Mohamed Al Fayed blames Fulham’s relegation on the removal of the Michael Jackson statue

Some will blame the poor results, the sunshine, the moonlight or even the boogie, but former Fulham owner Mohamed Al Fayed reckons there’s another reason behind Fulham’s relegation from the Premier League.

The Cottagers were defeated in a thriller against Stoke on Saturday and although they haven’t looked like they were going to beat it for a long time because they’ve been so bad, their relegation to the second tier was spelled out in black and white at the weekend after it became mathematically impossible for both themselves and Cardiff to survive in the top flight. While all the individuals responsible are no doubt looking at the man in the mirror in their attempts to discover what exactly went wrong, former owner Mohamed Al-Fayed has pointed the finger of blame squarely at Shahid Khan, the man who bought the club from him last summer and who took the controversial decision to remove the statue of Michael Jackson that Al-Fayed had had erected outside Craven Cottage. "When the new owner decided to move it I said 'Fine, it is a lucky thing, you will regret it later'” Al-Fayed told BBC Five Live. "Now the new owner will regret it because I warned him. I said 'You will pay with blood for that' because it was something loved by people. "It was a big mistake but he paid for it now. He's been relegated and if he wakes up he'll ask for Michael Jackson again and I'll say 'No way'." Would the return of the Jackson statue ensure Fulham's return to the Premier League at the first attempt? The theory is a little off the wall, but stranger things have happened.