Championship 2024-25

Away from all the relegation joy, well done due I feel to two youngish English managers on securing play-off places today.

Lampard has taken Coventry from the bottom end of the table into 5th place, while Liam Manning has come back to work following an awful family tragedy to take Bristol into 6th. I have friends who support City who thought he might quit the game, or certainly their club, after what happened to him.

 

Interesting set of teams in the L1 playoffs

Wycombe for poetic justice over Bloomfield
Leyton Orient because I can't remember the last league game we played them
Stockport because of their monumental recovery
Charlton....not so fussed but good away day

 

Don't forget that Charlton would be bringing the goblin with them...

 

Yuck.

Ok anyone but Charlton. Plus I'd like a couple of their players!

 

Them reaching but losing in the play-offs would be perfect, would he have gone back to save them had they not been in the thick of a promotion battle?

 

I just checked and as I thought this is the first time more than one team has reached 100 or more points in not just the second tier, but in any division in English football. Say what you like about Leeds as a club and their fans, but that’s a really impressive season for both.

Leeds actually not far off setting a GD record at that level (the record of +67 was set by Reading in 2005/06). Burnley have ended up with a decent goal tally and a GD of +53 thanks to their incredible defence. The interesting thing is in some respects Burnley’s stats are almost identical to those of 2022/23 (GD, points) but in others their season has been very different. Kompany’s team was more entertaining whereas Parker’s has been more pragmatic - in the long term this may make Burnley better equipped for the Premier League, as Burnley ended up being a one-dimensional fourth-rate Man City whereas Parker may be growing as a manager beyond his “good Championship manager, not much beyond that” tag.

 

Rivalry aside - you can't argue that the right three teams were relegated. Those are hugely negative goal diffs.

Well done to Oxford, Derby and Portsmouth. Unlike the PL, all promoted teams survived.

 

Imagine getting 100 points and not being champions eh!

 

It really is the best league for excitement and unpredictability. Shame it’s finished. Meanwhile the prem league limps on for another 3 games or so.

 

Parkerball to me is pragmatic, but it seems to rely a lot on them keeping the ball as a means of keeping the opposition out, how good will their defence be when they don’t keep as much of the ball?

 

The 3 promoted clubs will come back down. The 3 relegated clubs will go back up.

 

That seems to be the new norm, yes. The current league structure is a bit pointless right now. But hey, as long as the worldwide fanbase of the top 8-9 clubs are happy, everyone's happy, right?

It's weird being a fan of a Championship club at the moment. You want to succeed in the division you're playing - obviously - but the "award" for success is a whole year of nothingness, unless you're backed by an oligarch or a petro state that will buy you 40 new players and hope it sticks.

 

Very true. Living where I do, I have several Bristol City friends and while they’re delighted to have reached the play-offs, they’re terrified of actually winning them (which I think they might well do actually)

 

I think people are too hung up on 2 seasons of data. There is plenty of flotsam in premier league just waiting for a bad season to have their name on it. Palace, Bournemouth, Everton, West Ham, Wolves, Fulham. I’d include Forest in that as well. And that’s before how dreadful Spurs and Man Utd are.

 

What’s the latest round of X “big news” coming out of Watford FC then? More gaslighting or any insights?

 

I would normally agree with you, but Wolves were terrible for so long and then they effortlessly pulled away.

The issue is the shift in points totals at the bottom, not what the current teams do or don’t do. teams are now struggling to even break 20 points let alone 40, so incumbent teams really would have to have a nuclear meltdown to go down. In years gone by West Ham, Spurs and Man Utd would’ve been a serious relegation battle, as it is they’re miles and miles away from it.

When we first went down West Ham were involved in the battle and ended up on 39 points, they survived by 4 points in the end, they currently have 37 points but are 15 points away. They could have a worse season than back then but be miles and miles way from trouble.

Unless the promoted teams start troubling 40 points again, there is no amount of bad luck and bad management that could possibly see an incumbent team not get 30 points and stay up effortlessly.

It stands to reason if there is enough incumbent flotsam, getting 25/30 points from each other will happen almost by default.

 

Dreadful but 16/17 points better (approx 50% better) than the 3 promoted clubs.

 

Yes indeed, but as a promoted team you likely have Man Utd at home down as a game you might get something from. Every bit helps.

 

Here is the end of season visual table.



From relegation on 49 points, to the playoffs on 68 points, is a difference of only 19 points, or 0.41 points per game.
From just getting in the playoffs on 68 points, to (hypothetically) just failing to get automatic promotion on 99 points, is a difference of 31 points, or 0.67 points per game.

 

I hadn't really paid too much attention to the top half of the table. Too busy laughing at the bottom. But 68pts for 6th is a sign of a poor year. Shame we couldn't take advantage.

 

Absolutely. So I guess the fans of Blackburn, Millwall, West Brom and Middlesbrough must be pretty disappointed.

 

A weird season for Sunderland just racing on their own for about 6 months!

 

On the flip side, how funny is it that a certain team freshly relegated from the Prem couldn’t even get close!

 

Seen a social media comment that made me laugh: in light of them having nothing to play for until their inevitable play-off campaign, they have been on the beach, but just for a day trip, not a long holiday!

 

I think probably Leicester will go straight back up, but I can see Southampton and possibly Ipswich struggling a bit in the playoff contenders mix and at least one of them not making it back to the Prem.

 

Yes, reminds me of when I used to play on the kid's grand prix computer game - racing round Monaco with no cars in sight, either in front or behind me.

 

Yes, indeed. But, as Bob Paisley said, English seasons are marathons, not sprints.

 

Irrespective of whether ref got it right by letter of the law, the rule whereby you come off on the wrong side of a grapple decision when giving away a penalty and you get a red card just ruins games. Ends Bristol City's semi final in one decision. Same thing happened in Bilbao v Man Utd last week. I thought they got rid of this double punishment but maybe I am wrong. You'd be better off your defenders blasting it in their own goal Mapps style!

 

Sheff U looking significantly better than Bristol City in the semi. And now they are a goal and a man to the good.

 

They changed the rule so if a player makes a genuine effort to win the ball but fouls an opponent in the box, it'll only be a yellow card. But realistically that's limited to a mistimed slide tackle/trip. It's still a red outside the box. And still a red if the foul in the box is pushing, pulling etc.

 

If Pozzo wants playoffs, this is what it looks like