EFL Championship Preview

It promises to be another belter of a season in the Championship, with more interest and subplots that we’ve seen in many years. Here are 16 thoughts as we kick off the new season this weekend.

1. I’ve already had enough of Tom Brady. His brilliant analysis that Team USA needed “a Lamine Yamal or young Messi kind of player” while chatting with Rog on Men of Blazers was the last straw. Birmingham have this kind of narrative of impatience right now, that they belong in the top flight and are just desperate to hurry up and be there, and that’s basically the kind of urgency with which Brady managed his career. It’s kind of a toxic faux meritocracy thing. Not bad for supporters who want owners who will invest cash, kind of not my thing. 
   
2. Can Wrexham stay the darling underdog the higher up they go? At what stage does winning lose its quaintness when it’s no longer a surprise and your squad is made up of hardened, accomplished veterans like Josh Windass and Kieffer Moore? I think there’s still more room for them to wiggle and the love fest isn’t at an end yet, but something worth thinking about. 
   
3. The Tractor Boys will have to pull their fingers out and start winning again, to state the obvious. What I mean though, is, this is a squad that kind of got used to losing last year. They’re favorites to win the league this year, but in order to do that they’d have to yoyo immediately from perennial losers to perennial winners with no hangover whatsoever. What are the odds of that? Especially considering that they haven’t really done much with their squad, with the exception of losing Delap to Chelsea. 
   
4. Coventry City is gonna crank this season. Frank Lampard’s acceptance to just lose the hair, hold on to what he’s go but not go for any treatment, not fly to Turkey to get plugs, it reflects a man who is honest and real and aging gracefully and beautifully and fully focused on getting the Sky Blues back where they truly belong which is Premier League football. 
   
5. Everyone knows Milwall is a gritty football club. But they are going to surprise even themselves this year and push for a playoff spot. Vibes are high under Alex Neil, they’ve had a solid offseason, The Den is still a fortress. I like it. 
   
6. I think Pompey is unfortunately maybe at the other end of the spectrum, they’ve kind of plateaued a little and I’d like to see some early fight out the gate from them. They looked a bit out of their depth on the pitch last year, and I’m worried it’s gonna be more of the same. 
   
7. Derby is like the model EFL club all of a sudden? They seem on solid footing financially and on the field. Maybe this is the season fans can start to relax a little and enjoy again. 
   
8. There are two clubs that I put squarely into a “potential hangover” category, and for vastly different reasons: Charlton and Sheffield United. Charlton still partying, the Blades still commiserating. I’m more worried about Sheffield United than Charlton, but both could start the season slowly. 
   
9. If I had to guess who is most likely to have a completely fucked season, it would be some combo of Sheffield Wednesday, Hull City and Blackburn. I think Blackburn has the best chance to get out of that group, but the vibes there are just kind of shitty, there’s this growing discontent between fans and the club that needs to be resolved. Hull is in that constant manager churn that never works out, they look like a club without an identity. And Sheffield Wednesday’s problems are very well documented, and without Danny Rohl there the whole thing could completely go to pieces. I’m not necessarily picking them as the bottom three, but I do think all three struggle existentially and on the pitch this year. 
   
10. I like the Saints to finish near the top, but not qualify for automatic promotion, they might have the same problem I alluded to earlier with the Tractor Boys, where they’ve been so used to losing that they just won’t be able to start winning again straight away. 
    
11. Everyone is picking Oxford to go down, including bookmakers, but I think they’ve got too much pluck in them for that! They proved it last year, what more do you want to see from them? 
    
12. Pundits were bigging up Norwich City and Middlesbrough last year, but I just don’t think those squads know their way out of the Championship. More mid-table mediocrity for them. 
    
13. Same with Preston North End and QPR – QPR may actually struggle to stay up, although the new manager looks like he has a vaguely sensible head on his shoulders. What happened with Marti Cifuentes again? 
    
14. Speaking of Marti, he’s now at Leicester, and if you had to pick one demoted team who is going to struggle to get right back up, it would probably be them. Cifuentes might be a tactical “genius” but he’s so fucking uninspiring. They should make the playoffs but only just. 
    
15. Bristol City put an awesome performance in last year on and off the pitch. Can they do it again and maybe even go one step further? It could be a pretty massive leap between getting close and getting there, but there aren’t many teams I’d say are better positioned to do so. 
    
16. So who’s left? Stoke is stuck. Watford started strong last year but seems a bit of a right mess. West Brom lost there way when Carlos left. Swansea is stabilizing but still mid. Preston North End will be plucky but ultimately finish somewhere around the middle of the table. For some of these teams, it feels the story has been written before the season even starts. 

Week one kicks off tonight with Birmingham taking on Ipswich Town. Bring it on.