we will struggle too). But the rot has set in. You don’t go from winning 18 games in 84 across the last 2 seasons and suddenly flip to being able to win 30 or however many this coming season. Not without wholesale change which we know we aren’t getting.

 

So I’m personally resigned to another season of struggle. Will that mean relegation? Maybe not. It might look like mid table but that’s the best I can see us doing. But you’d be a fool not to consider relegation again a real possibility. More likely than promotion anyway.

I think without major change there's a real possibility we do go down again. We need a manager in ASAP who can prepare the players for the season ahead. We also need a complete overhaul of the fitness team. Technically we'll be miles ahead in League 1 but there is a jump in opposition desire and work rate as the lesser technical players in that league compensate for their deficiencies. Add in the fact that we'll be seen as the Man City of league and a major scalp for every opponent and every team we come up against will put run faster and harder just so they can say they once defeated a club that won the PL. Sadly with the lack of communications and even rumours coming out of the club I can very well see a repeat of last year. 

[Edingleyfox]

Of course we can go down. 31 goals were scored in total by James Fatawu Daka and Ayew and they will be gone I know the front men weren’t great. The 2 strikers City brought in on loan last season barely played and didn’t score so will be same hierarchy suddenly deliver this season? 

[Nalis]

I thought this thread was about next season until I saw the date of the thread.

 

I dont think we'll go down this season but the odds are probably shorter now for relegation to League 2 than they were this time last year for relegation to League 1, so it is possible.

[Finnegan]

On 07/04/2026 at 13:43, AKCJ said:

Yesterday I was going through old videos on my camera roll and came across the celebrations as we had gone 2-0 up against Napoli in the Europa League.

IIRC we were joint favourites and that goal was a proper statement until Osimhen walked all over us to bring them back into it.

 

Downhill since then  

 

The collapse in that game was Brendan Rodgers in an absolute nutshell. 

 

Still have PTSD thinking of that Spurs game. 

 

[LCFCJohn]

3 hours ago, ian__marshall said:

I think without major change there's a real possibility we do go down again. We need a manager in ASAP who can prepare the players for the season ahead. We also need a complete overhaul of the fitness team. Technically we'll be miles ahead in League 1 but there is a jump in opposition desire and work rate as the lesser technical players in that league compensate for their deficiencies. Add in the fact that we'll be seen as the Man City of league and a major scalp for every opponent and every team we come up against will put run faster and harder just so they can say they once defeated a club that won the PL. Sadly with the lack of communications and even rumours coming out of the club I can very well see a repeat of last year. 

Agreed.

 

And how many ‘big’ clubs do get bogged down in L1. Quite a few despite many who do go back up. But L1 is much more friendly to clubs who are well run and smart. It’s not a league you can really throw money at. 
 

I just get the impression the same people who said ‘we’ll be fine’ in 2023, were the same who said we’d not go down this season and no doubt will not learn anything from now two such examples and will be shocked when we struggle again. Unfortunately one of these people is our owner….

[Manwell Pablo]

The first few pages of this thread are a great read 😂

[Haywood_6]

There's no limit to how far we can fall under this leadership. They're asleep at the wheel. More than a year in L1 and the club is almost definitely going to run out of money

 

[filbertway]

Not sure if it was because of the horrific performance vs a knackered and weak Wednesday side but I was expecting a lot more people to be laughing off the suggestion in early August 

 

If we didn't lose JJ for basically the final 3rd of the season, I'm fairly confident we wouldn't have gone down, we only got 4 starts out of him in the last 18 games.

 

[LCFCJohn]

1 hour ago, filbertway said:

Not sure if it was because of the horrific performance vs a knackered and weak Wednesday side but I was expecting a lot more people to be laughing off the suggestion in early August 

 

If we didn't lose JJ for basically the final 3rd of the season, I'm fairly confident we wouldn't have gone down, we only got 4 starts out of him in the last 18 games.

 

This is true about JJ and I also think had we kept him fit, the outcome could have been different.

 

But to be so reliant on one player, and carrying so many passengers is evidence of remarkable incompetence in terms of squad building (not something that is new information of course). Whilst even the best clubs can suffer from injuries, the well run clubs you notice it less as they have someone to step in. And that’s not even factoring in the fitness and sports science side that we could reduce the likelihood of injuries if the first place had we not ripped up what Pearson and his team implemented over the years.

[filbertway]

Just now, LCFCJohn said:

This is true about JJ and I also think had we kept him fit, the outcome could have been different.

 

But to be so reliant on one player, and carrying so many passengers is evidence of remarkable incompetence in terms of squad building (not something that is new information of course). Whilst even the best clubs can suffer from injuries, the well run clubs you notice it less as they have someone to step in. And that’s not even factoring in the fitness and sports science side that we could reduce the likelihood of injuries if the first place had we not ripped up what Pearson and his team implemented over the years.

Yep. Replacing Bilal with Aaron Ramsey was another master stroke by recruitment/Rudkin.

[Fox96]

For a second there I thought this was a new thread about next year. Decent chance of it too unless there are major changes coming

[oldbluefox]

We are going to need to be much fitter if we are to survive in this league. I have been appalled over the past few seasons by how many of our players just are not fit for the full 90 minutes. There has been a dramatic turnaround in Tielemanns since he went to Villa. For the first few months he didn't play, presumably because the larda**e was not fit enough. To my eyes the whole setup at City is rotten to the core and it is little wonder we have been relegated. How can you go 3-0 up against a team which finished winning it 4-3 with 10 men!!! An absolute disgrace.

[Jabbaranks]

Believe it or not, we're clear 3/1 favourites to win League One. Oh to be a bookie!!

[Lambert09]

I think last season just proved that if we continue to operate the same way, we will continue to fall down the leagues