Ranked! The 10 most depressing teams to support in Britain right now

Manchester City fans are revelling in Premier League title glory, Wolves supporters are relishing a return to the top fight and the Accrington Stanley faithful are in raptures after watching their team secure a place in the third tier for the first time.

Following these clubs is an absolute joy at the minute, so perhaps their supporters should spare a thought for the fans whose teams have brought them nothing but misery this season…

Everton fans are well aware that they haven’t snagged silverware in more than two decades. So, when Iranian businessman Farhad Moshiri purchased a majority stake in the club in 2016, nobody could blame them for feeling a collective pang of optimism. Finally, the blue half of Merseyside was equipped with the resources to compete with big-spending neighbours Liverpool.

Fast-forward two years and it’s all gone horribly wrong. Ronald Koeman paid the price for poor recruitment with his sacking in October 2017, a team largely comprised of failed signings is chasing shadows across the Goodison pitch, and a weather-beaten Sam Allardyce sits on the throne of an empire in turmoil.

The days when Coventry sat proudly at English football’s top table are a distant memory, forever frozen in fading photographs and battered Panini sticker albums. Two decades ago, they were in the Premier League with stars like Gary McAllister and Dion Dublin in their ranks. Rewind 10 years and they were battling against relegation in the second tier, having dropped into it for the first time in 34 years at the end of 2000-01.

These days, Coventry are a shambolically-run club, slugging it out in League Two, playing their football at a stadium that’s brought them nothing but off-field woes while operating under the ownership of Sisu, a company who once moved the team more than 30 miles down the road to Northampton.

Success and failure are relative in football, so when supporters who have watched their team lift three FA Cups in the last four years start calling for the manager’s head, followers of more long-suffering lower-league teams can only roll their eyes in irritated bemusement.

The Wenger Out brigade have finally been granted their wish, with the Frenchman set to step aside at the end of the season. His tenure will rightly be celebrated throughout the next month, but that shouldn’t hide the fact the Gunners have declined significantly in recent years.

Life after Wenger won’t necessarily be immediately rosy either, and it’s likely that the fans’ anger will merely be redirected towards unpopular owner Stan Kroenke.

North Ferriby were punching well above their weight in non-league football not so long ago, defeating fallen giants Wrexham at Wembley to lift the FA Trophy three years ago and climbing to the relative heights of the National League against the odds. The Villagers’ fairytale, however, is now over.

Although the Hull-based minnows put up a good fight in their 1-1 draw against big-spending Salford City at the Eon Visual Stadium in March, that result condemned them to back-to-back relegations and a place in the Northern Premier League for 2018-19.

North Ferriby’s very existence is now under threat, with owner Jamie Waltham describing the club as “unsustainable” and hinting at the possibility of transferring its league standing to another local outfit.

In 2011, Leyton Orient submitted a formal request for tenancy at the London Stadium and a drawn-out saga began. When West Ham were touted as the stadium’s tenants, the O’s proposed a groundshare deal which fell on deaf ears, and a subsequent legal challenge failed to convince the powers-that-be to reconsider their stance.

They were playing their football in League One back then but were no doubt hoping that a move to the London Stadium would propel them to bigger and better things. As recently as 2014 Orient were in the League One play-off final – and 2-0 up at half-time – but have been relegated twice since then and are now mid-table in the National League.