With the relegation of all newly promoted horses for the fourth time in the history of the Premier League, the three teams at the bottom of the list that finally failed to change their rankings on the closing day constitute the most luxurious relegation team since the establishment of the Premier League.
Leicester may be the first time for young fans to witness the collapse of relegation after winning the championship. Leeds United, the last champion of the League One, went all the way. In addition, Southampton, who has played in the Premier League for 18 years, has turned the "BIG6" upside down. Cruel and broke through the fans' expectations.
However, although the three teams with profound background and distinctive characteristics were relegated, although they each had their own reasons, they all made a series of mistakes in team building and transfer, coach change, and personnel use. In fact, they had already planted the seeds of anxiety by themselves.
Southampton
As one of the 22 founding teams in the first year of the Premier League, he has played in the Premier League for 13 consecutive seasons. Southampton's relegation will obviously be the first blame on the investors.
The relegation battle has not yet begun, Serbian telecom tycoon Sorak and his holding "Sports Republic" have already set the goal of allowing the team to be relegated and then rebuilt in the secondary league. Even with the protection of the relegation umbrella, the share of staying in the Premier League Is it bad?
With the 15th place in the Premier League for two consecutive seasons, Southampton's tradition of producing both good players and good coaches seems to give them reasons for blind optimism.
The team injected 180 million pounds, which can be regarded as an embarrassing team in the middle and lower reaches, and has no reservations in the football market. Not counting the loan return, the team signed as many as 13 players and used 32 players throughout the season. Second to the same "reconstruction" of Nottingham Forest, the intensity is unprecedented. According to the wishes of the investors, as long as a few of them perform well, in a year or two, will they be the next Van Dijk or Mane?
However, Southampton obviously underestimated the adaptation period of the new aid, and even underestimated the value of many old players. In the summer window, the team sent away Redmond, who had a gap with Hasenhuttl, and Romeu, another midfielder, also left the team. As a result, the whole team only relied on Ward-Prowse, who set a new high in personal goals, and Orsic and Onuachu, who were already well-known, joined the team. It has become an extravagant hope. Many newcomers who arrived in the two transfer windows are bound to be sent away again at the end of the season, but it is self-evident whether their value will rise or fall.
As a team that changed coaches three times in the same season as Chelsea, after Hassenshter was fired, the board of directors chose to replace him with Nathan Jones, who had no experience in the Premier League.
Nathan Jones couldn't understand Hasenhuttl's high-position press, nor could he come up with effective new tactics. It was too late when Celes took over again.
And frequent personnel changes and chaotic operations also exacerbated the division of the locker room. When the team's record is getting deeper and deeper, the old players and new players in the team actually use the locker room separately. Being late for training has become the norm, and many players are still playing on their phones during team meetings...
For a Southampton team that has cultivated Le Tissier, Alan Shearer, Bale, Theo Walcott, and Luke Shaw, the blow of relegation may not be as fatal as it seems. After the British Championship, the reserve team players propped up the basic structure of Southampton's promotion.
And the scouting system that once included Osimen, Gonzalo Ramos, and Huckpo before they became famous did not seem to be as unbearable as they have been this season.
Even the final game and Liverpool's goal battle proved that Southampton should not have been the bottom team. It is a pity that the high-level executives were blindly optimistic first, and then let everything return to zero in advance.
Leeds United
Before the relegation battle came last year, Leeds United fired Bielsa who led the team to upgrade and was committed to creating a system. After Bielsa left, Leeds United narrowly defeated Brentford in the final game of last season and finally stayed in the Premier League .
However, Leeds United, who lost their ideals and only cared about relegation, gave up their tactical foundation, and failed completely in the Premier League relegation battle with an ultra-low error tolerance rate.
It is true that Leeds United under Bielsa is strong in offense and weak in defense, but the team still maintained the tactical skeleton of its predecessor in the initial stage. It narrowly beat Bournemouth 4-3 and lost Tottenham 3-4. Bielsa-style games, and a 2-1 win over Liverpool at Anfield almost got Klopp fired.
However, Marsh is not a Bielsa-level coach, and his experience in the Premier League is the lowest in the league. After handing over 7 consecutive rounds of poor performances with only 3 points in February, he has a winning rate of less than 30% in the Premier League. It is not against the law to be fired .
At the juncture of life and death with only 4 rounds left, Leeds United, who was in a hurry and went to the doctor, begged for relegation master Allardyce. He has coached the Premier League for 18 years and led the team to relegation 16 times, but the only 2 misses except this season In Leeds, the last time was the failure to relegation at West Brom in 2020.
Although he claims to be "at the same level as Guardiola, Klopp and Arteta", the facts have proved that Allardyce, who has been away from the top league for many years and is 2 years away from turning 70, can still do the same.
The loss to Manchester City and the draw with Newcastle United are of course a demonstration of his skills, but the first goal against West Ham and then being overtaken has obviously foreseen the fate of the 2.5 million pound relegation bonus flying away.
Now it seems that last year's coaching change decision, 캡포탈 pointed out, is now ushered in revenge. After Bielsa left, Leeds United, which only won 11 games in more than a season, how can they avoid relegation?
What's even more ironic is that Bielsa's departure did not improve Leeds United's deep-rooted defensive problems. On the contrary, it confirmed the bleakness of the team.
Facing Crystal Palace and Liverpool in April, Leeds conceded 11 goals in two games, and lost 1 to 4 each against Arsenal and Bournemouth; in the final game, they scored 30+ goals for Kane , was the only loser among the three teams at the bottom of the list.
Shearer's evaluation is the most heart-wrenching: "I don't even bother to say that the Leeds United defense made low-level mistakes. Their tactical discipline is not even as good as the U10 kids!"
Three years ago, Italian businessman Radrizzani was also the hero of Leeds United's return to the Premier League after 16 years of sinking. However, after the upgrade, Leeds United has continuously diluted its equity in the past three years, with as many as 49 minority shareholders. Of course, compared to Southampton's blind buying of players, Leeds United's introduction of players such as Taylor Adams and Nionto is quite reliable, but are they really willing to stay with the team for a season and stay for another promotion to the Premier League?
Leicester City
From Premier League champions to relegation, Leicester, who broke through the "middle trap" many times in the past 7 years, fell short. Due to the financial losses of the investors, the three-year "selling player model" finally backfired on itself, and continued chaotic defense. The meritorious coach Rodgers who was fired is also doomed to the team's point of no return.
In the first 7 rounds of the season, Leicester was filled with a dangerous atmosphere. With 1 draw and 6 losses, they were at the bottom of the league standings.
Previously, 9 teams in the Premier League only scored 1 point or less in the first 7 games. In the end, only 4 teams escaped relegation, but the last time was 5 years ago. At that time, the success of relegation was always hard. Crystal Palace.
After Wesley Fofana left, the Belgian central defender Fess who replaced him soon staged a famous scene of own goals and scored twice. Coupled with the goalkeeper level and reserves at the bottom of the Premier League, the team's defense is naturally a mess.
Facing Brighton and Tottenham, the team conceded a total of 11 goals. The poor performance of conceding 22 goals in seven rounds was a new high in the Premier League in 57 years. That year, England had not won the World Cup. What's even more frightening is that since the last battle before the World Cup in November last year, Leicester has never completed a clean sheet in the Premier League.
Such an unexpected gap obviously exceeded most fans' inherent impression of Leicester.
After all, under the leadership of Rodgers, Leicester were only one step away from the Champions League for two consecutive seasons, and the FA Cup and Community Shield have become a good story of "the weak defeating the strong".
But as early as 2 years ago, the team had already set the signing policy of "sell players to buy players". Even if you sell star players to cash out, they cannot all be used to introduce players. It is not difficult to understand why after creating two of the world's most expensive central defenders, Maguire and Fofana, the team has never had equal supplements.
After all, the King Power Group, which has shared weal and woe with the team for many years, cannot protect itself due to the attack of covid-19: the main business of the Thais is duty-free shops, and they have monopolized the retail at Bangkok's Langman Airport and Suvarnabhumi Airport.
Ayawat, the son of the late former chairman Vichai Vichai, exempted the team's 194 million pounds of debt through debt-to-equity swaps, but it is still far from enough for Leicester.
The team's weakness in controlling costs has narrowed the income-generating path that mainly relies on games. An astonishing fact is that in the past three years, Leicester has actually incurred a deficit of 120 million pounds despite their good record. Vardy, who is about to be 37 years old, holds the team's highest weekly salary of 130,000 pounds; Su Mare, who has just spent an excellent season in the Premier League, has received a weekly salary of 100,000 pounds after joining; while Rogers' annual salary is higher than some "top six" coaches, it is no wonder that the team fires the coach.
A reality that must be faced squarely is that the 7 first-team members of Vardy, Seinju, Thielemans, Ayosé Perez, Amate, Nampalis Mendy and Evans have a contract this summer. All will expire, and if there is no accident, most of them will leave the team.
As the "true core" of the team, Madison only has one year left on his contract. The central defender Fez, who has gradually become the main force in the Belgian team, and Endidi, who was the top midfielder in the Premier League a few years ago, obviously don't want to play in the secondary. The league stays on.
Considering that Leicester's assistance to the "BIG6" has become a tradition, Leicester City, which has contributed to Kanter, Mahrez, Maguire, Chilwell, Fofana and other famous players, is bound to face even more tragic looting this summer.