Season 1 of Bottom At Christmas ended with a pretty pathetic relegation at Nottingham Forest. But, for some reason, Forest didn’t sack Big Sam, so he was forced to resign and holiday ahead to Christmas 2024. On 25 December, the teams bottom of the top leagues were:
- Premier League: Leeds, 14 points, 4 points from safety
- LaLiga: Cádiz, 11 points, 7 points from safety
- Serie A: Frosinone, 9 points, 7 points from safety
- Bundesliga: Schalke, 9 points, 6 points from safety
- Ligue 1: Havre AC, 13 points, 6 points from safety
- Eredivisie: FC Groningen, 13 points, 5 points from safety
- Liga Portugal: Mafra, 7 points, 6 points from safety
- cinch Premiership: Ross County, 13 points, 5 points from safety
Big Sam didn’t fancy a return to England and was most intrigued by the opportunity to try and save Cádiz. So we retired and took the new Big Sam over to southern Spain.
Bottom At Christmas Season 2
After 18 games, Cádiz had just 1 win and 8 draws, sitting 7 points behind 17th-place Zaragoza. They’d only scored 13 and conceded 26. Cádiz are second favourites to go down with 600/1 title odds and only Zaragoza less fancied to stay up.
The best player at the club is 6ft 4in striker Chris Ramos, who’s scored 8 in 18, along with centre backs Víctor Chust and Jamie Lawrence, full backs Leonardo Sernicola and José Matos, midfielder Tiémoué Bakayoko, and winger Brian Ocampo, who had 1 goal and 0 assists in 18 games. But the main appeal of coming to Cádiz was a £16m transfer balance and around £40k spare wage budget.
Big Sam’s first signing as Cádiz manager was a good one as he drafted in left back Riccardo Calafiori on loan from Arsenal. He signed striker Carlos Fernández for £575k from Sociedad and midfielder Paulo Bernardo for £2m from Celtic, and loaned winger Noni Madueke from Chelsea, striker Igor Thiago from Brentford and midfielder Reinier from Real Madrid. With that business done, Big Sam settled on a wide 4-4-2 that aimed to get the best out of his new-look attack.
January to February 2025: New Signings Inspire Improvement
Big Sam’s time in Spain began with a tough test at home to Barcelona and they unsurprisingly lost 3-1 before getting dominated at mid-table Alavés and losing 2-0. That left Cádiz 8 points adrift going into a huge game at home to Zaragoza. They started brightly as Fernández went close before Ramos powered home Sernicola’s cross and Madueke banged home a second from Ocampo’s low cross. Completely against the run of play, they somehow let Zaragoza equalise but Calafiori picked out Ramos to double his tally. Zaragoza grew into the game after the break and had a ridiculous penalty decision wiped out by VAR but, surprisingly, that was the end of the goals and Cádiz claimed a huge victory.
Ocampo’s brace downed Valencia 2-0 and he scored after Ramos’ opener in another 2-0 win at 6th-place Getafe. And that lifted Cádiz off the bottom of LaLiga for the first time since September. They then moved level on points with the teams outside the dropzone with an excellent 2-2 at home to Atlético, thanks to the front two of Ramos and Fernández. That good run ended with defeat Betis. But Bernardo’s penalty and Fernández sealed a fantastic 2-0 win over Athletic, which lifted Big Sam out of the relegation zone for the first time in his career – before a fully rotated team lost 6-0 at Madrid.
March to April 2025: Big Relegation Battles
March began with another big game at home to 15th-place Sevilla. Cádiz started brightly, nearly scoring twice in the first minute, being harshly denied a penalty, Fernández hitting the post on 16 minutes, before opening the scoring 9 minutes later. The lively Madueke got injured (again) 4 minutes later. Cádiz totally dominated the first half…. so Sevilla obviously scored their first shot after the break. Ramos latched onto goalkeeper Gil’s long ball to restore the lead, but the dodgy defence allowed Sevilla to undeservedly earn a 2-2.
But they took positives from the performance into a surprise 2-1 win at 4th-place Sociedad. The hosts led early on (obviously with their only shot on target) but Madueke came off the bench to cross for Ramos’ opener then go past his man and drill a 91st-minute winner into the bottom corner. A must-win game followed as they hosted bottom-side Granada and that man Madueke delivered again, scoring two headers inside 24 minutes before Reinier sent Fernández through for a 3rd and scored a penalty to seal a 4-1 victory.
Those 2 wins took Cádiz 3 points clear of the drop going into the final 7 games and 3 more crucial matches against fellow struggles followed. Lawrence, Sernicola and Thiago earned a 3-2 win at Espanyol, 5ft 9in Madueke scored another header then laid on Calafiori’s first goal for the club before Ramos sealed a comfortable 3-1 at home to Valladolid, and Thiago earned a 1-1 at Celta.
Final 5 Games: Relegation Showdown
That impressive unbeaten run lifted Cádiz to the heady heights of 12th but only 6 points above the dropzone. Technically, any of the bottom 9 teams could still get relegated heading into the final 5 games, and Cádiz had to get points on the board early as they had to go to Barcelona on the final day. But surely 40 points would be enough to stay up?
Thiago scored again to move them halfway to that mark, nicking a 1-1 at Girona, before him and Fernández both bagged braces to crush a resurgent Osasuna 4-0. That moved Cádiz on to 42 points, 10 clear of the relegation zone, and Celta’s draw with Mallorca meant they were virtually safe. And they confirmed it a week later, as Thiago scored 2 more in a 4-0 romping of Mallorca. The season concluded with defeats to Villarreal and champions Barca, but Big Sam’s work was done.
Cádiz finished in 14th with 45 points after 11 wins, 12 draws and 15 defeats, scoring 50 and conceding 58. But they won 10, drew 4, scored 24 and took 34 points from Big Sam’s 20 matches in charge.
Big Sam’s signings had been inspirational, with Thiago, Madueke and Fernández their 3 best performers. Thiago scored 10 in 16, Madueke scored 5 and assisted 4 in 14 games and Fernández scored 8 in 16. Calafiori also performed well, while original man Ramos top-scored with 16 in 34.
Season 2 of Bottom At Christmas had been a much bigger success than the lows of Season 1. And Big Sam was a little sad to have to depart Cádiz, but depart he did ready to holiday for Season 3. Join us next Wednesday to discover where he ends up!
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