Championship 2024/25 outright odds, predictions and tips
The 2024/25 Championship season gets underway this week with a host of big names hoping this is the year they make it to the top flight.
Luton, Burnley and Sheffield United have all dropped down from the Premier League and will be looking to return to the top flight at the first time of asking, while Leeds United will be hoping to put last season’s play-off final defeat to Southampton firmly behind them and secure one of the two automatic promotion spots this time around.
The likes of Middlesbrough, Coventry, West Brom, Norwich, Sunderland, Stoke, Watford, Blackburn, Swansea and Hull City have all tasted Premier League foootball in the not too distant past and will be looking for another crack at the big league, while Portsmouth, Derby and Oxford will take confidence from Ipswich’s back-to-back promotions.
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For those not in the know, perhaps new to football, the promotion system in England allows three teams from the Championship to be promoted to the Premier League at the end of each season. This is to the detriment of the bottom three teams in the top flight, moving down to the Championship level.
The top two teams in the Championship automatically qualify for promotion, making those spots some of the most lucrative in football. The third team worthy of promotion is then decided by a play-off, with the teams finishing third to sixth entering a tournament. Across two two-legged semi-finals and a final at Wembley—dubbed the richest game in football—the winner is then promoted to the Premier League.
So who are the favourites to win the league this time around?
Leeds
Leeds go into the 2024/25 campaign as favourites to return to the Premier League as champions after last season’s play-off defeat to Southampton at Wembley.
After their three-year spell in the top flight ended in 2022/23, many fans thought they would secure an automatic promotion spot back to the top flight alongside Leicester last season. However, with just one win from their final six matches, they missed out to Ipswich before falling at the final play-off hurdle.
This time, Daniel Farke, who has the perfect CV for the Championship, having led Norwich to promotion in both 2019 and 2012 will looking to do the same with the Whites, but at the second time of asking. It will be tough though, with last season’s top goalscorer Crysencio Summerville joining West Ham and talented academy star Archie Gray moving to North London to sign for Tottenham Hotspur.
Burnley
After blitzing their way to the Championship title with 101 points under Vincent Kompany in 2022/23, many fans and pundits thought the Belgian was the right man to keep the Clarets in the Premier League last season.
However, after picking up just 24 points and the former Man City captain leaving to take over at Bayern Munich at the end of the campaign, they once again find themselves looking to gain promotion back to the top flight. This time around they are under Scott Parker, who has experience of leading sides to the promised land having secured promotion with both Bournemouth and Fulham in recent seasons and will be looking to complete the hat-trick with the Clarets.
He faces a tough opening start with a trip to face another relegated side in Luton Town, before fixtures against Cardiff, Sunderland, Blackburn and Leeds United in their opening five matches.
Luton
Despite giving it a good go, Luton’s first Premier League campaign ended with disappointment, returning to the Championship after just one season in the top flight.
Rob Edwards has stuck around though and is determined to have another crack at the big time by leading the Hatters to promotion once again. A lot of the squad that were in the Premier League have also remained at the club, including Elijah Adebayo and Carlton Morris who scored a combined 21 league goals between them last season. Ross Barkley will be a huge miss however after he joined Aston Villa to play in the Champions League once more.
Middlesbrough
Is this the campaign that Michael Carrick finally steers Middlesbrough back to the Premier League? Boro fans will certainly hope so.
It has been a case of so close yet so far for Boro in recent seasons, finishing just outside the play-offs in 2021/22 and 2023/24, while in 2022/23 they were knocked out in the play-off semi-finals by Coventry. This time it feels different, but if they want to return to the top flight for the first time since 2016/17 then they have to make a much better start than they did last season when they did not pick up a single win in any of their opening seven games (D2 L5).
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