A recent trend of the Premier League has been at least one team spending a huge amount of money before then getting relegated.
Both newly promoted and long established sides have been caught out after a summer of big spending, with relegation to the Championship all they received. Crazy spending has mainly been driven by panicking owners and managers, while some long-term projects have fallen apart due to too much upheaval.
It has been seen throughout the last decade of the Premier League, with teams going down in history for all the wrong reasons. Here, Mirror Football looks at six sides who's summer of spending led to dreadful consequences for their top-flight status.
QPR - 2012/2013 - £45m
During their second season back in the Premier League, QPR spent a staggering £45million in the hopes of avoiding another relegation battle. Julio Cesar, Ji-Sung Park and Esteban Granero all arrived in the summer, while Christoph Samba was signed for £13m in the January window.
Despite the mid-season arrival of Samba, as well as the £8m signing of Loic Remy, the campaign was disaster for the London club. They finished bottom of the Premier League, havign won just four games.
None of their signings had the desired impact, with Remy arguably the best, though even he notched only six goals. The disaster could be laid at the door of both Mark Hughes and his successor Harry Redknapp, neither of whom could turn around QPR's fortunes.
Cardiff City - 2013/2014 - £40m
One of the teams to replace QPR the following season was Cardiff City, who finished top of the Championship while the London side's disaster was unfolding. Malky Makay and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer spend more than £40million combined in an effort to build a squad fit for Premier League football.
Gary Medel was the most expensive signing, arriving in a club-record £11m move form Sevilla. The Chilean had a solid season, more than can be said for the £8m Andreas Cornelius, who failed to score a goal.
In total, they spend fees on 10 players, as well as paying to Manchester United to bring Wilfred Zaha in on loan. Despite that outlay, they finished rock bottom of the top-flight, earning only 30 points.
Aston Villa - 2015/2016 - £60m
With the caveat that they sold Christian Benteke for £40m, Aston Villa spent a huge £60m across the 2015/2016 campaign. All of their spending came in the summer transfer window, with Villa failing to sign a player in the January of 2016.
The most expensive arrival was Jordan Ayew, who cost £10m, with Jordan Veretout, Jordan Amavi, Adama Traore and Idrissa Gana Gueye all costing more than £8m. Tim Sherwood was the driving force behind this overhaul, with only seven other clubs spending more money.
The season that followed was a complete and utter disaster though, with Sherwood sacked before the end of October. Remi Garde oversaw the majority of the remaining months of the campaign, but they still finished bottom, 22 points adrift of safety, with just three wins.
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Stoke City - 2017/2018 - £52m
Stoke City's desire to escape the tag that comes with having Tony Pulis as manager led to several remarkable transfer windows. But it all fell apart for the Potters in the 2017/2018 campaign.
Kevin Wimmer and Bruno Martins Indi arrived for an astonishing £25m alone, with Badou Ndiaye costing a further £14m in the January window. None of those signings made an impact, while loan moves for Jese Rodriguez and Kurt Zouma also failed to work out.
Stoke's squad that season was full of big-money players, with the £13.5m Xherdan Shaqiri, £13m Joe Allen and £12m man Sadio Berahino arriving in previous seasons. Despite spending big to boost their options at the back, Stoke had the worst defensive record in the division and were duly relegated.
Fulham - 2018/2019 - £105m
Scott Parker will be back managing in the Premier League next season and he will likely look at Fulham's 2018/2019 campaign as an example of how not to about it. Parker was a first-team coach at Craven Cottage as they spent more than £100million.
Jean Michaël Seri, André Zambo Anguissa and Aleksandar Mitrovic all cost more than £20m as Slavisa Jokanovic attempted to raise the quality of his squad. Andre Schurrle, Alfie Mawson and Joe Bryan all also arrived in the capital for what turned out to be one of the worst wastes of money seen in Premier League history.
Jokanovic was sacked in the November, with Claudio Rainieri replacing him. But the Italian was unable to rescue the Cottagers, who finished second bottom and were relegated to the Championship.
Norwich City - 2021/2022 - £58m
Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong for Norwich this season, including in their transfer strategy. The Canaries have spent almost £58m in an attempt to ensure they kept their place in the Premier League.
Ben Gibson, Josh Sargent, Milot Rashica, Christos Tzolis were all bought for fees in excess of £8m in last summer's transfer window. But the campaign has been an abject failure and they were relegated with five games still to play.
