While the Lionesses are gripping the nation, it could be easily to forget that another season of Sky Bet Championship football begins on Friday night with 24 teams all starting out with the same aim – to reach the Promised Land of the Premier League.
Fulham, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest achieved that dream last season and the race for promotion this season promises to be every bit as keenly fought as it has been over the last few seasons.
Recent Winners
2021-22 – Fulham
2020-21 – Norwich City
2019-20 – Leeds United
2018-19 – Norwich City
2017-18 – Wolverhampton Wanderers
2016-17 – Newcastle United
2015-16 – Burnley
2014-15 – Bournemouth
2013-14 – Leicester City
2012-13 – Cardiff City
The Favourites
It is now almost a certainty that a relegated team is the favourite to win the Championship the following season. That is the case this term too. The only thing to come as something of a surprise is that the lowest ranked of the three relegated teams is that favourite in the 2018-19 and 2020-21 champions Norwich City. Much like Fulham, they are seen as a yo-yo team but I just wonder if they are as strong this term as they were on the two previous occasions when they came down. Under Daniel Farke they played a level of football which was too good for the Championship but I’m not sure Dean Smith can coach that style. Norwich have been quite quiet in the transfer market, which isn’t always a bad thing, but having lost some big loan players there looks an overreliance on Teemo Pukki for my liking. I don’t think anyone will be surprised if they land the 11/2 quotes but I’m not that interested in paying to find out.
Watford are 7/1 second favourites to win the league. Like Norwich, they tumbled out of the Premier League at the first time of asking and will be looking to get back straight away. Having gone through three more managers last season it is Rob Edwards who will begin this season in charge at Vicarage Road. That feels like a change in direction given that previous managers have either been hugely experienced or foreign, or both in the form of Claudio Ranieri. Edwards is neither and it will be interesting to see how that goes. He will inherit a side that has lost Ben Foster, Moussa Sissoko, Cucho Hernandez and Josh King among others and could yet lose Emmanuel Dennis and Ismaela Sarr. Anyone who knows me won’t be surprised that they’re not for me.
West Bromwich Albion and Middlesbrough were both in the Championship last season and are 9/1 to win the title this season. This feels like a big season for West Brom. I was there for the second game of last term and it was obvious then that the Valerien Ismael journey was never going to end at the desired destination. They should be a lot better under Steve Bruce and should be competitive, especially if their strikers can stay fit and play to their potential. Middlesbrough have made some good moves in the market already this summer with Zach Steffen, Ryan Giles and Darragh Lenihan appealing arrivals but they need a top level striker to be taken seriously.
The Contenders
Burnley were the highest point scorers of the three teams who came down from the Premier League last season and are 12/1 for an immediate return via the Championship title. Had Sean Dyche still been around I would have been a lot more confident about their chances. Vincent Kompany has all the credentials to be a good manager but never saw the Championship as a player and he has had to oversee a large overhaul of his squad with influential players such as Nick Pope, Ben Mee, James Tarkowski and Nathan Collins while Wout Weghorst has gone and it looks like Dwight McNeil is off too. Burnley look like a team who need to transition to me.
You can get 12/1 in one place on Sheffield United to win the title and they certainly aren’t going to lack for motivation after the heart-breaking way that their campaign ended last term. That was a season that threatened a lot more than was delivered but over the second part of the campaign they were one of the better teams in the league. A lack of a top notch marksman has to be a concern while Morgan Gibbs-White was extremely influential last term and isn’t around this time around. I expect Sheffield United to be in the mix but like last season they might find a couple too good for them.
Swansea City flattered to deceive under Russell Martin last season but with a year under his stewardship to their name they are fancied by some at 25/1. Scoring goals was an issue for the Welsh outfit last season but if football was determined by the number of passes a team made Swansea would have had the league won in September. Pretty football is nice but in this league you have to stick it in the onion bag and the fortunes of Swansea will be determined by how well or otherwise they do in that discipline.
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Best of the Rest
On the best prices Coventry City come next in the betting. They had a wonderful first half of the season last term but faded in the second half when the fixtures came along thick and fast. A lack of squad depth was their undoing last season and while they haven’t gone out and made wholesale changes the ones they have brought in look of a good quality. More should be expected of the Sky Blues this term.
Stoke City and Luton Town are the only other teams shorter than 35/1 this season. Both can be taken at 33/1 on the best prices. Stoke have signed a number of players but they have a lot of improvement to find from last term if they are going to be in and around the top six. Luton were the team who finished sixth last season and still aren’t getting the credit they deserve from bookmakers or many pundits looking at various predictions.
Outright Betting
It is my team Luton Town who I think are the value in this division. Of course you can make a case for all the market leaders but I think the one thing that everyone will agree on is that there is no Fulham in this league this season and there is a more open and perhaps competitive feel to things. However good the record of the favourites are in this league, and usually they have parachute money awarded for cocking up the previous season to benefit them, in almost all of the seasons this century an outsider has made the top three, the latest of which being Huddersfield Town last season.
I think Luton will be that outsider this time around. Although they finished sixth last season they went into the final international break in third place when their injuries caught up with them. That has been rectified for this season with six eye-catching signings being made and only really Kal Naismith of any significance leaving and he missed a number of games in the second half of the campaign with injury himself. There is no doubt in my mind that Luton are better going into this season with top drawer additions of Alfie Doughty, Cauley Woodrow and Carlton Morris in key areas of the pitch and with those there from last year having another year of Championship football under their belt I expect Luton to be pushing for promotion this term. Luton have never finished a season they started with Nathan Jones as manager in a lower position than the previous campaign. If that record stays intact this season Luton are genuine promotion contenders in a wide open league.
Tips
Back Luton Town to win Sky Bet Championship 2022/23 (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Unibet (1/4 1-3)
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