Sky Bet Championship 2016/17 Preview Part 4

Here’s the final part of our club by club previews for the 2016/17 Sky Bet Championship season. The prices quoted were taken from the Oddschecker website at 11:00am on July 1st and will fluctuate as the season progresses.

Preston North End

Manager: Simon Grayson (February 2013)

Last 10: 1-4-3

Second season in the Championship

Promotion: 14/1

Relegation: 5/1

Dark Horse alert. Grayson’s defensive style of football was perfect for the Championship and with some tweaks the Lillywhites might end up in the play offs. A word of warning though: only four teams scored fewer goals and three of them were relegated. Preston actually scored more goals away from Deepdale and haven’t scored more than three goals at home in a regular season game since March 2015.

QPR

Manager: Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (December 2015)

Last 10: 3-4-3

Second season in the Championship

Promotion: 11/1

Relegation: 14/1

This season depends almost entirely on how well Hasselbaink does in his first full campaign as manager at Loftus Road: after a bright start, Rangers were no better than a mid table team and Chris Ramsey was sacked in November before being appointed as technical director two months later – tantamount to an admission that the board had made a mistake in the first place. The divisional draw specialists failed to beat any of the teams that finished above them on the road and scored fewer goals than MK Dons on their travels, so an improvement in away form is where Hasselbaink should start.

Reading

Manager: Jaap Stam (June 2016)

Last 10: 2-2-6

Fourth season in the Championship

Promotion: 10/1

Relegation: 12/1

I can understand why Stam wants to build a career in management in English football but I can’t understand why he’d want to manage a team that has finished 17^th and 19^th respectively in the last two seasons. It’s a brave decision to appoint him, but considering the fate of managers like Henning Berg, Sami Hyppia et al over the past few seasons, it probably won’t work. Those odds are far too optimistic and Reading will do well to avoid a relegation battle.

Rotherham

Manager: Alan Stubbs (June 2016)

Last 10: 3-5-2

Third season in the Championship

Promotion: 33/1

Relegation: 3.5

Second favourites for the drop and it’s not hard to see why. Spent almost all of last season in the bottom four and even though the Millers saved themselves last season following an eleven game unbeaten run inspired by Neil Warnock, the veteran manager was replaced by Alan Stubbs in May. Although Stubbs finally ended Hibs’ Scottish Cup jinx last season, he’s untested in English management. His priorities are obvious: Rotherham were a soft touch away from the New York stadium last season and their defence was awful. Are there three teams worse than them in 2016/17? Probably not.

Sheffield Wednesday

Last 10: 5-3-2 (not including the play offs)

Fifth season in the Championship

Manager: Carlos Carvalhal (June 2015)

Promotion: 5.5

Relegation: 33/1

A big improvement on the previous seasons and that’s largely down to the adjustments of Carlos Carvalhal, but if any of the play off teams from last season are likely to suffer a hangover it’s Wednesday. Their best league position since 1991 was overshadowed by an ordinary looking performance at Wembley a couple of months ago, which was entirely compatible with both their inability to beat any of the teams that finished above them and a mid-table record away from home. Not the worst position for a manager to be in, but Wednesday are no longer a surprise package and teams will be prepared for them this season.

Wigan Athletic

Last 10: 7-1-2 (League One)

Promoted to the Championship as winners of League One

Manager: Gary Caldwell (April 2015)

Promotion: 10/1

Relegation: 8/1

The Latics were both good enough and patient enough to exploit the lack of form of their rivals at exactly the right time and should be fine on their return to the Championship. Only one of the last five winners of League One has been relegated immediately (Doncaster Rovers in 2014) but Wigan’s final points tally last season was the second lowest amount to win the title over the last decade and was only three points better than Doncaster’s was. That may be significant, but I’d expect Wigan to be comfortably mid table. If they do better than that, expect Gary Caldwell to be linked with all kinds of jobs.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Last 10: 2-6-2

Third season in the Championship

Manager: Kenny Jackett (May 2013)

Promotion: 16/1

Relegation: 7/1

A disappointment last season although it’s fair to say the disruption caused by both injuries and Jez Moxey putting the club up for sale didn’t help and apart from a brief period around Christmas there was little or no consistency on the pitch. The takeover by the Forsun group and Jackett’s confirmation that he’s staying are both positives and should minimise any speculation this season: Wolves will remain hard to beat and could make a run at the play offs if all goes well, but like so many clubs in the Championship they need a proven goalscorer at this level and that seems to be why their price for relegation looks a bit harsh.

Next week: I’ll be looking at what to expect from this season’s 2016/17 Sky Bet Championship – with any luck, it’ll be in time for the first match of the campaign!