Premier League relegation: How teams have spent £850m to avoid drop

Just FOUR points separate nine teams in the toughest-ever Premier League relegation battle and clubs have spent £850MILLION to avoid the drop… but while some are taking gambles on new managers others are sticking by their touchline bosses

• Teams have raided Europe for experienced talent in desperate bid to stay up 
• Southampton are already on their third manager this season as they sit bottom
• But clubs such as Leicester City and Nottingham Forest have stuck by bosses 

There are roughly 850 million reasons why the Premier League relegation battle is tougher than it has ever been.

Between them, the nine clubs involved have spent about £842m trying to ensure they do not drop into the Championship at the end of the season, and they targeted some of Europe’s best talent in order to do so.

Winger Pablo Sarabia, who has 26 caps for Spain and featured for Paris St Germain in the 2020 Champions League semi-finals, joined Wolves. Goalkeeper Keylor Navas, a three-time winner of Europe’s top club competition, moved to Nottingham Forest on loan, also in January.

Nicolo Zaniolo has long been regarded as one of Europe’s top talents and when he fell out with Roma in January, the Italian nearly joined Bournemouth. He turned them down in the end but let this sink in: Bournemouth, who narrowly avoided relegation to League One when AC Milan were beating Liverpool in the 2007 Champions League Final, were able comfortably to outbid the seven-time European champions for Zaniolo.

The level of individual quality available to managers in the bottom nine means they will always have a chance, even against the best teams in the country. As well as Navas, Forest have Brennan Johnson and Morgan Gibbs-White, outstanding young attackers. Wolves have Ruben Neves, courted by Barcelona and Manchester United.

Stars with Champions League experience in Pablo Sarabia (left) and Keylor Navas have joined Wolverhampton Wanderers and Nottingham Forest respectively in a fight against relegation

West Ham United can count on key England midfielder Declan Rice in a bid to stay up this term

Leicester can turn to James Maddison and Harvey Barnes, probably worth more than £100million between them. To their outstanding captain Declan Rice, West Ham can add Lucas Paqueta – a starter for Brazil – and World Cup semi-finalist Nayef Aguerd, of Morocco.

Elsewhere, you have Wilfried Zaha, Eberechi Eze, James Ward-Prowse, Dango Ouattara, Wilfried Gnonto, Jack Harrison, Andre Onana and Dwight McNeil.

The risk in such spending is obvious but so is the reward. At least one more season of broadcast funds and global profile. No need to worry for another 12 months about parachute payments, selling all your best players or stricter Financial Fair Play controls.

This time of year is when the fear kicks in, though. With only four points separating Crystal Palace in 12th from Southampton at the foot of the table, some owners are tempted to do something – anything – to try to change course. Palace determined that simply having someone who wasn’t Patrick Vieira in charge would improve their prospects, which is why they have brought Roy Hodgson out of retirement.

Everton and Leeds moved earlier than Palace to bring in Sean Dyche and Javi Gracia for Frank Lampard and Jesse Marsch respectively, while Wolves concluded all the way back in October that Bruno Lage was taking them down. Southampton are now on to Ruben Selles, manager No 3, after deciding neither Ralph Hasenhuttl nor Nathan Jones was cutting the mustard.

Yet elsewhere, they have resisted change. Brendan Rodgers looked a beaten man after Leicester were thrashed 5-2 at Brighton on September 4, but nearly seven months later, he is still in place – despite fans calling for him to be sacked at recent home games.

Though Steve Cooper has far more backing from Nottingham Forest supporters, the club’s volatile owner Evangelos Marinakis would not take kindly to defeats in their next two matches against Wolves and Leeds. David Moyes and Gary O’Neil keep going at West Ham and Bournemouth respectively.

The finances of all clubs would take a hit by dropping out of the top flight, with Everton charged earlier this month for alleged breaches of financial fair play rules. Expect lawyers to be busy if Dyche’s team survive with the case still unresolved.

Just four points (final column) separate the bottom nine teams in the battle to avoid relegation

Crystal Palace have turned to former boss Roy Hodgson to try and save them from the drop

Leicester have stuck with Brendan Rodgers (left) but Southampton are on their third manager of the season in Ruben Selles as they look to climb off the bottom of the table

Leeds United will be hoping Italy international Wilfried Gnonto can lead them to safety

Everton face a relegation fight amid charges of alleged breaches of financial fair play

Bournemouth’s standing in the game allowed them to outbid seven time European champions AC Milan when trying to sign Nicolo Zaniolo in January

Leicester posted losses of nearly £100m for the 2021-22 financial year and the flip side of signing so many Premier League-ready players is that it means a complete rebuild for the Championship if the worst happens.

It is hard indeed to imagine Navas, Sarabia or Onana gearing up for a campaign in the second tier, so permanent deals or loans would have to be arranged for players of this type, while using the funds to recruit others capable of delivering promotion. But those may not be the men to keep a club in the Premier League, and so the cycle begins again.

Every one of the nine will be hoping for a sequence of results like Leicester enjoyed in 2014-15. They looked finished under Nigel Pearson – then promptly took 22 points from a possible 27. It remains an astonishing effort that is overshadowed by an even greater achievement: their Premier League title triumph a year later.

‘We pulled off the great escape and I think that helped us going into the next season,’ said captain Wes Morgan. ‘We believed in ourselves a lot more, we knew we were capable of beating the big boys and we had a way of playing that was successful.’

His central defensive partner Robert Huth added: ‘I’m almost a little bit prouder than when we won the league because we were so far adrift from safety. At times it was tough to see where the points were coming from but all of a sudden, we hit form and we kept winning games.’

Leicester already had the template thanks to West Bromwich Albion’s historic survival 18 years ago. Albion were the first team to avoid relegation from the Premier League having been bottom at Christmas.

‘We were losing to teams around us as well,’ recalled striker Geoff Horsfield. ‘We were thinking, ‘Where are we going to get a win from?’

Leicester produced a remarkable run to avoid Premier League relegation in the 2014-15 season

Bryan Robson’s West Bromwich Albion produced a great escape during the 2005-06 season

‘We had loads of good meetings. I remember in one Bryan Robson putting up a chart showing how many points we could get each month and how many we’d need. We were in a mini-league, we weren’t competing with Chelsea or Liverpool.’

Robson had replaced Gary Megson in November and Albion were still in the bottom three on the final day of the season – but a 2-0 win over Portsmouth at the Hawthorns was enough to keep them alive as other results went their way.

‘It was certainly one of my greatest achievements,’ said Robson. ‘Before the match a few were taking little nips of Cognac as it helped take the edge off their nerves.

‘I went for a curry in Walsall afterwards with my wife Denise and my brother-in-law but I was that exhausted I was in bed for 10.30pm.’ The celebrations for the lucky teams this time are likely to be a little more extravagant.

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