CHAMPIOn SHIP
44 Season Preview 2019-20 FourFourTwoThe annual bunfight for the biggest prize in world
football starts here. With the Premier League
growing ever more lucrative, unconfirmed rumours
have suggested that a place in the top flight could
be worth at least £7.8 trillion pounds to each
promoted side this time around.
It’s a prize fund that already has Championship
chairmen salivating, as they ponder just how many
overpriced Ligue 1 midfielders they will be able to
purchase once they reach the promised land. For just
£55m, they, too, could buy Jean Michael Seri and
Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa.
But who will those lucky chairmen be this time
around? The Championship now appears to be as
competitive as ever: more than half of the division
will have their eyes on the top flight, and all except
Bristol City, Brentford, Preston, Millwall and Luton have
been in the (1992-) Premier League before.
Yet at the same time, there’s not a single club
without some kind of doubt hanging over them.
In each of the past two seasons, all three sides
relegated from the Premier League failed to make an
instant return. Huddersfield are recovering from
a soul-destroying season that saw them relegated in
March, while Fulham have quality but an unknown
quantity in Scott Parker, just 10 matches into his
managerial career. Cardiff surprised many in even
reaching the Premier League, but with Championship
specialist Neil Warnock at the helm they look likeliest.
Beaten play-off finalists Derby have lost Frank
Lampard but replaced him with Phillip Cocu. Will it bethe Cocu who won three titles with PSV, or the Cocu
who plunged Fenerbahce into a relegation battle?
If it’s the former, they could be ones to watch.
At Leeds, Marcelo Bielsa has God-like status but he’s
entering his difficult second season – the last time he
started a second campaign, at Marseille, he quit after
just one match. Despite cost-cutting, West Bromwich
Albion have also hired a big name: Slaven Bilic.
Middlesbrough have gone in the other direction,
appointing rookie manager Jonathan Woodgate,
while Stoke have allowed Nathan Jones to recruit as
they recover from last season’s awful campaign.
Bristol City have augmented their ranks, too – as have
Brentford, cheekily taking Pontus Jansson from Leeds
ahead of their last lap at Griffin Park.With 19 former Premier League clubs and a rash of
new gaffers with a range of experience, the race for
the top flight is as wide open and hard-fought as everSheffield Wednesday hold play-off hopes but they’ve
been hit hard by The Steve Bruce Situation (touring
medium-sized venues near you). At Swansea and
Nottingham Forest, much will depend on bold new
appointments, Steve Cooper and Sabri Lamouchi. Hull
have hired Grant McCann, but it’s status quo at Wigan,
Blackburn and Reading, for whom mid-table would be
no disgrace, and Preston, who will hope for more.
Birmingham’s prospects are rather more uncertain
following Garry Monk’s wildly unpopular hoofing, while
Mark Warburton has a tricky task on his hands at QPR.
Millwall will depend heavily on home form once more,
with the three promoted clubs all more than capable
of surviving. Luton have appointed former Belgium
assistant manager Graeme Jones following their two
consecutive promotions, Barnsley’s Daniel Stendel
impressed many last term, and Lee Bowyer has finally
got Charlton moving in the right direction.
Welcome to another season of the Championship,
where absolutely anything could happen.