5 top teams who've had a terrible start to the 2014-15 season

We are almost two months into the European football season and some of the top teams in the continent are not having it as they would have wished. Coming into this campaign with a lot of high hopes as usual, these teams have struggled to show the football expected from them. Although time is still on their side with 7 months to go till the end of the season, the fans of these clubs will be hoping that things return to normal as soon as possible. Here are 5 European teams who have had a terrible start to the 2014-15 season (in no particular order): 

#1 Athletic Bilbao

 

For the all-Basque team of Athletic Bilbao, last season was simply wonderful. Defeating Barcelona and drawing with Real Madrid were only some of the highlights of a great campaign that saw Ernesto Valverde's charges finish fourth in the league and qualify for the Champions League. Until that point, it seemed things were fine and not even losing Ander Herrera to Manchester United could take the gloss off the potential of making it big in Europe.

However, two months into the new season and Bilbao find themselves in the unfamiliar territory of the La Liga relegation zone. The San Mames outfit have lost five of the seven games played so far, leaving fans and pundits bewildered. Some have pointed to Bilbao's Basque-only transfer policy as a reason; they couldn't use the money from the Herrera sale or the prospect of Champions League football to get the top non-Basque names in the market to come and play in the north of Spain. This inability to strengthen the squad ahead of a gruelling schedule of domestic and continental football meant that Bilbao started with a weakened team while rivals reinforced theirs. Also, proven players such as Susaeta, Benat, De Marcos, Balenziaga and Iraola have been unimpressive, adding to the problems.