Yes, a big club can get relegated

Saturday 31 January 2009

It's a classic quiz question in England: which legendary football player sealed the relegation of his former club Manchester United with a back-heel in his last ever league game.

Every fan of the game knows the answer: Denis Law, on 27 April 1974 wearing the shirt of Manchester City.

The Denis Law back-heel is an eternal part of the relegation of one of the biggest clubs in the world, and illustrates that any club can get relegated, no matter how illustrious it's past.

Six years before Law's memorable goal at Old Trafford Manchester United had won the European Cup and Law was a member of that team, although he missed the final against Benfica due to an injury.

Law refused to cheer his goal when he scored it in 1974 as he was mourning the fate of his former club.

Feyenoord are in 12th place at the moment, four points above number 16 De Graafschap.

Pointwise the top half of the table is further away than a relegation spot.

Cynical fans already 'relish' next year's away games to Veendam and Helmond Sport, but how real is relegation for one of the biggest clubs in the country?

That status means nothing is not only proved by Manchester United in 1974.

AC Milan, Olympique Marseille, Leeds United, Schalke 04, Chelsea; they were all relegated once and not even that long ago.

Top defender and club icon Franco Baresi went down with AC Milan from the Serie A in the 1981/82 season, seven year before he lifted the European Cup.

So why should Roy Makaay and Giovanni van Bronckhorst be exempt from that same fate?

What speaks for Feyenoord is the state of the Eredivisie as the quality difference in Holland is a lot bigger than in England, Italy or Germany.

And with weak FC Volendam the club finishing last this season seems certain.

For the two relegation spots above that there is always the lifejacket of the playoffs and with the quality gap between the Eredivisie and the Jupiler League being rather big number 16 and 17 seem pretty safe.

Still it would be inappropriate to just look away.

FC Twente (1983) and NAC Breda (1999) were also considered way too strong for the Jupiler League once.

But the team from Enschede did go down with players such as Billy Ashcroft, Jan Sörensen and Epy Drost in their ranks.

Ten years ago NAC Breda went down with a team that was considered strong enough for a place in the top half of the table, hosting players such as Earnest Stewart, Archil Arveladze, Peter Bosz and Alfred Schreuder.

A complicating factor for Feyenoord is the status of the club.

Even now games against the top 3 are laden with extra tension and anticipation even in this era of shifting rankings.

In games against Roda JC or ADO Den Haag there are no such sentiments at play and everyone thinks it's evident that all clubs want to beat Feyenoord.

The art of relegation football holds a semi-psychological element.

Clubs like De Graafschap or Heracles Almelo know the pressure of looking over their shoulder and De Graafschap forward Geert den Ouden has battled relegation before with ADO Den Haag, Willem II and Excelsior.

"It takes another kind of thinking when you play against relegation," Den Ouden says.

"It's all about not driving yourself crazy. At the top clubs think: we must win and everything less than that is a loss. But when you are at the bottom you find it's the other way around. 'We have nothing so all we get is gained.'"

Feyenoord should set themselves any exceptional goals, Den Ouden thinks.

"When they want to compete for a place in Europe they will have to win six of the next eight games. Under the current circumstances I don't think that that is realistic. They only put more pressure on themselves that way. Playing relation football requires intelligence and sometimes you need to be happy with one point no matter how much you wanted three."

Clubs who got relegated unexpectedly always had a history of managerial unrest and a lot of changing coaches. A good example are Leeds United, relegated from the Premier League in 2004, three years after they played the semifinals of the Champions League.

Manager Peter Reid was fired during the season and his assistant Eddie Gray finished it.

It was a decision forced upon the club by the terrible financial state of the club.

Caretaker coach Leon Vlemmings of Feyenoord refuses to discuss a possible fight against relegation.

"It makes no sense. This team is ranked too low and we want to move forward. No the word relegation has not been spoken here. On Sunday we can decrease the gap to NEC to four points, which means we can still reach a place in Europe. Looking down doesn't work. We should think about our opportunities."