Most of the football community’s eyeballs are firmly fixated on the title race at the top of the Premier League and rightly so.
But cast them a little lower to the Championship and those same eyeballs will be popping out of their sockets once they see the eight-team logjam in the hunt for promotion.
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The 46-game marathon that is English football’s second division is nearing the finish line and once again, it’s thrown up twists and turns we could scarcely have seen coming.
Like most seasons, we have a runaway leader who has wiped the floor with just about everyone and can already start preparing for life in the Premier League.
Yet not even 2nd place, the other position which seals automatic promotion, is sewn up.
In fact, there’s only seven points separating 5th place from 12th, meaning no position can be taken for granted.
With teams having either seven or eight games left in the season, the race for Premier League riches is not done by any stretch as a $AUD282 million payday awaits the winner of the play-off final.
So, who’s going up and who’s staying put?
Foxsports.com.au takes a look at who are the contenders and the pretenders in the annual Championship Run Home!
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1st: Burnley, 84 pts, +48 GD
Burnley’s six-year stay in the Premier League came to a sad end last season after finishing 18th.
To make matters worse, the Clarets bid farewell to the heart of their backline as Nick Pope, Ben Mee, James Tarkowski and Nathaniel Collins all departed for pastures new.
Burnley began their pre-season with a threadbare squad such was the vast amount of departures, but there was one major arrival: Vincent Kompany.
The Manchester City legend arrived at Turf Moor as the new manager after a three-year spell with Belgian giants Anderlecht and immediately hit the refresh button.
The profiles of incoming players was completely different to what Burnley fans had become accustomed to, as younger faces came through the door.
Not only that, Kompany set about overhauling the club’s style of play and boy, has he done it in style.
From playing one of the most direct brands of football, Burnley now boast a free-flowing, expansive style of play the Turf Moor faithful have only seen from opposition teams.
It is a style that’s worked a treat, as Kompany’s side have walked the Championship at a canter and are all but assured of a place in the Premier League next season.
Southampton loanee Nathan Tella has been one of several shining stars in this Burnley outfit having scored 17 league goals and will want even more in the run-in.
You can return Turf Moor to the list of Premier League away days in the 2023/24 season.
2nd: Sheffield United, 73 pts, +26 GD
Having qualified for the play-offs but fallen short last year against Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United had the bit between their teeth for another promotion push this season.
The Blades didn’t require major surgery in the summer, as Paul Heckingbottom managed to retain the nucleus of the squad.
In an industry where chopping and changing is seen as the norm, Sheffield United’s reluctance to follow the trend has been proven key.
Heckingbottom’s side first crept into the play-off spots as early as August 17 and have not been squeezed out of the top six since.
In fact, the Blades have held second spot since November 21.
Although a rocky patch in recent months nudged the door open for their rivals to close the gap, Sheffield United have picked up crucial wins when they need to.
However, off-season issues have forced the club into a transfer embargo due to a failure to pay transfer instalments to rival clubs for a number of their players.
New ownership is reportedly not far off and will have a large in-tray of issues to resolve, but if the Blades can get the business done on the field, it allows everyone to breathe a little easier at Bramall Lane.
3rd: Middlesbrough, 67 pts, +25 GD
Talk about a change in fortunes.
Middlesbrough began the season with Chris Wilder in the hot seat, but after a disastrous start in which the club lost five of the opening 11 games and languished in the relegation zone, swift action was required.
Enter Manchester United legend Michael Carrick.
Since the former England midfielder’s arrival on October 24, Middlesbrough have been on a tear.
It has taken Carrick 23 games to lose as many games as Wilder did.
Not only that, but he has turned Middlesbrough into a team who scores for fun, as the Teesside outfit has the second-highest amount of goals scored with a staggering 71.
Socceroos star Riley McGree has been one major beneficiary of Carrick’s guidance, scoring four goals and notching two assists since the manager’s arrival.
But no Middlesbrough player has been transformed as much as Chuba Akpom, who has a league-leading tally of 24 goals.
Catching Sheffield United in second may prove to be a task too difficult, but Middlesbrough are not a team any of the top six will want to face in the play-offs.
Highly-regarded statistics site FiveThirtyEight have also given Middlesbrough the glowing endorsement when it comes to their chance of being promoted, which sits at 33 per cent – the most of teams outside the top two.
4th: Luton Town, 67 pts, +13 GD
Fancy seeing you here yet again, Luton Town.
The Hatters were sitting pretty in mid-table under former manager Nathan Jones, but he was plucked from Kenilworth Road by Southampton in November, who went on to fire him just 14 games into his tenure.
The last time Luton lost Jones to a rival, they were almost relegated before Jones returned like a knight in shining armour to save the day.
There were fears the Welshman’s departure could have had a similar effect on the club, but Rob Edwards not only steadied the ship, he’s made the Hatters an even more entertaining team.
Edwards arrived during the World Cup break and has hit the ground running once play resumed in December.
In that time, Luton have lost only three times but more importantly have found a way to close out games.
Of the 11 games Edwards has overseen as Hatters boss, six of those have been 1-0 victories, demonstrating the steely mentality of this Luton team which could go a long way in the play-offs.
Leading the charge for Luton is goal machine Carlton Morris, who has found the back of the net 16 times in league action.
Is there one big chapter left to be written in this football fairytale?
5th: Millwall, 61 pts, +8 GD
Who would’ve thought a club-record £1.7m signing would have such an impact?
Unless you’re Millwall boss Gary Rowett or Zian Flemming himself, you probably didn’t give the Dutchman much of a chance.
Instead, the summer signing made former star winger Jed Wallace an afterthought, scoring 13 goals as Millwall sit in the play-off spots.
It is further vindication of the club’s decision to allow Rowett plenty of time to mould the squad into what he wants, as the former Derby County boss is now the fifth-longest tenured manager in the EFL.
Aside from a sketchy run at the start of the season, Millwall have looked their resilient best as the campaign has gone on and have the fifth-best defensive record in the league having conceded just 40 goals all season long.
Former Green Bay Packers coach Bear Bryant famously said “offence sells tickets, but defence wins championships.”
Well, based on how Millwall operate, they’ll be hoping Bryant’s timeless quote rings true for them.
6th: Blackburn Rovers, 61 pts, +0 GD
For two years running, Blackburn Rovers have been in the play-off spots at the pointy end of the season.
Last year, they fell away and Tony Mowbray decided to leave his post at Ewood Park.
Mowbray’s replacement, Jon Dahl Tomasson, is desperately hoping his side also doesn’t fade away in similar fashion.
Blackburn have been an awfully hard team to put a finger on given it took the former Premier League champions 28 games before they chalked up their first draw of the season.
However, Rovers have been in the play-off spots for 28 of the 38 matchdays this season, providing ammunition that sometimes consistency isn’t everything.
Cult hero Ben Brereton-Diaz is once again the hero at Ewood Park with 12 league goals to his name but is reportedly off to pastures new in the summer as the 23-year-old is set to join La Liga outfit Villarreal.
If the English-born Chilean international can help Blackburn return to the top flight after over a decade away, he’ll leave the club a hero.
7th: Norwich City, 57 pts, +10 GD
Norwich City’s bid to bounce straight back into the Premier League began in blistering fashion, winning seven of their first 11 games to sit pretty in second place.
However, results soon took a turn for the worse as Dean Smith was let go by the Canaries after a run of seven losses in 12 games towards the end of 2022.
Taking Smith’s place at Carrow Road was David Wagner, a familiar face to Norwich sporting director Stuart Webber given the pair’s time at Huddersfield where they helped the Terriers get promoted to the Premier League.
The German hasn’t exactly set Norwich alight since joining, with the Canaries bumbling along and, most importantly, still in the play-off mix.
However, it seems the club is headed for a huge summer overhaul as the glaring squad depth issues continue to bubble at the surface.
Norwich can no longer rely on a 33-year-old Teemu Pukki for goals and provided they don’t go up this season, Canaries fans may have to grit their teeth and embrace a longer spell in the Championship than they might’ve first anticipated.
8th: Coventry City, 57 pts, +6 GD
How Coventry City fans have any hair left is a mystery.
The Sky Blues sat bottom of the Championship for nine games before embarking on an impressive run in which they lost twice in 14 games.
That is, quite literally, the definition of flipping the script.
The World Cup break probably came at the worst possible time for Coventry as they were riding a tidal wave of momentum thanks to four wins on the trot.
A brief period of inconsistency once the Championship resumed kept Coventry in the lower end of the mid-table peloton, but since January 28, Mark Robins’ side have won six from 12 games.
Pivotal to the Sky Blues’ run is Swedish striker Viktor Gyokeres, who has bagged 18 league goals and seems destined for the Premier League next season with our without Coventry.
Whether Coventry has enough gas in the tank for one final surge in the latter stages remains to be seen, but as they have shown this season, they won’t go quietly.
9th: West Bromwich Albion, 56 pts, +8 GD
West Bromwich Albion can add itself to the lengthy list of prime examples in terms of clubs who enjoy a marked turnaround in results after a managerial change.
Having begun the season with Steve Bruce in charge, expectations were high given the former Manchester United defender’s reputation as somewhat of a promotion specialist.
As his time at the Hawthorns continued, Bruce had the Baggies sitting in the relegation zone, a far cry from what was expected.
Bruce got the boot and in came former Huddersfield Town boss Carlos Corberan.
Although Corberan’s tenure began with a loss to Sheffield United, West Brom went on to win nine of their next ten games as they quickly warmed to the former Marcelo Bielsa understudy’s methods.
Such was the impressive change in fortunes, Premier League side Leeds were heavily linked with Corberan after sacking Jesse Marsch, but the former inked a contract extension to stay at the Hawthorns.
There hasn’t quite been a single standout for West Brom this season, with the goalscoring burden shared among several of the Baggies’ stars.
A last-ditch push for the play-offs isn’t out of the question, but West Brom will be a team to fear under Corberan next season if they don’t crack the top six before the season is over.
10th: Preston North End, 56 pts, -7 GD
Despite scoring the fourth-fewest amount of goals in the Championship and being the only team with a negative goal difference in the top 13, Preston North End are, rather remarkably, still in the hunt.
To put Preston’s goalscoring woes into perspective, they had scored just three times from their first 11 games.
But on the flip side, they’d conceded only four goals in that same span.
Yep, you guessed it, that meant Lowe’s side had six scoreless draws in that space.
Thankfully for Preston fans, they’ve had just three scoreless draws in the following 28 games.
Interestingly, Preston have performed better away from Deepdale having won nine times away from home compared to just five victories on their own turf.
Could Lowe’s side somehow find their goalscoring boots in their final seven games?
It’s unlikely.
11th: Watford, 55 pts, +3 GD
Death, taxes and the Pozzo’s sacking managers at Watford.
Rob Edwards started the season at Vicarage Road but lasted just 10 games.
In came Slaven Bilic, who got West Bromwich Albion promoted back in the 2019/20 season, but he couldn’t work his magic and was axed less than six months into his tenure.
Chris Wilder, who began the season with Middlesbrough, became the third face installed in the dugout and has one win from four games, with that run including a loss to bitter rivals Luton Town.
All we can say is, don’t be shocked if the Pozzo’s make it three sackings in the one season with Wilder.
12th: Sunderland, 54 pts, +7 GD
Having spent more time in the doldrums of League One than many would have anticipated, Sunderland are back amongst the bright lights of the Championship once more.
The Black Cats’ season could have fallen off the rails when former manager Alex Neil was poached by Stoke City just six games into the season.
In came former Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray, who has proved to be a reassuring presence in the Stadium Of Light dugout.
Although Sunderland may be too far off the play-offs, they can take plenty of positives from the mere fact they appear, at least on the surface, to be a stable club.
A fully-fit Ross Stewart next season will prove the key to any promotion push.
