The EFL Championship awaits the 3 promoted teams from EFL League One. This follows the 2024-25 season where Portsmouth, Derby County, and Oxford United set the bar high.
The EFL Championship is likely to be unpredictable but indefinitely a very difficult league to achieve success, and probably even more so compared to last season. The league is known for clubs sitting comfortably in mid-table becoming embroiled in late relegation battles.
EFL Championship squads need a blend of pace, flicks, tricks, and a topping of stalwart experience. No pressure, right?
Wrexham: An EFL Fairytale
Where do you start with Wrexham?! The Owners? The Manager? The ground? Location?
This club has certainly arrived, and maybe it’s exactly what Welsh football needed; a true underdog story. Few expected them to nonchalantly sidestep their way through League 1 to confirm automatic promotion.
The owners, Mr Reynolds and McElhenny, are happy to put their players in the spotlight for all types of media duties and some light acting, even if black coffee is not of everyone’s choosing. Callum Wilson and Ryan Hardie tells you that Phil Parkinson aims for strength, goals and experience.
Parkinson is known for his defensive set-up in this division which may not to be fans liking if this does not turn into 3 points. Wrexham can risk attacking football this season, and if they choose to, could do reasonably well with a relatively kind fixture list.
I expect mid-table stability is achievable and half a dash for the play-offs. They gave EFL League One an electric shock and I expect them some of the electricity available to give the EFL Championship a shock too!
Charlton Athletic: Play-Off Winners
Charlton Athletic took advantage of everyone else’s slip-ups. This largely came through non-stop goals from Matty Godden. He provided 19 goals in 44 games last season, with a goal every 61 minutes. However, the EFL Championship might prove a stronger test.
Opposition teams for last season play-offs were arguably caught cold by the Addicks performances. Their average home attendance during their League 1 campaign reached a fairly respectable 15,255.
Those within the higher echelons of the club will arguably need to hope their Wembley day in the sun has reignited fans passions. A relegation battle is most likely to be expected for the club as the team will have to find a few summer bargains to settle in West London.
Their enigmatic manager in Nathan Jones arguably will relish the opportunity of having little expectation for a club that very few expected to reach mid-table in League One.
Charlton will be away on Boxing Day, and at Pompey on the 29th, and will welcome a flair fuelled Coventry team on New Years Day. The fixture Gods have not been kind; it has the feeling of long and tenuous season.
Birmingham City: Record Breakers
The Blues stormed through EFL League One with countless impeccable performances letting the other 23 clubs watch and admire their unwavering 34 wins and a mere 3 defeats. As the EFL Championship awaits, the club will undoubtedly want to compete at this level.
One positive aspect that blues fans can cling to is their owner, Tom Brady, did make the adventure over to St Andrews last season bringing a few high profile pals with him.
A club with a swansong in the Premier League would dearly love to enjoy the Birmingham-Villa derby. For now, the club will have to enjoy West Brom, but it’s a start!
The Blues will have a few tricky away games to start with including Blackburn and Leicester to manoeuvre. This will require points being collected at home to ensure that Davies’ side get off to a good start.
The end also looks like the start; tricky! I predict that Birmingham will finish in mid-table but their home form will be crucial to this actually happening.
They were fairly impressive against a competitive Newcastle United side, and I expect their squad to produce that form again in order to finish in a mid-table position.
