MY ACCOUNT
The 2022-23 Football League season is almost upon us with an all-star cast looking to win promotion to the Premier League from the Championship.
Burnley, Watford and Norwich are all hoping to bounce straight back after being relegated from the top flight in May.
While West Brom, Middlesbrough and Sheffield United are the other three clubs with big reputations.
So do these six have the promotion race sewn up or can someone emulate Luton, who punched well above their weight last season to make the playoffs?
Canaries singing familiar tune
For Norwich, it is hard to see them not being involved in the promotion hunt and they should have a top-two spot in their sights.
May’s demise was the sixth time that Norwich have been relegated from the Premier League but, as was the case in 2020-21, they have managed to hold on to a lot of their top players.
Bigger clubs may yet be tempted to take the likes of Teemu Pukki, Todd Cantwell, Adam Idah and one or two others, but for now the picture is a rosy one at Carrow Road.
The case for Norwich is stronger than it is for another of last term’s relegated sides, Watford, who have taken a risk investing in Forest Green boss Rob Edwards as their new head coach.
Kompany rebuild under scrutiny
Vincent Kompany is back in England but in new surroundings in the second tier as head coach of Burnley.
The Clarets were a formidable force under Sean Dyche before the magic finally wore off, and it will be interesting to see how much of Pep Guardiola has rubbed off on City’s former title-winning skipper.
The Clarets have had their defence ripped apart with keeper Nicky Pope and centre-backs Ben Mee and James Tarkowski all departing, prompting a hasty rebuild by Kompany.
The Belgian has taken a punt on youngsters like Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Scott Twine but there is also bags of Premier League nous at Turf Moor and Burnley’s top-six credentials look obvious.
Who will be this year’s Hatters?
Playoff semi-finalists Sheffield United, Chris Wilder’s Middlesbrough and West Brom, under the guidance of Steve Bruce, are fancied to be involved and are impossible to write off.
But history tells us that there is depth in the Championship, evident last season when Huddersfield and, more surprisingly Luton, stuck around all the way to the playoffs.
Trying to make a case for those two again, or the likes of Swansea, Coventry, Stoke and others, is not easy, especially given the strengths of the rest of the league.
But there are plenty of people intrigued and impressed by what is unfolding at Hull, under new owners and brining in a lot of talented players – several from Turkey – and maybe it will be Shota Arveladze’s men celebrating promotion next May.
