Championship Contenders

With only a week to go until the start of the Football League (but two weeks until the real football), I thought I would throw an eye over the Championship contenders, and beyond. Last season the Championship was thrilling, dubbed "the League no-one wanted to win", several different clubs topped the table but fell away under the pressure until finally, West Bromwich Albion came through at the end to ensure little Stoke and Hull didn't completely over-achieve.

West Brom had a strong squad from their time in the Premier League, and should have won more games than they did, but their strength was based on being able to score goals. Football's KP Golden Wonder Kevin Phillips, probably the all-time Championship Top Goalscorer was outstanding last year, and at Birmingham this time around will fancy his chances of success again. Birmingham are a side with goals in them. The beauty of having five forwards (Bent, Jerome, McFadden, O'Connor and Phillips) means that even when three of them are misfiring, there should still be goals. It worked for West Brom, and it worked for Birmingham last time they were here. And if those five fail... expect Sebastian Larsson to help himself to a few goals too.

Reading have also kept some potent strikers in Leroy Lita and Kevin Doyle, but there's something about Reading that makes me think their time has passed, and they're now about to fall into Championship obscurity (where they will be welcomed by Ipswich Town, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton etc). Whatever happened to Stephen Hunt?

Cardiff, who impressed everyone with their football at Wembley, will struggle without any goalscorers. They will need an outstanding performance from their current strikers Parry and McCormack to even reach the play-offs.

Derby will struggle. This image of Alan Stubbs in a Derby shirt convinced me of that. But Derby have a future under Paul Jewell... just not this season.

A lot of people are expecting big things from QPR because of their riches, but I just can't see an instant transformation into a Championship winning side. I believe consistency to be more important this year, and I'm backing Wolverhampton Wanderers to find themselves challenging at the top come May. I initially wanted to back Crystal Palace for success, but the Simon Jordan love affair is over... and with this year of change for them, you can't be certain of how the club will react. Still keep an eye on them however, Neil Warnock can get the best out of them, and if they do well, perhaps we'll be able to keep the brilliant Simon Jordan in football.