Our Championship rivals – part 3
In the final part of my Championship rivals series are those teams just happy to be here and will make survival their number one priority.
Unfortunately, perhaps, the Doncaster’s, Plymouth’s, Scunthorpe’s and Colchester’s have already been squeezed out of the 2nd tier in recent years. Even Luton were in The Championship six seasons ago. Now the league packs a punch with some very big names, very few of whom would look out of place in the top division.
In fact only six of the 24 clubs have never played in the PL, and only one of those (Peterborough) has never played in the top flight.
Incidentially before I start with the remaining sides, I would put Charlton in this group, my ambitions for the forthcoming season tempered by the club’s lack of activity in the transfer market.
We’ll start with Huddersfield Town, who begin their first season in the 2nd tier for 12 years on Friday night, will I believe be looking for a campaign of consolidation. I have been quite impressed with Town’s signings. Sean Scannell and Adam Clayton in particular look good additions by Simon Grayson and no one of note has left but the big question mark is over Jordan Rhodes.
Blackburn have made their interest public much to the chagrin of Grayson and replacing the Scotsman, who scored more than half of their league goals last season would be extremely tricky and if he goes I suspect it will be towards the very end of the transfer window.
Nigel Clough is in his 4th season at Derby County and last season’s 12th was his best finish. The Rams sold arguably their best player, Jason Shackhell to Burnley but were quick to replace him with Richard Keogh from relegated Coventry.
Derby have a habit of underachieving but Clough has instigated a good conveyor belt of young talent such as Mason Bennett who made his debut last season aged 15. Derby fans have shown a lot of patience towards the son of one of their greatest ever managers but that might run out this season.
Millwall are considered one of the smallest teams in this division but in Kenny Jackett they have one of the best managers. The Lions finished last season on fire and will be hoping to continue that this weekend. Annoyingly Jackett also gets his team playing quite attractive football and they have a few youngsters in their ranks that I wouldn’t mind seeing at The Valley.
During the summer one time Charlton target Karleigh Osborne joined from Brentford, Scott Malone came from Bournemouth in return for Josh McQuoid and free agent Danny Shittu also signed. I am also led to believe that somewhere in the physio’s room is Therry Racon.
Much will depend on the return of Shaun Batt and the outcome of Darius Henderson’s court case, but at least like us, the Lions don’t have the distraction of the League Cup to worry about.
Bristol City have one of The Championship’s smallest budgets and are still in the process of moving on some big wage earners. For around 3 weeks now they have had an offer on the table for West Ham’s Sam Baldock, and one wonders why he hasn’t yet signed. Jody Morris did, which was an interesting move. Aged 33 charm merchant Morris last played in England for Millwall 5 years ago.
Paul Anderson joined on a free from Forest but McInnes’ squad looks woefully weak and they will have to hope for better things from the once prolific Brett Pitman if Baldock doesn’t move to Bristol.
Crystal Palace complete the south London mini-league and if Dougie Freedman wasn’t quite as successful as his Valley counterpart in his first season, then I still felt he overacheived with a poor squad, which almost cost them in the final months of last season where they only won 3 league games after Christmas.
From that squad Nathaniel Clyne, Darren Ambrose, Sean Scannell, Anthony Gardner have all left with Wilfried Zaha expected to follow. Joel Ward and Aaron Wilbraham have joined Freedman with a few other academy players knocking on the door. It could be a long season for Palace fans as they obssess themselves with their local rivals.
Peterborough United, officially the league’s smallest club,have punched above their weight for many seasons and despite getting dumped out of this division in 2010, with Darren Ferguson back at the helm, Posh bounced back after just one season.
Ferguson has been busy in the transfer market signing 7 players including Tyrone Barnett, one of the best strikers in League Two last season. Torquay ‘keeper Bobby Olejnik was signed to replace the departing Joe Lewis and Posh look better armed this season than they were last, when they finished 18th. No one will envy going to Layer Road, one of the two worst grounds in this division (I’ll let you guess the other) and Ferguson will be on the look out for some big scalps.
Last but not least Barnsley, complete with an overweight and now injured Mido. A host of players left Oakwell in the summer including Andy Gray, who didn’t play much last term. Keith Hill’s budget is one of the lowest in the division, but he has brought a few players in other than Mido.
Ben Alnwick joined from Spurs and Kelvin Etuhu from Pompey plus Hill rescued a couple of young players from some of the Premier League’s most decorated squads. Keith Hill is a shrewd operator and he will need to be clever in the loan market as money is very tight but it could be a long season at the coldest ground in the country.
