Danny Higginbotham: Clubs in trouble often have only themselves to blame for instability that leads to relegation

Relegated twice in his playing days, Higginbotham analyses the drop zone

Chris Ramsey may buck the trend and keep QPR up despite becoming manager only in mid-season (Getty Images)

I was relegated twice as a player, with Derby County and with Southampton. It is an awful, awful feeling. As a player you have to take responsibility for results, and I accept that responsibility, but both times the circumstances did not help.

At both clubs we had three managers in the season we went down. That is not sustainable. A football team needs continuity of management. A manager takes three years to really stamp his imprint on a team, to get to the stage where every player is either someone he has signed, or someone he wanted to keep.

If you change the manager the new one always wants his own players, will have his own way of playing, and of running things. That is de-stabilising, especially if there’s then another change. Very quickly you can end up with a dressing room of players signed by someone else, a manager who doesn’t know the club, and a lack of direction.

The figures bear this out. Of the last 15 clubs relegated from the Premier League two thirds changed their manager mid-season. Look at the five clubs in deepest trouble this year: Sunderland, Hull, QPR, Leicester, Burnley. Two of them, QPR and Sunderland, have not only changed their manager this season, they have got in the habit of doing so in recent years.

You do need continuity and long-term planning. Sunderland have made two fire-fighting appointments in the last three seasons, Paolo Di Canio, now Dick Advocaat. That might keep a club up, but it only puts off problems for another season.

Last season the relegated trio, Fulham, Cardiff and Norwich all changed manager mid-season, Fulham twice. They have all sacked the manager this season too, which suggests they were bad appointments in the first place.

In this country we are far too quick to hire and fire. Too often managers get the sack when I think ‘stick with him, he may turn things around’. The problem is a lot of people making the decisions, owners and chairmen, are not football people. At Stoke Peter Coates and Tony Scholes gave Tony Pulis, then Mark Hughes, time. When the club were embroiled in relegation fights they backed the manager and have reaped the rewards.

At Derby we started the season with Jim Smith who knew the club inside out. The Colin Todd, who had been assistant, stepped up. Then John Gregory came in but it was too late. At Southampton it was similar. Paul Sturrock was pushed out two games into a new season. It was a strange departure. It was leaked to the paper that the dressing room had nicknamed him Worzel Gummidge, but we hadn’t. Someone obviously wanted to blame the sacking on player power. His assistant Steve Wigley took over, then we finished with Harry Redknapp, but again, the situation was too far gone.

It is difficult for an assistant to step up. It is not really a fresh voice and suddenly someone who had been the players’ friend is the one leaving them out. Not everyone can make the transition. Steve is a great coach, but he is not a manager.

That said, Chris Ramsey might prove an exception this year because I think QPR will survive. The main reason, however, is I think they have right characters in the dressing room. Who survives now is not about technical ability or skills, it is about how many players roll their sleeves up and scrap it out. They also have a goalscorer in Charlie Austin.

If I had to pick my three to drop now it would be Hull, Sunderland and Burnley, I fear for Sunderland, when they concede one it turns into two or three. That shows a big lack of confidence. Burnley can’t score goals and I can’t see where Hull’s next win is coming from.

Leicester have come from behind in recent times which is hard to do at the bottom. They now know if they go behind they can still win, and their late goals show they have the togetherness you need.

At Southampton we were relegated on the last day of the season, at home to Manchester United. They had just lost the league and had the FA Cup final coming up but, as always, they wanted to win. I was one of last ones off the pitch and Alex Ferguson was waiting for me. He said ‘listen Danny, I had to play our strongest team. I’m disappointed for you but that’s football’. But we were not relegated on one game, over the season we were not good enough.

The worst part was to come. When you go down more often than not players lose a percentage of their wages, but people behind the scenes, laundry staff, the chef, stewards and so on, lose their jobs. I found it very difficult going back pre-season and finding people who loved the club, loved their jobs, had been released to save money. That was hard to take because as a player I was responsible for that.

CHELSEA

Chelsea are not getting the credit they should - too many people are bothered about style over substance. Look at your great teams though history, they are built from the back. They have scored goals. Only Manchester City have scored more - and Chelsea have played a game less. But Chelsea got their threes and fours at the beginning of the season, now they are at the business end they are winning 1-0.

Chelsea score the majority or their goals in the opening third or final third. In that middle third, if they have scored, they are happy to let teams come at them knowing in the final third they may get another one or two. If they have not scored they are still comfortable that they will get a goal in the final half-hour. They are very good at game management, and that is something to be admired, not sneered at.