At the end of a calendar year, it is inevitable that some teams will have had better years than others. This article focuses on five teams whose 2015 has been one to forget. Make sure you read about the teams who have had a good year by clicking here.

LWOS Presents: Five of the worst football clubs of 2015

Real Madrid

When Barcelona win everything, it’s inevitable that Real Madrid will have a bad season. But despite some great individual performances throughout 2015 has been a very difficult year for Los Blancos. After a trophyless 2014-15 season Carlo Ancelotti was sacked in surprising circumstances just twelve months after delivering a tenth Champions League for the club, and Rafa Benítez has not found things any easier.

Real have dropped points on only six occasions in La Liga this season, scoring an impressive 45 goals in the process, but they sit third in the table behind local rivals Atlético Madrid and El Clásico rivals Barcelona, the latter of whom humiliated them 4-0 at the Bernabéu. It was thought that that humiliation would spell the end of Benítez but as things stand he is still in a job.

Though his scoring record remains impressive, Cristiano Ronaldo has disappointed thus far this season. In general play he is non-existent compared to previous years and when things go against him he gets into a strop all too often instead of attempting to turn things around. He will need to sort himself out as he ages if he wants to finish his career on a high.

Success will be around the corner at Real Madrid. It always is. However, things need to change fast if they are to make something of this season, and looking towards the future it is highly unlikely that the current club set-up will stay the same for too much longer.

Chelsea

It may be a surprise to see a team who won two trophies in 2015 included in this list, but there is no doubt that 2015 was a poor year for Chelsea. After a brilliant end to 2014, during which they effectively sealed up the Premier League title, the Blues’ standards gradually started to slip which caused the first half of the 2015-16 season to be nothing short of a disaster.

In the first half of 2015, with a comfortable lead over the rest of their domestic rivals secured, Chelsea could have been forgiven for dreaming of a famous “quadruple”. In the league, José Mourinho’s men began to prefer substance over style as they ground out results in a less entertaining matter. A slip up at home to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League meant that Chelsea crashed out in the Last 16 in disappointing fashion. This slip-up was nothing compared to the embarrassment they suffered in the FA Cup at home to Bradford City, where they threw away to a 2-0 lead to lose 4-2; one of the greatest upsets in football history.

Despite those two disappointments and the less attractive football being played, the Capital One Cup and Premier League titles meant that 2015 was on course to be a good year at Stamford Bridge. However, the next seven months would be beyond any rival fan’s wildest dreams.

After a dreadful summer where the side performed disappointingly in pre-season, lost to Arsenal in the Community Shield—the first time José Mourinho has lost to Arsène Wenger—and failed to strengthen the team properly, Chelsea’s season became a comedy of errors. They lost game after game in the league and Cesc Fàbregas, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa, the latter two of whom appear to be massively overweight, have performed very badly indeed. After losses to Manchester City, Crystal Palace, Everton, Southampton, West Ham, Liverpool, Stoke City, Bournemouth and Leicester, Mourinho was sacked with his side 16th in the table.

New manager Guus Hiddink is yet to set the world alight in the short time he has been back in West London, and has a real job on his hands to turn things around. Both attitude and performance needs to be changed dramatically if Chelsea are to have a more enjoyable 2016.

Manchester United

If there’s one thing that the 2015-16 season has taught United fans it is a further reminder that Sir Alex Ferguson was a truly great manager. After two years of mediocrity and a scary amount of money wasted, the club with whom he enjoyed so much success over four decades has regressed to say the least.

After an inconsistent but promising start to life under Louis van Gaal, the Red Devils’ league form in 2015 wasn’t too bad. They won six games in a row between February and April and, despite losing three games on the trot after a famous 4-2 against Manchester City, secured a much-needed place in the next season’s Champions League. In the FA Cup they were dumped out at the quarter-final stage by Arsenal and their former golden boy, Danny Welbeck, and though the first half of 2015 was not the most memorable, it could have been seen as a good building block for future success.

All the good work of the first half was quickly undone. Of the hundreds of millions of pounds that was hurled at new players in the summer only approximately £36 million of it has showed enough signs of paying off thus far in the shape of Anthony Martial. Though his scoring record has not improved since his fantastic start, his overall play has been brilliant and it is clear that he will be one of the world’s best in the future.

However, with the exception of Martial, David de Gea and Chris Smalling, the team’s performances have been dire in 2015-16. After somehow managing to keep themselves around the top of the table throughout August and September, United were thrashed 3-0 by Arsenal at The Emirates and have since slipped to sixth in the league table. They were knocked out of the Capital One Cup on penalties at home to Middlesbrough and failed to reach the Last 16 of the Champions League. They have not won a match in seven games in all competitions.

What is even worse than the results is that the performances have been lacklustre. Not once this season have the Red Devils looked like the typical ‘United’, and it’s very worrying for their fans that the team show no signs of turning it around. The football being played has been boring at best and van Gaal can no longer use the excuse of results over entertainment. His days as manager are numbered and there is no guarantee that 2016 will be a happier year for the Greater Manchester side.

Elche

Results wise, the first half of 2015 was not too bad for Elche. They finished a respectable 13th in La Liga, well clear of relegation, and enjoyed a memorable 4-0 at home to Deportivo in the process. However, off the field things looked very bleak indeed. Constant financial problems meant that the club failed to pay the players and staff on a number of occasions. They were struggling to pay the Spanish treasury enough money and at the end of the season missed the deadline to pay the tax authorities, which meant that they were relegated to the Segunda División.

After a difficult summer during which sixteen players left the club, most notably loan signing Jonathas, who scored fourteen league goals in 2014-15 and was not able to sign with the club a long-term basis, Elche managed to string some sort of squad together relying largely on cheap transfers and loan signings. They now sit tenth in the Segunda División and it is unlikely that they will be back in La Liga in a hurry.

Of all the top flight clubs in Europe very few had more difficult years than Elche. It is unlikely that 2016 will be much better as the financial problems continue to drag the club—and most likely its league position—down.

Milan

The 2014-15 season was simply a disaster for i Rossoneri. They won just seven out of 22 league games, during one of which they played in front of an almost empty stadium and a banner reading: “GAME OVER: INSERT COIN AND #SAVEACMILAN” was displayed, and finished a lowly tenth in Serie A. What was most disappointing is that 2014 ended on something of a high with a 2-0 win over Napoli and a battling draw away to Roma. Unfortunately, that was a real false dawn as the team failed to gel at all and results got worse and worse.

After a chaotic summer during which a seemingly endless array of players departed and arrived, matters are still not ideal, but things have gradually started to improve. There have been some appalling results, such as the embarrassing 4-0 loss at home to Napoli, but the team is showing signs of starting to gel and the team have been able to string results together. They sit sixth in the table, four points off the European places, and might just be able to have some success in 2016.

Some of the players both old and new have performed admirably. Most notably Carlos Bacca, signed from Sevilla, has scored goals at a steady rate and seems to fit the system well, and Giacomo Bonaventura is in strong form at the moment, scoring five goals and picking up eight assists in all competitions, but more importantly contributing very well to the team’s overall play.

Behind the scenes stability is yet to be achieved, but matters at Milan are a lot better now than they were a few months ago. 2015 has been a disastrous year, but the light at the end of the tunnel is that things are starting to get better. A league finish in the European places isn’t off the cards and with a place in the Coppa Italia quarter-final Milan might be able to deliver some silverware in 2016.