Fulham relegated despite spending £100m on new players

Fulham were relegated from the Premier League following a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Watford at Vicarage Road on Tuesday.

Goals from Abdoulaye Doucoure, Will Hughes, Troy Deeney and Kiko Femenia left the visitors 16 points adrift of safety with just five games remaining.

Fulham spent close to £100million on new players after earning promotion to the top flight via the Championship play-offs last season.

However, they won just one of their opening 12 Premier League games and sacked Slavisa Jokanovic in November with the team bottom of the table having earned five points from those dozen matches.

Claudio Ranieri, who steered Leicester City to the Premier League title in memorable fashion in 2015-16, was unable to turn things around.

The Italian won just three of his 17 matches at the helm and was replaced by interim boss Scott Parker on February 28.

Fulham’s defeat to Watford was their ninth in succession and ended their hopes of escaping an immediate return to the second tier.