Strength of the Championship this year

[Driver8]

Very naive to think relegated prem players are poor.

They didn't do too much for Wolves, Blackburn or Bolton last year.

 

[BensGrandad]

They didn't do too much for Wolves, Blackburn or Bolton last year.

I think the difference this season is the respective managers are much better and more clued up.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

I've rule out the top three as Wigan, QPR and Reading should comfortably take those positions.

I'll have a very big bet they don't fill the top three.
Of all the Championship teams, we have started the season the least well prepared and yet we were good value for something at Leeds. Its not a sprint and we only got one point out of the first six last season.
I expect us to start fairly slowly but once the players are ' up to speed ' with Oscar's system, then we will roll over a lot of teams.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

I said this in another thread earlier. I really do feel the Championship will be a league of 3 separate levels this year.....

Top: QPR, Reading, Wigan, Forest, Bolton, Leicester, Blackburn, Watford and ourselves
Middle: Leeds, Ipswich, Derby, perhaps Blackpool, Charlton and Bournemouth, Birmingham, Burnley
Lower: Middlesboro, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Yeovil, Millwall, Sheff Wed, Doncaster

Possibly Leeds may infiltrate the top layer, but they do live on reputation a bit....

 

[Mo Gosfield]

I said this in another thread earlier. I really do feel the Championship will be a league of 3 separate levels this year.....

Top: QPR, Reading, Wigan, Forest, Bolton, Leicester, Blackburn, Watford and ourselves
Middle: Leeds, Ipswich, Derby, perhaps Blackpool, Charlton and Bournemouth, Birmingham, Burnley
Lower: Middlesboro, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Yeovil, Millwall, Sheff Wed, Doncaster

A lot of people are getting carried away with the credentials of QPR, Reading and Wigan. We had exactly the same punditry last season with Blackburn, Bolton and Wolves. It won't last. They won't all stay up there, although I do think they will show better than the other three.

 

[Daffy Duck]

And not forgetting that Wigan have the small matter of the Europa Cup competition, meaning they could be playing Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for a while.

 

[Brian Parsons]

I also watched the TV programme and have read this mornings papers and I agree with your philosophy. I have always split the Division into top 8, middle 8, bottom 8. iwould be ecstatic with a top 8,very happy with middle 8 given the recent upheavals in the club but it would be twitchy bum time if it were bottom 8.

I said this in another thread earlier. I really do feel the Championship will be a league of 3 separate levels this year.....

Top: QPR, Reading, Wigan, Forest, Bolton, Leicester, Blackburn, Watford and ourselves
Middle: Leeds, Ipswich, Derby, perhaps Blackpool, Charlton and Bournemouth, Birmingham, Burnley
Lower: Middlesboro, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Yeovil, Millwall, Sheff Wed, Doncaster

Possibly Leeds may infiltrate the top layer, but they do live on reputation a bit....

 

[London Irish]

People assuming Prem teams automatically will be bad are ignoring the unique problems of that particular batch, the terrible managers at Wolves, the basketcase owners at Blackburn, only the stumble of Bolton was a surprise and they recovered well enough. Contrast that with the glittering squad of QPR, the solid look of Reading and the well run club that is Wigan.....maybe the Wigan manager has something to prove but other than that there looks no weak links

 

[TSB]

Said Fifth originally and I'll say it again. Squad depth may not match some of the others, but there's an awful lot of weak teams in this league that we ought to stomp all over.

Reckon we'll have an exceptionally good second half of the season (a la Reading a few years back and us last year)

 

[Goldstone76]

So often in the first month of every division the 'new' boys who were promoted do well and often the relegated clubs dont. There are huge expectations but come September into October the league sorts itself out and come November the nucleus of whos strong and whos weak will show. After watching the highlights at Leeds Im really not worried at all. Yes we need a few extra legs and we lack depth so for us it rather depends on our key players staying fit. Our first 20 minutes or so were superb and should have won yesterdays match. On another day their last goal would have been disallowed.. OG has been here 5 weeks ish.. For me Wigan, Reading, Watford, Bolton and possibly QPR are the ones to keep up with. Leeds for sure will also do well this season IF they can keep their 2/3 key players fit. They dont have any strength in depth. This time last year we lost to Hull. No change this year. Interestingly Leeds have won their first league game in all-but two of the last 10 seasons and with that crowd any team would have found yesterday tough. The key for us are a few new faces and for the team and OG to get to know each other better.

 

[BuddyBoy]

Only Sunderland and Newcastle have won the league after being relegated in the last 11 years, I think.

West Ham too, no?

 

[spanishdave]

yes the leafue is tough this year, but we're one of them tough teams. we were a play off team last year. we gotta get behind the albion! the same happened last year, we lost away to hull, lets see how we do at home on saturday.

 

[Goldstone76]

yes the leafue is tough this year, but we're one of them tough teams. we were a play off team last year. we gotta get behind the albion! the same happened last year, we lost away to hull, lets see how we do at home on saturday.

Absolutely.. and even IF we lose on Tuesday and Saturday its still so very very early in the season. Vocal positive support is so very important and can make the difference to a match.. Just look at what happened at Leeds yesterday!

 

[joeinbrighton]

According to one of the red tops Harry is lining up a £6m purchase of Defoe, yet again

Can't see Defoe being keen to play Championship football in a season leading up to a World Cup that he will be keen to play in, in the event of England qualifying.

 

[joeinbrighton]

The key to Wigan's chances is how many of their top players are there still at the end of August. They had Callum McManaman and Jordi Gomez on the bench yesterday which is a luxury most Championship teams would wish for. If they can keep hold of the likes of Maloney and McCarthy then, even allowing for Europa League distractions, they are going to take some stopping. I think their defence could be a problem, but they also look capable of scoring plenty of goals in the division, so it might not be an issue.

I think QPR and Reading's results yesterday although less quite clear cut could be quite important to them. Reading are often very slow starters to the season. Even the year that Coppell got them promoted, they lost on the opening day at home to Plymouth. To go a goal down and come back and win against many people's tips for a play-off place is a really valuable 3 points. The same applies to QPR as it took them 16 matches to win last season and got smashed 5-0 at home on the opening day which did them a lot of damage, so to get a win on the first day from 1-0 behind again is something that will give them a big boost in confidence. They have plenty of experience at this level and Redknapp seems to have got rid a lot of the players who weren't pulling their weight and weren't prepared to roll their sleeves up.

 

[Deleted member 18477]

Bolton, Wolves, Blackburn is all I'm going to say. Last season Blackburn on paper should of walked the league. It all depends how their players play on the day.

I think Blackburn would have been promoted had they kept Steve kean!

Big error from the owner IMO.

 

[HastingsSeagull]

We over-achieved last year but were not the only ones (palarse). 7th to 9th is still our right position, we might over-achieve, get that, or under-achieve........... if we knew which what would be the point in playing the games!

 

[Driver8]

West Ham too, no?

Don't think they have won the championship in its current form.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

I've been saying for weeks that this is going to be a tougher league than last season. Palace got a huge slice of luck going up when they did - and will pay dividends for them for years to come. Conversely, missing out last season will affect us very badly in my view. However, I'm really enjoying The Championship and don't consider it a huge loss that we're not in the Prem. But each year we are our of it from now on will make it all the harder to ever compete with those coming down and benefiting from massive TV pay cheques.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

Looking at the fixtures I would say by early Oct we will know who the main players are this season and if we are going to be up there. On paper there is one easy game and after their performance Saturday I want to know if it was a poor day for Millwall or are Yeovil better than we expect.