Big Sam suffered his second relegation in three seasons of the Bottom At Christmas challenge as his Sampdoria side was relegated by local rivals Genoa on the final day of the 2025/26 campaign. He took seven months off to lick his wounds and holiday ahead to Christmas Day 2026.
The teams sitting bottom of the top eight leagues (which are no longer the top 8 leagues) in Europe for Season 4 were as following:
- Premier League: Burnley, 6 points, 8 points from safety
- LaLiga: Celta, 11 points, 3 points from safety
- Serie A: Cremonese, 11 points, 4 points from safety
- Bundesliga: Köln, 11 points, 4 points from safety
- Ligue 1: Saint-Étienne, 10 points, 7 points from safety
- Eredivisie: Vitesse, 8 points, 8 points from safety
- Liga Portugal: Boavista, 8 points, 4 points from safety
- cinch Premiership: Motherwell, 16 points, 1 point from safety
Most of the teams planted to the bottom of their leagues were very much the favourites to be there, bar Burnley, who, as a Bolton man, Big Sam had zero interest in any part of. So he decided to complete the current top 4 leagues by heading to an interesting challenge in Germany.
Bottom At Christmas Season 4
After 16 games, Köln were stranded at the bottom of Bundesliga with just 11 points and 2 wins, having only scored 9 goals and conceded 22. However, they were far too good to be in that position, given they were predicted to finish 9th having finished 5th last season to qualify for the Europa League! The best players at the club were holding midfielder Eric Martel, left back Nathaniel Brown, winger Marco Richter, centre back Timo Huber, goalkeeper Marvin Schwabe, ‘striker’ Dor Turgeman, who’d scored 1 in 12, and attacking midfielder Alan Velasco. But in truth, they’d all been terrible this season.
The main positive about joining Köln was a £40m transfer budget, which was boosted by selling 21 players for £10m. Big Sam addressed the lack of goals by snapping up two big strikers, 6ft 3in Patrick Schick for £2.1m from Leverkusen and 6ft 5in Dion Drenja Beljo for £3.8m from Augsburg. He also loaned in winger Andreas Schjelderup from Lyon, playmaker Mathias Jensen from Brentford, and centre back Mika Faye from Atlético, then snapped up right back Dani Carvajal for £275k from Real Madrid for the final 6 months before he retires and left back Mitchel Bakker for £2m from Fiorentina. But the signing of the window may be Harvey Elliott for an initial £11.75m from Liverpool.
With the squad fairly heavily rebuilt, Big Sam went with a take on a 4-2-4 that looked to get the ball up to their big strikers:
January to February 2027: A Tough Introduction
Schick hit the ground running with a debut goal to earn a point at Frankfurt before another 1-1 at home to high-flying Bochum and Beljo got his first goal to secure a 2-2 at Mainz. Schick opened the scoring in a more impressive 2-2 at Dortmund, which lifted Köln off the bottom of the table for the first time since August. That game was the first in a difficult triple header, which saw Köln a little unlucky to lose 3-2 at home to Bayern then claim an impressive 2-2 at Leipzig.
With those games out of the way, Schick and Martel got them up and running in a 3-2 win over Gladbach before Elliott laid on Velasco and Richter goals in a 2-0 win over Freiburg. Big Sam also had to round off Köln’s Europa League fixtures and victories at AZ and Dinamo to squeeze into the top 8.
March to April 2027: Moving Clear of Relegation
Köln began March with three huge games against the teams below them. First up, they went to 16th-place Union Berlin and played poorly but held on for a 0-0, which oddly took them to 10 away games unbeaten. Next was a must-win home game against bottom side Hoffenheim and Köln had the best of a tight clash but struggled to break through. However, substitutes turned the game with two late goals as Carvajal got in for his 1st for the club and Richter crossed for opposite winger Velasco to double the lead.
Big Sam’s plans were hit hard as Elliott suffered a 3-month knee ligament injury in training. In his absence, Schick’s early goal secured a 1-0 win at 17th-place Werder Bremen to lift his side to 13th, 10 points above the bottom 2. Brown and Beljo goals earned a 2-2 at home to 6th-place Augsburg before Turgeman’s brace earned the same scoreline at 5th-place Leverkusen, in which they suffered 3 more injuries. And that left them 2 points above the relegation playoff place going into the final 5 games.
An excellent performance at home to Hamburg eased relegation concerns. Velasco struck just before the break, Hamburg undeservedly equalised, but Turgeman and Bakker strikes ensured an easy 3-1 victory. And they lost Beljo for 3 weeks, taking their injury count to 7 first teamers! Their good form continued as second-half Martel, Turgeman and Hubers goals earned a 3-1 at Wolfsburg, making them virtually secure against relegation before losing 4-2 at home to Stuttgart. In Europe, Köln breezed past Young Boys 5-2 and then beat Marseille 2-1 at home, but an injury-ravaged team lost 3-1 away.
May 2027: Bundesliga Status Secured
Köln came into the final 2 games 6 points clear of the relegation playoff place. And Schick’s header at Heidenheim secured their Bundesliga status, as they also lost Jensen and Schjelderup (again) to injury. But they finished the campaign on a high as Turgeman and midfielder Umut Tohumcu scored in a 2-1 win at home to Frankfurt.
That saw Köln finish in 10th, only 4 points outside the European places. They finished with 43 points after 10 wins, 13 draws and 11 defeats, scoring 42 and conceding 46. But they took 32 points and scored 33 goals in Big Sam’s 18 games, which was very much Champions League qualification form.
Turgeman finished the season as Köln’s top scorer with 10 in 41, followed by Beljo (8 in 20) and Schick (7 in 21). While Richter impressed with 6 goals and 9 assists and Elliott got 5 assists in 13 games.
This had been a really fun season, especially compared to the pain suffered at Sampdoria, and I’ll probably carry it on as an offline save. But now it was time for Big Sam to resign from Köln and holiday ahead to Christmas 2027.
Join us on Christmas Day (Wednesday) to discover where Big Sam ends up for Season 5!
Football Manager Addict 
Leave a comment