2024-25 Championship preview and predictions

[ITFC_EFL]

Hello

I'm an Ipswich Town fan who writes a blog on the EFL. I've written a longer-than-expected two part article previewing and predicting the Championship this season. Unsurprisingly, I think Burnley will do well but I'm aware I may have put them slightly lower than many of you will have done so let me know what you think.

Cheers

https://jacobpowley.substack.com/p/2024 ... ctions-641

https://jacobpowley.substack.com/p/2024 ... redictions

[taio]

Us finishing third doesn't seem an unreasonable prediction.

The thing that jumps out at me are your predictions that the likes of West Brom, Hull, Watford and Blackburn will finish 16th, 20th, 22nd and 24th respectively.

[Poulton-le-Claret]

Ask me when the transfer window is closed. Hope your prediction about Rovers is correct!

I can see us finishing third but I would be surprised to see Coventry getting second.

[ElectroClaret]

Is the interest in Szmodics still ongoing?
Thought negotiations between Ipswich and
R*vers had stalled.

[Hanoverusaclaret]

some outliers there... Sheffield United have done some great business so expect much more of a challenge from them. I don't see their midfield being an issue with Hamer in there. He was a standout for Coventry the year before last. Watford near the bottom? Not seeing that at all. Expect them to be playoffs or possibly just outside. All about opinions though. It is also really early. Several teams could look dramatically different by the end of the month, including us. I'm worried we're not moving out the deadwood quick enough and may end up having to sell ones we wanted to keep.

[ITFC_EFL]

Us finishing third doesn't seem an unreasonable prediction.

The thing that jumps out at me are your predictions that the likes of West Brom, Hull, Watford and Blackburn will finish 16th, 20th, 22nd and 24th respectively.

Fair enough, I just think they’re all run pretty badly off the pitch, albeit in slightly different ways.

[ITFC_EFL]

Is the interest in Szmodics still ongoing?
Thought negotiations between Ipswich and
R*vers had stalled.

Negotiations are still continuing. They played silly buggers with us in January over Sam Gallagher by agreeing and then un agreeing a fee. This time I think it will happen though - Szmodics wants to move back to Essex and it’s probably his last big shot at a Prem move so he may force it through. Blackburn are short of cash so could relent eventually.

[ITFC_EFL]

some outliers there... Sheffield United have done some great business so expect much more of a challenge from them. I don't see their midfield being an issue with Hamer in there. He was a standout for Coventry the year before last. Watford near the bottom? Not seeing that at all. Expect them to be playoffs or possibly just outside. All about opinions though. It is also really early. Several teams could look dramatically different by the end of the month, including us. I'm worried we're not moving out the deadwood quick enough and may end up having to sell ones we wanted to keep.

Sheff United could be great but still have a lot of unknowns with the takeover not being complete. Agreed on Hamer, however I don’t think he’ll be there by September 1st.

Watford’s owners seem much more focused on Udinese at the moment and their squad is weaker than the one that finished 15th so they’ll do well to stay. Recruitment looks odd on paper too.

Which players do you ultimately think will stay? Odobert is one that McKenna is quite keen on, even if he’ll probably cost more than the £20m we paid for Hutchinson.

[Hanoverusaclaret]

Odobert probably isn't going to go for less than 25M. He has the potential to be a top-level player, and Ipswich might be a good fit as he needs games to develop. I would think there is more likelihood of him going to somewhere like Fulham tbh. They have money and need to replace BDR.
Berge is the other obvious player likely to leave for big money. He can play at almost any topflight team. Fulham again, Southampton, Forest or Leicester could be suitors. He's probably around 20M+ bracket too.
Also, everything always looks odd at Watford. They are Watford. Sheffield United have made some excellent signings. They have also lost a few though too so you might be right. Egan is a huge loss and as much as I detested him McBurnie was solid in the Championship.

[MrTechno]

Hello

I'm an Ipswich Town fan who writes a blog on the EFL. I've written a longer-than-expected two part article previewing and predicting the Championship this season. Unsurprisingly, I think Burnley will do well but I'm aware I may have put them slightly lower than many of you will have done so let me know what you think.

Cheers

https://jacobpowley.substack.com/p/2024 ... ctions-641

https://jacobpowley.substack.com/p/2024 ... redictions

Hi mate, did you come on here after us playing you in the cup 22/23? Thought you looked far too good for league 1 then but never expected what happened after that. Congratulations and good luck in the premier league. Hoping we’ll go up automatically but think the threats come from Leeds and Luton who are really well coached.

[ITFC_EFL]

Hi mate, did you come on here after us playing you in the cup 22/23? Thought you looked far too good for league 1 then but never expected what happened after that. Congratulations and good luck in the premier league. Hoping we’ll go up automatically but think the threats come from Leeds and Luton who are really well coached.

Hi mate

Yes I posted an article on here about 18 months ago. I didn't expect what happened last season at all, hoping we can make it to 17th this year.

Agreed on Leeds being favourites. Farke is excellent at coaching teams out of possession and they almost never dropped points from winning positions but their attacking patterns often weren't there. The sheer individual quality should carry them through games though and not having Piroe as first choice striker will be huge.

Fascinated to see how Luton cope with having expectation for once.

[LeadBelly]

I think the writing displays a v good understanding of clubs/managers/styles/ quality of players + already done transfers/possible transfers so it's good to read this overall.
I'm not sure, though, why you see Sunderland finishing above Norwich and (especially) Blades. Like a few Clarets, I've got some affinity with Sunderland so it'd be nice to see them on the rise and getting a play-off spot but difficult to see it happening at the moment.

Nice work though.