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There is a case for arguing that Ipswich Town rode to the rescue of the Football League and English football’s pyramid system last season. The three clubs relegated from the Premier League were the trio who had been promoted the previous year. Three of the top four in the Championship had been relegated from the top flight 12 months earlier.
The interlopers, the exceptions, were Ipswich – marooned in League One, they then surged through the Championship at the first time of asking. As the Football League starts again on Friday evening, it is with Ipswich as the role models. The cliché is that anyone can beat anyone but if the Championship used to be renowned for its unpredictability, the danger is that, aided by parachute payments, the second tier has become too predictable.
If the standards were high at the top – 87 points only secured Southampton fourth place – there was a gulf between the best and the rest – and yet the rest were sufficiently bunched that Birmingham were relegated with 50 points. That it was, in part, due to a disastrous decision to appoint Wayne Rooney, who has now taken over at Plymouth, adds another dimension to the 2024-25 Championship.
That Leeds were the odd ones out in last season’s top four, beaten in the play-off final by Southampton after a 90-point campaign, helps render them favourites now. So, too, the sense that Burnley, Luton and Sheffield United do not necessarily come down with the same power that Leeds, Southampton and Leicester did the previous year. Now, Leeds look the strongest even with the loss of the outstanding footballer in the division last season, Crysencio Summerville, and the homegrown prodigy, Archie Gray. There are common-sense additions: Joe Rodon, after a fine loan, Jayden Bogle and the borrowed Joe Rothwell, albeit not players of such potential.
There is also a manager, in Daniel Farke, who has gone up twice before. It is notable, though, that, if hired in different situations, Leeds’ probable rivals have managers with certain similarities on their CVs. Between them, the German, Burnley’s Scott Parker, Sheffield United’s Chris Wilder and Luton’s Rob Edwards have six promotions to the Premier League to their names.
It may seem such a prestigious achievement that it helped propel Parker’s predecessor Vincent Kompany to Bayern Munich but his is an intriguing appointment. Kompany bequeathed him a bloated mess of a squad who underachieved in the top flight but also some players who either looked too good for the Championship two years ago or, in Wilson Odobert and Luca Koleosho, showed their talent in the Premier League.
Meanwhile, Wilder’s star may have waned since his 2019 promotion, though most of the reasons the Blades procured a mere 16 points last year predated his mid-season appointment. The summer has seen a break from his and United’s past, with departures including the stalwarts of his original side, in John Egan, Chris Basham, Oliver Norwood and George Baldock. It remains to be seen if he can forge a similarly compelling team. Certainly, in Kieffer Moore, Callum O’Hare, Harry Souttar and Peterborough’s creative left-back Harrison Burrows, there are auspicious signings.
At Kenilworth Road, meanwhile, there may be a rare problem for Luton: the burden of expectation. Edwards has kept the vast majority of the players who acquitted themselves well in the Premier League, with Ross Barkley the most prominent of those exiting, and many seemed acquired with the Championship partly in mind. There was a temptation to wonder in 2023 if some were bought to secure promotion in 2025.
Looking beyond those with the most recent Premier League experience – West Bromwich Albion came fifth last year, have a hugely impressive manager, in Carlos Corberan, but also a slender squad. Norwich also reached the play-offs last season and would have sacked David Wagner even if they had won them: his replacement, Johannes Hoff Thorup, a 35-year-old Dane, is another indication the Championship can be the league for punts on managerial potential. He has lost the Galatasaray-bound Gabriel Sara, who is further proof of the division’s allure to elite clubs, both in England and abroad.
Middlesbrough are understandably fancied, with Michael Carrick’s calm management and the possibility Emmanuel Latte Lath could top the scoring charts. They suffered for a slow start last season and so did Coventry, in the rebuild after losing Gustavo Hamer and Viktor Gyokeres. Mark Robins, pound-for-pound among the best managers outside the top flight, almost took them to the FA Cup final, though. If Boro and Coventry can begin better, each might be a contender.
Sunderland bemused last season with a silly managerial sacking (Tony Mowbray), a strange appointment (Michael Beale) and a weird four-month impasse with no manager at all until Regis Le Bris was installed. But there was belated logic in bringing in the battle-hardened midfielder Alan Browne to support their gifted youngsters. They might challenge.
Hull almost gatecrashed the play-offs, sacked Liam Rosenior and sold Jacob Greaves and Jaden Philogene; they may slip down the standings, though former Hamburg manager Tim Walter is a fascinating choice. Two of last year’s inspired imports, Sheffield Wednesday’s Danny Rohl and QPR’s Marti Cifuentes, conjured wonderful escapes from relegation and now have a full season at the helm to see where it can take them.
A different kind of arrival in the division are clubs who diced with disaster financially: Derby and Portsmouth have both had their time in administration. County spent two years in the third tier, Pompey 12 out of the top two divisions. Promotion from League One gave long-suffering fanbases something to celebrate after the existential dread.
They were accompanied in going up by play-off winners Oxford, who start as rank outsiders. If the laws of footballing gravity are different between the Championship and League One – what goes up doesn’t automatically come back down – Oxford are underdogs. Plymouth could accompany them down; their chance of salvation may rest with the prolific Morgan Whittaker, if not with Rooney. Last year, Sammie Szmodics delivered his own brand of heroics: 27 goals for a Blackburn side who came 19th.
And while the four-way fight at the top brought drama last season, there was more at the foot when, in the final weeks of last season, eight clubs contested the final two relegation spots. That tightness and tenseness showed the appeal of the Championship. And if neutrals may want something similarly close, for 20 clubs, there will be one objective, however improbable – to do an Ipswich.
