Championship 24/25 ..........two weeks until the first round of games
Jul 27, 2024
Championship 2024/25:
Foot of EPL ............
| 17 | Nottingham Forest2 | 38 | 9 | 9 | 20 | 49 | 67 | -18 | 32 | WLWL | 19 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 27 | 30 | 19 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 22 | 37 | ||
| 18 | Luton Town | 38 | 6 | 8 | 24 | 52 | 85 | -33 | 26 | LLXL | 19 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 28 | 37 | 19 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 24 | 48 | ||
| 19 | Burnley | 38 | 5 | 9 | 24 | 41 | 78 | -37 | 24 | LLLX | 19 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 19 | 43 | 19 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 22 | 35 | ||
| 20 | Sheffield United | 38 | 3 | 7 | 28 | 35 | 104 | -69 | 16 | LLLL | 19 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 19 | 57 | 19 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 16 | 47 | ||
| 1 | Everton (-8) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Nottingham Forest (-4) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2023/24 | Overall | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||||
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Gdf | Pts | Form | P | W | D | L | F | A | P | W | D | L | F | A | ||||
| 1 | Leicester City | 46 | 31 | 4 | 11 | 89 | 41 | +48 | 97 | LWWW | 23 | 17 | 1 | 5 | 47 | 18 | 23 | 14 | 3 | 6 | 42 | 23 | ||
| 2 | Ipswich Town | 46 | 28 | 12 | 6 | 92 | 57 | +35 | 96 | WWXX | 23 | 16 | 6 | 1 | 59 | 32 | 23 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 33 | 25 | ||
| 3 | Leeds United | 46 | 27 | 9 | 10 | 81 | 43 | +38 | 90 | LLWL | 23 | 16 | 5 | 2 | 45 | 16 | 23 | 11 | 4 | 8 | 36 | 27 | ||
| 4 | Southampton | 46 | 26 | 9 | 11 | 87 | 63 | +24 | 87 | WLLL | 23 | 15 | 3 | 5 | 54 | 29 | 23 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 33 | 34 | ||
| 5 | WBA | 46 | 21 | 12 | 13 | 70 | 47 | +23 | 75 | WLLL | 23 | 15 | 4 | 4 | 38 | 17 | 23 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 32 | 30 | ||
| 6 | Norwich City | 46 | 21 | 10 | 15 | 79 | 64 | +15 | 73 | LXXW | 23 | 15 | 4 | 4 | 43 | 22 | 23 | 6 | 6 | 11 | 36 | 42 | ||
The last four Championship winners have been relegated teams, the last three were the team who finished 18th in the EPL and Luton Town filled that spot this season. Prior to that the title was won by Leeds United who had finished third the year before, which is the position they again filled in 2023/24 and they have been priced strong favourites at circa 4.50 to repeat that feat.
The top 3 through those last five seasons (15 teams) have been provided by 12 who were either relegated, or playoff losers the previous campaign ( six of each).
Most compelling statistic of all is that 8 of the last 10 teams filling the automatic promotion places were receiving parachute payments from the Premier League. This is no surprise, not only is this a massive financial income boost, but comes at a time when many Championship teams are keeping a tighter hold on finances and are less willing to gamble for the Holy Grail of promotion, like we have seen Forest, Villa, Derby and others do in the recent past, with varying success. Coventry City ( 5th and 9th last two seasons, along with a FA Cup semi final) , Millwall (top 9 in 4 of the last 7 seasons) and Luton Town (19-12-6-3 last four Championship campaigns) have shown it can be done on a relative shoestring and staying within budget. No surprise that all three have played at a lower level in recent seasons. City were League 2 in 2018 and were a penalty shoot out away from the top flight five years later, Town were promoted that season, just nine years after they returned to the Football League from non league. Both have had major financial issues in the past, but, unlike some other clubs, appear to have learned their lesson and still been competitive.
I have put up an outright selection and went on to detail the reasons why, but have to keep that for subscribers and a select few in the database, but can share with you some thoughts on two other Championship teams ......
Dark Horse ?
Bristol City are one of the big underachievers in the Championship, the set up looks good, the owner is super rich and has been long term committed to the City of Bristol (which is the 11th largest in the UK and biggest in the West Country) and not just the football club. However, since promotion in 2015 they have only once finished top 10 (8th) and had been expected to at least compete in all nine of those campaigns. It has to be said they have made some god awful managerial appointments, a couple of whom I would not even let take charge of my dog if I had one! However, I suspect they have a good one now, with Liam Manning poached from Oxford United, he is very young (38) and perhaps only now coming to terms with the job after arriving in November. His team went into the final game of last season unbeaten in seven including two games against top 5 teams with automatic and playoff ambitions and the mood at the club is good. Attendances are averaging over 22,000 which is great for a mid table team with no real success for years and the highest they have been since the 1977-78 campaign. Season ticket sales have increased this summer, so every reason to believe that those attendances will rise again.
They finally finished 11th last season, their best finish since 2018-19 and a circa 10 point improvement, which will be required to get into the top 6 feels do-able . The team that Manning built at Oxford earned promotion into the Championship after his departure and now he will have had his first pre-season and second transfer window at Ashton Gate and in the first he was still working out what was required. No team outside the top six won more home games than City, or had a better goal difference +10 and they should improve and circa 2.50+ for them to again finish top half of the table, feels big.
Sleeping (dozing) Giant
Sunderland are also worthy of mention. They are an enormous club with terrific support and averaged a Championship high 41,158 attendance last season despite finishing 16th, which is insane! That would have placed them 9th in the EPL, just above Chelsea and a few hundred below Aston Villa.
16th seems low, but they finished only 8 points adrift of 9th and were outside the playoff spots only on goal difference through 31 games. We can forgive them that finish to a degree, it was the youngest squad in the Football league and by a mile in the Championship, with an average age in their starting 11 of 22.4 yo with the next youngest coming in at 24.1 and they were dealing with much upheaval at the Stadium of Light, with four different head coaches (two permanent) in charge.
Sunderland were only promoted to the second tier in 21/22 and finished 6th in their first season back, so had that postseason hangover to deal with too. However, performance levels were better and xP gave them 70 points, an additional 14 , just one shy of the team in 5th and actually better than they achieved in that debut season and all while the youngsters were dealing with a lot of disruption.
The owners are interesting. 26 yo (!) Kyril Louis-Dreyfus owns 64% and 43 yo Juan Sartori 36%, both are from mega rich families and with sporting backgrounds. Louis -Dreyfus studied sport at University which is odd in itself for someone from his upbringing (isn't it always business?) and he also has a small share in Olympique Marseille, the club which was owned by his father. Sartori is married to the daughter of a Russian oligarch and she and her husband are both on the board of AS Monaco, which is owned by her father. But Sartori is rich in his own right and also sits on the Senate in Uruguay and finished second in the race to earn his party's nomination for President. As I said, an interesting duo.
With that French football background for both and given the youth of the set up at Sunderland, which is very much the modus operandi established by the owners, the appointment of Regis Le Bris as head coach makes sense. The 48yo has been coaching since he was 27, usually working with youngsters. He had been at Lorient since 2012 , the last two seasons in the head coach role. RLB is very hands-on and there is a lot of video doing the rounds of him drilling the players in preseason, drumming into them , "faster, faster, higher tempo." RLB has a doctorate in sport physiology and biomechanics, later getting a DU on mental training of high level athletes and is very much a modern coach who is happy with analytics and outside the box thinking, whilst also having a long history in football, despite still being "young".
I like the signing of 24 yo Ian Poveda from Leeds United, he was at Brentford as a youngster and the next big thing at the time, before getting "stolen" by Manchester City for a pittance and was the catalyst for the Bees closing their academy at the time . Also, Alan Browne , he is going to be the grandad in this squad at 29yo, but brings with him a wealth of experience , 346 games in the Championship, 44 with Preston North End last season. His signing makes so much sense with all those youngsters playing around the CM.
Good luck!
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