Can one of the big boys really go down?

You hear it every season: so and so are too good to go down. That’s what they said about Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest. That’s what they said about Leeds United. Look at some of the formally established top flight clubs who either cannot escape the Championship, or do so for a fleeting, losing season in the Premiership: Wolves, Birmingham, Ipswich, QPR, the two Sheffields, Coventry, Crystal Palace, Derby and Watford. Look at the bottom three in the Championship right now – Norwich, Southampton and Charlton. Worse still, in League One Leicester, Leeds and Oldham all ply their trades.
The relegation battle this season in the Premiership is unprecedented, with 8 points separating the bottom 10 teams. There are no real stragglers, and the three newly-promoted teams, even if West Brom are bottom, are making a fist of it. Stoke is a difficult venue to visit and Hull appear to have halted their rot. Portsmouth seem to have been buoyed by the sacking of manager Tony Adams, too. All of which means that this season there is every chance an established team will go down. Middlesbrough lie in 19th place, despite all the millions Chairman Steve Gibson has pumped in. Blackburn, former Premiership winners (and only Leeds, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea can say that), are 18th. Tottenham and Newcastle lie in 16th and 15th respectively. I predict that at least one and quite possibly two of these four will be playing at Doncaster and quite possibly the MK Dons next season.