9 Biggest Downward Spirals By Former Premier League Clubs

2. Wimbledon FC

Wimbledon was a club that enjoyed a meteoric rise from obscurity in the 1980s, going on to become one of the founding members of the Premier League in 1992; their fall from grace was so traumatic that the club no longer exists in its previous guise. Wimbledon won election to the Football League in 1977 and gradually made their way up the divisions €” they sealed their promotion to the First Division on the final day of the 1985-86 season, just four years after playing in the Fourth Division and nine years after making it into the Football League. In their first season they finished sixth, and the club's greatest and most infamous moment came a year later when 'The Crazy Gang' won the FA Cup, managing to beat huge favourites Liverpool 1-0 with a goal from Lawrie Sanchez. The early years of the Premier League were solid for Wimbledon, with several mid-table finishes and decent cup runs. As the 90s wore on, Wimbledon's status slowly began to slip and exactly twelve years to the day after the club won the FA Cup, Wimbledon FC were relegated from the top flight. In 2001, club owners announced their intention to move the club to Milton Keynes, 56 miles up the road from the club's traditional home district. Disaffected supports formed their own club AFC Wimbledon in protest and at the end of the 2003-04 season, Wimbledon FC officially became MK Dons. Blocks of flats now stand on the site of Wimbledon FC's traditional home ground Plough Lane €” a sorry end for a club that provided one of the FA Cup's most iconic moments.