Next season's Championship

voyeur

voyeur

Well-known member
Probably a bit early for this! But the idea of losing Forest made me wonder who the contenders will be next season, and whereabouts we might realistically be competing. When we played Coventry at home at the start of this season and the mood was pretty glum, I posted a comment from the Cov forum, one of their fans said that we reminded him of them last season. Struggling at the start but signs of being good enough. They went on to finish 16th - our current position. And this year have progressed again, faded a bit after a bright start. Currently 11th, 6 points off the play offs with 2 games left.

The relegated clubs will be favourites for promotion. From the rest, there's Sheff Utd, Middlesbro, Hudders, West Brom, Stoke and I suspect Swansea (who have steadily improved this season). I think Wilder could sort Boro out. Stoke and West Brom would probably need to change their managers though, if they are really serious. And maybe Sheff too, I'm not sure Heckingarse can mount a sustained promotion challenge? Currently 11th in the form table, not really fulfilling their potential. Then you have Coventry, QPR, Millwall and Blackburn. I think we can compete with those 4 at least, we are sitting just behind them and have more or less matched them this season. Preston will remain stagnant, of course. Stinking out the division. :)

So I think Boro and Swansea may be up there pushing with the relegated teams. West Brom, Sheff Utd and Stoke have the potential but maybe have the wrong managers. Forest changed theirs early this season and took off - Steve Bruce must be a bit precarious at WBA? With a decent manager they'd be strong contenders. Though I think he's the manager with the most promotions from this league? Stoke seem a bit like Rovers, not coached well enough to be consistent across a whole season.

Are there any teams from below and from L1 that could feature in the top half? Hull have got better and may spend big with their new owners? Can see them progressing. My hope is that we will be in the bunch behind the strongest 5 or 6 clubs. Doing what Luton have done, or Barnsley last season. Obviously going to depend on summer recruitment. Would be good to have the play off positions in sight through the season.
 
So hard to predict.
Play Off teams Swansea and Barnsley were expecting to challenge again.
We were favourites with Derby ( points deductions) to go down.
Even Peterborough we’re more fancied than us!
 
GrahamwantshisOates said:
So hard to predict.
Play Off teams Swansea and Barnsley were expecting to challenge again.
We were favourites with Derby ( points deductions) to go down.
Even Peterborough we’re more fancied than us!
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I didn't fancy Peterborough more than us.

It is hard to predict. But, Fulham and Bournemouth are the top two, with the biggest budgets. Huddersfield, Forest and Sheff all top 6, two recently in the Prem and two have the biggest attendances.
 
Bruce is already talking about having no window to bring in his players and being backed by the board for his plans, so we can write them off next year I think!
 
AndrewDuncanSmith said:
When does the Championship restart again?
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fixture dates are subject to change

Key dates - 2022/23

Fixture release day - Thursday 23 June

Sky Bet EFL:

Season start (regular season) – 30 July, 2022

Championship pause – 12 November, 2022

Championship resumption – 10 December, 2022

Final day (regular season) – 6 May, 2023

Sky Bet EFL Play-Offs:

Sky Bet League Two – Saturday 27 May, 2023

Sky Bet League One – Sunday 28 May, 2023

Sky Bet Championship – Monday 29 May, 2023
 
voyeur said:
I didn't fancy Peterborough more than us.

It is hard to predict. But, Fulham and Bournemouth are the top two, with the biggest budgets. Huddersfield, Forest and Sheff all top 6, two recently in the Prem and two have the biggest attendances.
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The bookies did. We were well behind Hull and Posh for staying up.
 
Wizaard said:
The bookies did. We were well behind Hull and Posh for staying up.
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I know. 👍

Except they didn't really. They don't even think about it. They set odds based on where we finished and the fact that the last 3 play off winners have been relegated and only adjust the odds if loadsamoney goes on us.

The algorithms didn't fancy us. 👍
 
voyeur said:
I know. 👍

Except they didn't really. They don't even think about it. They set odds based on where we finished and the fact that the last 3 play off winners have been relegated and only adjust the odds if loadsamoney goes on us.

The algorithms didn't fancy us. 👍
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Despite us taking 4 points off Hull and 6 points off Posh.
 
clappers said:
Bruce is already talking about having no window to bring in his players and being backed by the board for his plans, so we can write them off next year I think!
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That's his way of dusting off his tickets to Dubai. He'll be sunning himself again on his Condo balcony and admiringly studying his severance cheque by the time next season starts.
 
TangerineYfronts said:
fixture dates are subject to change

Key dates - 2022/23

Fixture release day - Thursday 23 June

Sky Bet EFL:

Season start (regular season) – 30 July, 2022

Championship pause – 12 November, 2022

Championship resumption – 10 December, 2022

Final day (regular season) – 6 May, 2023

Sky Bet EFL Play-Offs:

Sky Bet League Two – Saturday 27 May, 2023

Sky Bet League One – Sunday 28 May, 2023

Sky Bet Championship – Monday 29 May, 2023
Click to expand...
Is the pause at 23 games and is transfer window as normal?
 
Was talking to a Boro fan last night who was saying the Championship has been bang average for years which is why so many clubs who come down go back up automatically and what the Championship needs is three bang average Prem clubs in disarray coming down and that will present an opportunity for more of the teams at the top to have a go at promotion.
 
Hopefully we will do OK again, but we might find ourselves looking over our shoulder a bit more if there are no points deducted anywhere?
I am assuming we will have one of the lowest budgets, if not the lowest again. A Bowler windfall might change that though?
Is there such a thing as second season syndrome for teams coming up from League One?
 
It’s interesting how perceptions change.

At the start of the season, we were concerned about the standard in this league and how we would cope with it. And let’s face it, even if you are critical of the standard in the Champ, those Champ teams are still considerably better than those in league 1.

As the season develops, we then look at some of those Champ teams and realise that they are not that great. But that reflects what a good job BFC’s management and players have done in coping with the step up in class.

The question now is whether we can make what is another big step from bottom half to being in play off contention. In this league you have to go forward to stop going backward. If you don’t, like Reading, the longer you stay in the division the closer you get to leaving it downwards.

Its a hard ask to make that step. Particularly given the financial lunacy we see in this league from other clubs. But all we can do is take it one step at a time. And concentrate on recruiting hungry young players who have potential to take us and their careers forward.

Finally, I have found it quite encouraging to see how the end of the season has played out at the top end of the division.
Bar Forest and the top 2, the rest of the play off challengers have been relatively inconsistent in recent weeks. The charge that was supposed to come from the likes of Boro and Sheff Utd hasn’t really happened. Whoever gets sixth place will have more stumbled over the line than surged into the playoffs.

If Forest and Bournemouth do go up with Fulham then only Luton and Millwall will have massively overachieved. And they will find it hard to do it two years in a row.
 
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glasshalffull said:
Hopefully we will do OK again, but we might find ourselves looking over our shoulder a bit more if there are no points deducted anywhere?
I am assuming we will have one of the lowest budgets, if not the lowest again. A Bowler windfall might change that though?
Is there such a thing as second season syndrome for teams coming up from League One?
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I had heard somewhere that teams who survived their first year in the Championship were more likely to be demoted in the second season. It would be annoying if true and I did a "Google" on it.

Thankfully, the stattos say it's not true. Here's an extract from a stats site:

"Second season syndrome- myth or fact?​

"One topic we wanted to address was the theory of ‘second season syndrome’, whereby regardless of how well a team does in its first season after promotion (assuming they don’t gain promotion again), they will then struggle a lot more in their second season. We looked at the promotions from each division to see how many of them were then relegated in their first or second season and the results are below.

"This graph slightly disproves the theory, obviously there are still relegations in the second season, but not enough of a link to show that a team should worry anymore about their second season than they should their first. The Championship is one division where ‘second season syndrome’ is most evident as almost as many teams fail in their second season as do in their first; however it is worth noting that this is still a small amount considering there have been 68 promotions to this division since 1992."

www.thestatszone.com

Promotion and Relegation in English Football - The Stats Zone

www.thestatszone.com www.thestatszone.com
 
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