good morning!
Welcome to another season of the EFL Championship, where your hoddler-in-chief dutifully makes his yearly predictions.
My predictions last year weren’t so great. And this year is going to be even harder. I count 10 clubs that could get relegated this season, making picking the bottom of the table very difficult. But that’s where the fun is.
Title contenders: Leeds United, Burnley
There were four teams worthy of getting promoted to the Premier League last season. Three of them did. The outlier? Leeds United.
I like them to finish top this go-round. They’re just as good a side as last year and I don’t think the competition is as strong.
Of course, a lot of people like Burnley. And I get it. They dominated the Championship two years ago. They’ve kept most of their players but lost Vincent Kompany. I’m not as sold on them because of Scottie Parker, who barely got a better Fulham squad promoted a few seasons ago. I think it’ll be a tough year.
Playoff contenders: Luton Town, Coventry, West Brom, Middlesbrough, Sheffield United
I’m really liking Coventry City. They’ve been knocking on the door for a while now, should be a little steady two years after losing Viktor Gyokeres. They picked up Brandon Thomas-Asante from WBA, who should provide a little more offensive depth.
Then there are the other two relegated clubs – Luton and Sheffield United. I like Luton Town more, who used their transfer business last summer in preparation for this campaign.
And I might’ve missed badly on Boro last season, so I’m paring back that prediction this year.
Dark horses: Norwich, QPR, Bristol City, Sheffield Wednesday
The top six-seven seem pretty solid to me. I’m not sure who could break through. Norwich kinda exceeded expectations last season. With David Wagner out, it seems there’s a lot more excitement now.
I’m more interested in QPR and Sheffield Wednesday. Wednesday have made some smart moves, picking up free players like Nathaniel Chalobah. QPR also put in a tonne of work during the summer window. These two clubs struggled last season. I think they’ll be comfortably midtable now. Do I think they can challenge for a playoff spot? No.
Relegation candidates: Milwall, Portsmouth, Stoke City, Preston NE, Hull City, Oxford United, Plymouth Argyle, Watford, Derby County, Blackburn Rovers
This is where it gets tricky. There are a lot of clubs here that could go down to League One.
Out of the three promoted clubs – Derby, Oxford United and Portsmouth – I’m picking Derby to go straight back down.
There’s lots of talk about Watford going down this year. This is their first year without parachute payments and they don’t have much of a presence up front. What’s more, they’ll be continuing on with Tom Cleverley as manager. He won one out of seven games as caretaker.
I’m also picking Blackburn to go down. Their campaign completely derailed from January, and only stayed up from the efforts of Sammie Szmodics. He appears to be on the way out. And Blackburn could be out of the league next year.
But they might also not. Argyle barely survived last season and are now led by Wayne Rooney, whose managerial career has gone horribly wrong. I’m only picking them to stay up because he isn’t joining midseason, so I think he can do enough to pick up points here and there.
Other than that, I expect to see a serious scrape at the bottom all season with Oxfor dUnited, Hull City and Portsmouth down there too.
Fitzie’s EFL Championship predictions:
- Leeds United (C)
- Luton Town (P)
- Coventry (P)
- Burnley
- West Brom
- Boro
- Sheffield United
- Norwich
- QPR
- Bristol City
- Wednesday
- Cardiff
- Sunderland
- Swansea
- Millwall
- Portsmouth
- Stoke City
- Preston NE
- Hull City
- Oxford United
- Argyle
- Watford (R)
- Derby (R)
- Blackburn Rovers (R)
Fitzie’s track of the day: Ain’t That Peculiar, by Fanny
And now for your links:
The Athletic ($$): Ange Postecoglou says he is ready for his second season at Spurs
ESPN’s top breakout football stars during the Olympics
The Guardian has their own EFL Championship preview
