The Championship Starting To Shape Up

After another action packed week­end the sides in the Cham­pi­onship look like they are sort­ing them­selves into the areas we can expect to find them in for the remain­der of the sea­son. Read­ing and Birm­ing­ham look­ing like they are going to bounce straight back whilst Don­caster and Notts For­est look des­tine to be involved in a rel­e­ga­tion bat­tle for the next 8 months.

How­ever there are those that prove the rule that the Cham­pi­onship is the most unpre­dictable league with Ply­mouth cur­rently occu­py­ing fourth whilst Wat­ford and Crys­tal Palace are cur­rently strug­gling near the bot­tom. How­ever I don’t expect that to be the case come the end of the sea­son, although fol­low­ing the rel­e­ga­tion of Leices­ter and the pro­mo­tion of Hull you can never say never.

Every­one knows that the Cham­pi­onship is unpre­dictable but it seems unlikely that we will have a sea­son like the last with Hull and Bris­tol con­test­ing the play-off final and Stoke going up. This sea­son looks like it is going to go by the book though with Birm­ing­ham and Read­ing, who have man­aged to keep hold of their best play­ers and use their para­chute pay­ments to their ben­e­fit, cer­tainly look­ing like two of the best sides in the league.

Even Derby are start­ing to take steps in the right direc­tion and it wouldn’t sur­prise any­one if they were up there come the end of the sea­son. It seems then that the £30m the Pre­mier League give to rel­e­gated clubs is start­ing to effect the Cham­pi­onship whilst newly pro­moted clubs, with the excep­tion of Swansea, are strug­gling to make the step up. It seems then that if the Foot­ball League wanted the Cham­pi­onship to be more like the Pre­mier League then they are succeeding.

Whilst it may now be eas­ier to bet on the Cham­pi­onship para­chute pay­ments are in dan­ger of tak­ing the unpre­dictabil­ity of the league away, one of the ele­ments which makes this league so watch able.

As for the future well nor­mally I would say who knows what it will hold but this sea­son things look a lit­tle more pre­dictable. The only thing that will change the way this sea­son is going is the Jan­u­ary trans­fer win­dow. QPR have plenty to spend whilst oth­ers may stick their hands in their pock­ets if they believe there is a chance for pro­mo­tion or to save them­selves from rel­e­ga­tion. At the minute though the odds for the Cham­pi­onship look like they aren’t going to change until we find our­selves at the play-off final again.

Tagged as: Birmingham, Coca Cola Championship, Doncaster, Notts Forest, Premier League, QPR, Reading