Championship Review

In many ways the Championship is more interesting than the Premier and one of those ways is the manager. There are only five British managers in the Premier – Tony Pulis, Mark Hughes, Eddie Howe, Sean Dyche and Chris Hughton – and their expectation aspiration and ambition are for their club to survive.

Of the clubs likely to finish in the top seven – Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Everton, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal – each has an overseas manager and achievement (in the form of a trophy or top 4 finish) is expected.

No such distinction exists in the Championship where ambitious owners, mainly overseas, have bought a Championship club in the hope it will be a premier one and are as likely to make a British as a continental appointment. Of the 22 managers in the Championship, 16 are British but there is no polarity of survival/promotion between them and the 6 overseas ones.

Garry Monk, who did a superb job at a difficult assignment at Leeds, is now at the helm of Middlesbrough having replaced a Spaniard (Anton Karanka) who guided them to promotion.

The Birmingham owner learned his lesson by replacing another excellent manager Gary Rowett with a marquee name Gianfranco Zola who sent Birmingham down the division. The Wolves owner has appointed a Portuguese Nino Santu with no experience at this level who has splashed out £15 million on Ruben Neves. At Hull Leonard Slutsky did well in his native Russia but has no experience. Some overseas managers Like Slavisa Jokatovic and Carlos Carvalhal at Sheffield Wednesday have had consistent success, in the former case a promotion at Watford too.

Managerial appointment is one indicator but – as is shown by the number of sackings – not the only one. Nottingham Forest, Derby and Wolves are all examples of clubs that have suffered from too many managers.

Clubs with stable managers, by which I mean one season or more, are Fulham, Sheffield Wednesday, Reading, Ipswich – Mick McCarthy is the longest serving manager in the division but his team unlikely to be top ten through lack of investment, and other clubs have experienced Championship managers: Simon Grayson (Sunderland), Mark Warburton (Nottingham Forest), Ian Holloway (QPR), Steve Bruce (Aston Villa) and Neil Warnock (Cardiff).

Sifting the data and speaking to Alan Tanner and Pargie, I have refined my top six list to Fulham, Middlesbrough, Aston Villa, Derby, Sheffield Wednesday and Hull.

Last season Norwich and Villa, the relegated clubs, failed to return – though Newcastle did so – and on this basis I eliminated Sunderland.

Fulham won 11 of their last 17 matches and sorted their defensive problems. According to Alan, there is not a concerted transfer policy which is upsetting Jokatovic but I believe they will follow the Brighton and Leicester path of play-off to automatic.

I have Middlesbrough down as automatic as Patrick Bamford and Jordan Rhodes will score, their team only managed 27 goals in the Premier.

After sloshing out mega money unsuccessfully on forwards like Ross McCormack and Scott Hogan, Villa have got in a big defender and leader in John Terry. At 35 he is slowing up but gives much experience at the back.

If Derby back Rowett they should be a play-off team as Carvalhal’s Sheffield Wednesday always are.

So who will be the unlikely Huddersfield? I have a fancy for Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United.

He had promotion success with Oxford and Northampton and United collected 100 points in 2015-16. They are a big club anxious to outperform their city rivals. At 33-1 they make a decent each way bet.

I cannot wait for the kick off with Sunderland v Derby this Friday.