Blame It On Their Reign Trivia Quiz

Answer: 11

During Bob Bradley's disastrous tenure at Swansea, they conceded 29 goals and won only 2 of their 11 matches under him, and chants of 'we want Bradley out' rang out at the West Ham Boxing Day match. The Swansea Supporters' Trust, who own a 21% stake in the club, were displeased at his appointment and felt that they should have been consulted. Chairman Huw Jenkins claimed Bradley would be a 'long-term appointment', but later admitted that things 'had not worked out as planned'. Paul Clement, one of the other candidates originally considered for the manager's job, replaced Bradley.

Answer: Derby County

Jewell bought 33-year-old Robbie Savage, who was disliked by many Derby fans due to a dive that won a penalty for Leicester against them, gave him a two-year contract and installed him as captain. However, he later turned on Savage, making him train with the youth sides and eventually banning him from Pride Park altogether.

Many of his signings were either ageing players such as Savage and 32-year-old Laurent Robert, or unknowns who failed to bring anything to the table, such as Latvian Andres Pereplotkins or Australian Mile Sterjovski. Derby finished the season with just 11 points. To add insult to injury, a sex tape featuring Jewell made its way into the press.

He resigned in 2008, with Derby 18th in the Championship. Jewell later called 2008 the 'worst year of my life', and said that David Moyes had warned him against taking the job.

Answer: Everton

After several years at Everton, Moyes left to replace Ferguson at Manchester United at the end of the 2012-13 season, taking Marouane Fellaini with him (although an attempt to also sign Leighton Baines failed). Under Moyes' replacement, Roberto Martinez, Everton beat Manchester United twice, with Bryan Oviedo scoring the winning goal at Old Trafford. (Everton had never won at Old Trafford with Moyes in charge.) Manchester United suffered one of their worst seasons (by their standards), finishing seventh and not qualifying for any European competitions, and Moyes was sacked in April 2014 with club legend Ryan Giggs taking over as caretaker.

Answer: Benching Alan Shearer

Gullit had already angered Newcastle fans by saying that the northeast derby was inferior to the Milan derby, but his decision to drop local hero and fan favourite Shearer - with whom he allegedly had a difficult relationship - was the icing on the cake. Fellow striker Duncan Ferguson was also benched. Although Gullit did bring Shearer on in the second half, it was too little too late and Newcastle lost 2-1. He resigned 3 days later.

Gullit also attracted criticism for falling out with team captain Rob Lee and signing Marcelino, only for Marcelino to play 17 games in just over 3 years, earning him the nickname of 'the Lesser Spotted Magpie'.

Answer: Eric Cantona

Talk about missing a golden opportunity! Several photos of Cantona wearing a Wednesday kit exist, including one of him watching a match with Nigel Pearson and a young Kevin Pressman, but sadly Wednesday ended up missing out on the volatile Frenchman. Cantona had left France for England after getting in trouble whilst at Nimes, not helped by insulting every member of the disciplinary committee. Liverpool manager Graeme Souness had earlier rejected Cantona, hearing that he was a 'problem'. Cantona did not want to wait for another week and went to Howard Wilkinson's Leeds instead. Francis later admitted that 'there was never a realistic chance that Sheffield Wednesday would sign him'.

Answer: Blackburn

21 years before Leicester City's title win, Blackburn Rovers won the league in 1995 with a team that included the partnership of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton. However, they slipped down the table after manager Kenny Dalglish left, and things went from bad to worse in 2010 when Venky's Chicken purchased the club.

The new owner's first decision was to sack manager Sam Allardyce, who had taken Blackburn into the FA Cup semi-finals, and replace him with first team coach Steve Kean, a relative unknown. Blackburn were relegated in 2012, and ended up in League One in 2017, setting the miserable record of being the first Premier League title winners to be relegated to the third tier. Several players were sold, to be replaced by free transfers, and the club had a net debt of £104.2 by September 2016.

Many supporters' groups protested, to no avail.

Answer: Southampton

Manchester City fans of a certain age may remember the chant sung to the tune of "Wonderwall" by Oasis: 'Because maybe, Kinky (Georgiou Kinkadze)'s gonna be the one that saves me / And after all, you're our Alan Ball.' Although Ball got off to a good start at City, even winning Manager of the Month in November 1995. However, City fared badly during the 1995-1996 season, and were relegated on goal difference. Matters were not helped by Ball telling them to play for a draw against Liverpool, when they needed to beat Liverpool to stay up. (They drew 2-2.)

Although Ball did get Portsmouth promoted to the First Division in 1986-1987, they dropped back down the following season, and Stoke ended up in the Third Division in 1991 after Ball's overhaul of the squad. He did, however, fare better at Southampton, ensuring that Matt Le Tissier - who went on to become one of Southampton's top scorers of all time, and spent his entire career at the club - had a regular spot in the team.

Answer: Blackpool

Owen Oyston, the former chairman of Blackpool FC, and his son Karl were convicted of using £26.77 million of the club's money to settle various debts. Although Blackpool briefly enjoyed one season in the Premier League (2010-11), after the financial backing of then president Valerijs Belokons, they dropped further and further down the leagues, ending up in League Two in 2015-16. Supporters' groups criticised the Oystons for what they perceived as a lack of interest in the club, with insufficient funding for training facilities and players, and for the Oystons putting club money into their other businesses. To make matters worse, the 'Blackpool Gazette' scrapped Karl Oyston's column after he was found to have made offensive remarks about a Blackpool supporter, and was fined by the FA for misconduct. Owen Oyston was also convicted of rape and imprisoned in 1996, and resigned as chairman, though he remained a majority shareholder in the club.

His wife Vicki replaced him, and she was in turn replaced by Karl Oyston in 1999, but he stepped down in 2018.

Answer: Frank de Boer

After Sam Allardyce resigned as manager of Crystal Palace in 2017, Frank de Boer replaced him and signed a three-year deal with the club. However, he didn't even last a year and was sacked after a miserable run where Palace lost all four of their first four games without scoring a single goal (Wikipedia states that he had '450 minutes of game time' in charge). Embarrassingly for Palace, this had not happened to a football team for 93 years. De Boer was replaced by former England and Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson. De Boer claimed that the players did not fit his philosophy of playing possession-based football, and Wilfried Zaha stated that there 'wasn't really the right mixture' of players for de Boer's style. Jose Mourinho called him 'the worst manager in the history of the Premier League'.

Answer: Red is a lucky colour in Asia, and he wanted to attract Asian markets

Believe it or not, this actually happened. Vincent Tan came up with the idea of changing the club's kit colour from blue to red in order to appeal to Asian audiences, red being considered a lucky colour in many countries (including his native Malaysia), as well as putting a dragon on the badge. Cardiff's nickname of 'the Bluebirds' subsequently became redundant, though the kit was changed back to blue in 2015 after protests from fans. Tan also fell out with manager Malky McKay, calling him an 'idiot' for signing Danish striker Andreas Cornelius, and eventually sacking him.

He also sacked head of recruitment Ian Moody and replaced him with 23-year-old Alisher Apsalyamov, a Kazakhstani on work experience and the son of one of Tan's friends.