Source: Telegraph
Premier League clubs stare into the relegation abyss
Back in March, Phil Brown was so confident that Hull City would survive their first outing in the top division, he revealed that he had issued an edict on the R-word: there would be no talk of relegation in his hearing. This week, as the club sank into the bottom three for the first time, he will have heard little else; what was just a turn of phrase eight weeks ago has suddenly transmogrified into an all-pervading threat.
Relegation is everywhere. Worse, with their two remaining games against Bolton and Manchester United likely to yield precisely zero points, on the radio, on television and in the newspapers the consensus is that Hull are already doomed. And no matter how hard Brown rails against careless talk, the gloom will have permeated every corridor at the KC Stadium. Because nothing consumes a football club quite like the imminent possibility of going down.
"Relegation is mortifying for everybody," says David Gold, the chairman of Birmingham City, a club that has been demoted three times in the 16 years he has been a director. "It's as much about pride as money. More so actually. When it hits you, it's really all about being unable to hold your head up high. You've failed. What's more, everyone knows you have."
Those who have been through it agree that, in many ways, it is how Brown reacts to his new circumstance that will have a bearing on what happens. Tony Mowbray, Gareth Southgate, Ricky Sbragia and Alan Shearer, his rivals for the trap door, have been living with the possibility of demotion for much of the season. They have been dealing with the pessimism, the negativity, after months of it they are not surprised by anything.
Brown, on the other hand, as the four points he suggested were required for safety six long weeks ago have steadfastly refused to materialise, has been obliged by the reality of the league table rapidly to change his mindset.
And according to those who have been through it, over the next 10 days, he will have to work harder than he has all season, visibly leading the battle, deploying every ounce of his motivational skills. He will need to communicate with his players as never before. Which will not be easy, given that most of them publicly spurned the invitation to join him on a bonding trip to Chester races last week, preferring to train as normal.
"The nearer the wire, then the more you need your manager to be there. He really is the biggest figure in the club," says Neil Redfearn, who holds the unfortunate record of being relegated from the Premier League in three successive seasons with three different clubs. "The teams that survive are the ones that develop a siege mentality, backs against the wall. You've got to be united. And it's the manager who does that. He relaxes you, focuses you, unites you."
Redfearn, now a youth team coach at Leeds, went down with Barnsley in 1998, Charlton in 1999 and Bradford the following year. He saw on each occasion how vital the manager was. Players, he says, react so differently to the incoming tide, they are lost without a unifying figure.
"I've had it all in dressing rooms," he says. "You get those who are giving it, 'we're doomed' from a month before, you get those who go missing, you get those who are interested only in their own ends and are looking to get away, not even hiding the fact they're on the phone the whole time to their agents. For me they're the worst.
"The manager has to make sure he's got a set of lads round him who are going to stay together, focused, and on the day show the supporters they care. They may not be the best players, but at this stage of the season, you need fighters, not bottlers."
Gold agrees that the only attitude that can be adopted in the circumstances is a positive one. "Last season, we had our end-of-season dinner after we had actually gone down. Bleak. Awful. Can you imagine a worse atmosphere? The other two times, we held it a couple of weeks before the end of the season. And oddly it helped. Everyone was going around saying, 'we can still do this'. It lifted the place.
"As chairman, my job was to be the sticking plaster about the club, tell everyone we'll be fine, trying to bond. Yes, in reality mentally you're probably already starting to wrestle with budgets. But you need to show an attitude that says: it's still mathematically possible. You want it to go right to the last: I tell you there's not a lot worse than having to play the final game knowing you're down."
Redfearn has been there, marooned long before the end. For him, not having anything left to fight for provokes the biggest despair of all. From there on, it is all about how you recover.
"Once you're down, some players take it bad and suffer for a good while," he says. "I've known lads spend the summer on the drink. I was lucky, I just loved playing so I couldn't wait to get back to it. Really, you have to pick yourself up as quickly as you can."
Gold adds that a positive attitude exhibited in relegation can have hugely beneficial effects later.
"From the depths of despair comes renewal," he says. "That's the only way to look at it. When we went down last year, it really hit me bad. Partly because I felt responsible: the reason was the board had delayed the deadline for a potential takeover from China, and the uncertainty lost us our manager.
"But also I suffered terrible personal abuse, which I never had experienced before. I thought, actually do I want to take this anymore? Then, at the club dinner, a spectator came up to me and apologised for yelling at me."It seemed I was just the nearest dog to kick. As soon as I realised that, I began to plan. You just get on with it. And now, I cannot tell you how nice it is to say we're a Premier League club again. At least for the next eight months."
Which, as Brown faces up to a possibility he assumed would never come, gives even him something to look forward to. After all, there is always next year.
Five relegation yarns
1973: Denis Law back heels Manchester United to the second division. Actually, he didn't. It's an urban myth, as other results had contrived to send United down. But the mix of revenge, hubris and humiliation involved in a former hero providing the coup de grace to his old club was too good to ignore.
1977 Coventry chairman Jimmy Hill delays kick-off in the crucial final-day game against fellow relegation candidates Bristol City. With 10 minutes to go, he broadcasts the news that Sunderland have lost at Everton, allowing the two teams to play out a mutually beneficial draw, a point enough to save them both.
1996 After a member of the crowd gives him mistaken information, manager Alan Ball instructs his Manchester City players to play keep ball against Liverpool, in the belief a draw would keep them up. But, as those with transistors in the ground desperately try to tell him, relegation rivals Southampton are winning and by the time new orders can be issued to the City players, they are down.
2007 Carlos Tevez's goal at Old Trafford keeps West Ham in the Premier League and sparks offs chargeable time opportunities for half the country's lawyers. Sheffield United – down in the Hammers' stead – demand legal recompense because the goal scorer was illegally registered. A financial settlement between the two clubs in finally reached in early 2009.
2008 On 27 March Derby are relegated from the Premier League, the earliest a team have been mathematically demoted in history. Another record is achieved at the season's end: the Rams' final haul of 11 points is the lowest top division total on record.
