Looking at the last 30 clubs relegated to the Championship, 2 were relegated a second successive season, 9 were promoted at the first attempt ( 4 as champions) and half (15) finished top 6 , 7 were placed between 7th and 12th and 6 between 13th and 18th.

 

The team I am most keen on at current odds is West Bromwich Albion they were very unlucky with injuries last season, also changed head coach, but played much better than their finishing position indicated.

 

XP suggests that the top of the table should have finished .....

 

1. Fulham

2. WBA

 

 

..........with Albion closer to Fulham than to the team in 4th . As much as it pains me to say it as a Brentford supporter, Fulham were an elite Championship side, as good as any we have seen since Wolves in 2017/18 and you can forget those 10 losses and "just" 90 points. Five of those defeats came in the last 10 games, when promotion was all but secured, a far better reflection of their ability was their 106 goals scored (2.3+ per game) and ridiculous +63 goal difference, to put that into context , three of the playoff teams combined only put up +43. I know the Championship really well and believe me, that total will "never" be beaten, it is an insane number in a most competitive division. Anyway, Albion were the closest to the Cottagers (!) in expected terms and closer to the runaway champions than all bar one team (Sheffield United ) were to them. United would be my second pick, but I am less keen on their additions at present and whilst I expect them to do well, prefer to look in more detail at them once the window has closed and business concluded.

 

Albion were relegated in 20/21 and prior to last season spent 13 of the previous 20 seasons in the EPL, in the other seven, they, rather incredibly, finished 2-2-4-1-2-4-2 in the Championship, so the 10th place finish was a shock. However, they played some of the campaign without a striker of note and on occasion had to play with a false nine, they spent money on a star front man in the January window and he picked up a long term injury immediately ! Daryl Dike is fit now and scoring in pre season and he was a beast in the second half of 20/21 for a Barnsley side who almost made it to the EPL and at only just turned 22, he is still improving. He and Karlan Grant  (18 goals + in each of his last two seasons at this level) could run riot with a little luck. I love the signings of DM Okay Yokuslu from Celta Vigo and especially John Swift from Reading and Jed Wallace from Millwall, two players still young but with huge Championship experience. Swift is very gifted, has a host of England U21 appearances to his name and was back to his best last season with 11 goals and 13 assists in a poor Royals team. Wallace was Mr Millwall and has 26 goals and 30 assists across the last three seasons, despite quite often being asked to play out of position, he is a leader on and off the pitch, has already made a huge impression in his first month at the Hawthorns and could have signed for multiple other ambitious Championship sides. Yokuslu knows the club well and was at Albion in their last EPL campaign.

 

Steve Bruce took charge of WBA in February, so this is his first transfer window, love him or hate him, his record in the Championship is incredible and he has been promoted to the EPL four times, twice each with Birmingham City and Hull City and if he can get those up, this should be a breeze! He knows how to get out of this division and he has averaged almost 1.7 ppg across 265 starts, which is 78 points per season (circa 5th place) as a starting position. Albion have six players at the club who have combined for 194 Championship goals/assists since the start of the 19/20 season. Albion were 0.5 goals per game short of expected levels last season and will get more chances created and converted from Swift and Wallace and surely have to go close . 

 

 

 

Good luck!