Saw Nottingham Forest play recently and it made me wonder about other notable falls from top flight football. Forrest won the European Cup in 79 and 80 and played in the top flight on English football as recently as 1999 before starting their decent. Their relegation to League One in May 2005 made them the first European Cup winners ever to later play outside their country's top two divisions. (source <font color="#0000ff">wiki</font>.) I know there are lots of examples clubs that won their country's top division in the 20s and 30s who are now in the lower leagues but what about more recent plunges?
A good recent example in Italy would have to be Sampdoria. They won the Cup Winner's Cup in 1990. They won the Serie A title in 1991 and followed that up with a run to the finals of the European Cup in 1992. Where they lost 1-0 to Barcelona in extra time. In the 91/92 season in Italy, they finished 6th. The last time they ever finished well would be 3rd in '94. Finally they were relegated to Serie B in 1999 and they wouldn't return to Serie A until the 2003/2004 season. Sampdoria has been a mid-table club the last few season in Serie A, but they pretty much have no hope of winning the Scudetto with their current roster.
I was talking about this with a friend on another footy messageboard just this morning, here's his quote: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Probably the best i've ever experienced was Maine Road, in about 1996. We (Oxford) and Man City were both in the old first division (Now the Championship) and it was night game, the atmosphere was absolutely electric. Plus we won 3-2 in the 85th minute with a brilliant header from Matt Elliot, who went on to play for Leicester and Scotland. </div> Now Citeh are a lower-mid-table Premiership side and Oxford are in the Conference. What a difference ten years makes.
Although Liverpool has not fallen completely from grace and been relegated, they have suffered from Heysal and Hillsborough disasters. These two major footballing disasters have been pointed at the LFC fans (even though in both cases the fault was fully pointed at the club's fans rather than FA's and UEFA's incapability at ensuring the safety of the stadia). None the less, Liverpool last won the Premiership in 1990. A year after Hillsborough, since then they had fizzled as a team, becoming a mediocre side. Not to say that I did not have glory a few times over the decade and now sixteen years since the last time, but it has been rather spurious and at seldom. Benitez has brought them success but its not enough for the fans, of a team that was once a footballing superpower.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Dan:</div><div class="quote_post">A good recent example in Italy would have to be Sampdoria.</div>Probably better example in Italy is Napoli. Oh yeah and Juventus.
