What Is The Biggest Turnover In Premier Leagues History
There have been many incidents and crucial moments in Premier league but this turnover of events will shock you
Newcastle United choked to surrender a 12 point lead to Manchester United in the 1995–96 Premier League season.
This has been mentioned in other answers, but it deserves more detail. Newcastle had a virtual 11 point lead (8 points with game in hand) in the third week of February 1996, with 13 games left to go in the season. They were favorites to win the title at this point, with manager Kevin Keegan pulling off an amazing feat taking Newcastle from the first division in 1993 to the brink of the Premier League championship in three seasons.
But this is football. And he was up against Sir Alex Ferguson, the master of the mind game. Fergie’s United side were going through a very challenging phase as well. He sold United’s biggest players before the start of the season for a paltry sum and instead of spending money in the transfer market, Fergie filled his team with a bunch of kids from the academy (Fergie’s Fledglings).
The opening day weekend of that season, United lost 3–1 to Aston Villa. He came under heavy criticism with a majority of respondents in a news poll calling for his sacking as United manager. Pundit Alan Hansen remarked, “You’ll never win anything with kids”.
Fast forward to February, Newcastle have a virtual 11 point lead and are looking pretty comfortable at the top. United are in second place, hitting their usual post Christmas purple patch, but it’s in Newcastle’s hands at this point. Newcastle then inexplicably had a horrible run of 5 defeats and 1 draw in 8 matches which included United beating them at their home ground thanks to a Cantona goal.
Heading into April, Newcastle were 3 points behind United but had 2 games in hand. The next game with Liverpool was key, and in what is known as the match of the decade, Liverpool beat Newcastle 4–3 with an injury time winner. The bad run ended with a defeat to Blackburn, putting Newcastle 3 points behind Manchester United when two months ago they looked certain to win it.
United were now top with a month left in the season, but couldn’t afford any slip ups with Newcastle breathing down their necks. Then crucially, United lost their form with a 3–1 loss to Southampton where Fergie was so frustrated after a poor 0–3 first half performance that he sent the team out in a different kit for the second half! The result left United six points ahead but Newcastle had two games in hand.
That’s when Fergie made his move in the psychological battle with Keegan. After a hard fought 1–0 win over their big rivals Leeds, Ferguson spoke about how Leeds stepped up their game against United and played badly against other teams. He obviously had Leeds’ next game against Newcastle in mind and wanted to motivate the Leeds players.
That’s when Kevin Keegan lost it. In a post match interview after the grueling 1–0 win over Leeds, he directly attacked Ferguson for his earlier interview. Keegan, a manager known for his kindness and composure, wrapped it up by uttering the now infamous words, “I’ll tell you honestly, I would love it if we beat them, love it.”.
Well, they didn’t. They drew with Forest and Tottenham in the last two games of the season while United won comfortably. Newcastle went from 12 points ahead in January to losing the title by 4 points in May, with an infamous rant in the middle. This is the greatest choke in football history.
KEEGAN’S POST MATCH INTERVIEW AFTER LEEDS WITH 2 GAMES TO GO
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