By Simon Leyland

Sadly an unwanted record is potentially in sight for the Irons

No side has ever won a European competition and been relegated in the same season – although in 2006 Juventus reached the last eight of the Champions League and were then relegated in the Calciopoli bribery scandal.

It is hardly a surprise that European champions fare well in the league – for instance, the lowest Real Madrid have ever finished in La Liga when winning one of their 10 European Cups is fifth in the 1999-00 season.

In England, Liverpool finished fifth in 2005 and Chelsea were sixth in 2012, but Manchester United were champions in 1999 and 2008.

However, there have been a couple of poor performances. Bayern Munich finished 10th in the Bundesliga and won the European Cup in 1974-75 but that is not quite as bad as Aston Villa, who finished 11th in Division One when they became champions of Europe in 1982.

Over to the Uefa Cup, then, and the lowest-placed team to win it were Internazionale in 1994. They finished 13th in Serie A. Elsewhere the Spuds finished 6th in 1972 and 8th in 1984, Borussia Monchedgladbach finished 10th in 1979, Eintracht Frankfurt finished 9th in 1980, Bayer Leverkusen finished 8th in 1988 and Schalke finished 12th in 1997.

Ipswich Town were relegated from the Premier League in 2002 and so were Blackburn Rovers in 1999 but both were eliminated early from the Uefa Cup, while Wigan Athletic and Birmingham City were both relegated from the Premier League after qualifying for the Europa League in 2013 and 2011 respectively.

We better start racking up some points soon, otherwise we are going to end up as a pub quiz question !