This Season: West Ham are insanely short odds to be promoted straight back this year, the shortest there has been for some time in this league. That was driven in large part by captain Jarrod Bowen agreeing to stay on and try return them to the top flight. A player I’d rather have had at the World Cup than bloody Mandueke, he should be a Championship cheat sheet and with six career goals against QPR already we should be more fearful than most.

Taty Castellanos also remains, for now, though Everton are sniffing. – Troy Parrott mentioned in passing as a potential replacement there. Tomas Soucek in midfield as well. And financial resources have been topped up with more than £100m for Fernandes and Summerville – though the latter will certainly be missed on the left side of the attack, and the money will be needed to plug a leaky dam at a club losing £100m+ p/a as per its last set of accounts.

Other incomings have been slow to arrive, however, with the boardroom turmoil caused by Panorama’s long overdue revelations about Sullivan’s historic conduct throwing the place into chaos ahead of the new season. Sullivan, who it transpires has been restrained from even speaking to the club’s youth teams and women’s sides by police in the past, insisted on attending the weekend League Cup tie with Portsmouth. Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky’s attempts to become owner are mired in acrimony and small print. Amanda Staveley looms.

As a unifying presence, they probably could have done a lot better than Tottenham’s Manor Solomon as their second summer signing.

These aren’t the only warning signs for me. One of the big problems last season was said to be the dearth in leadership left by too many departures all at once from that Aaron Cresswell, Michail Antonio, Kurt Zouma group that had been so key to Moyes’ success at the club. There has been little attempt to address that bar Brighton’s experienced Dutch full back Joel Veltman, although Jamie Vardy has been half-heartedly linked.

Nuno Espirito Santo staying on is seen as a positive. I’m not so sure. He’s looked and sounded checked out to me since the Nottingham Forest fall out. Sure, West Ham put some results together in the second half of last season – seven victories in the final 17 games, including a last day 3-0 against Leeds when it scarcely mattered. The set up and approach for a do-or-die clash at Newcastle in the penultimate game was a tactical shitshow. Playing for a 0-0 at a Crystal Palace side focused on Europe and with a departing manager was incompetent. They were 3-0 down at half time to Wolves. At one points Spurs lost eight and drew one of nine and West Ham couldn’t catch them – West Ham, who should have wanted Spurs to go down even more than we did.

Santo was not allowed to bring his own coaches from Forest, and reportedly fell out with the ones he inherited. Players found it odd that he would often say nothing at all to them at half time, again per The Athletic. One of the team’s junior members, rather getting his arse handed to him in a difficult away game, pleaded with Santo on the touchline for advice – “do you want me to push up and get tight to him or stand off and sit deep? What do you want me to do?” He was told to simply “keep going”.

There are some good young players kicking around here, some of whom have impressed at this level before on loan - George Earthy at Bristol City, for example. But the decision to let Freddie Potts (son of) join Club Brugge on the eve of the new campaign felt awfully strange to me. I thought that’s the sort of character and name you’d want to build a revival around.

It honestly all looks like a bit of a mess to me. The whole point of getting relegated was surely to get rid of Sullivan and start again. But he’s still here, and signs of a new broom and era are thin on the ground. But then you look at the resources, the size of the crowd, the talent still in the squad, Jarrod Bowen… There’ll surely be multiple signings to come. You never see a poor bookie, and I’m easily bullied.

Manager – Nuno Espirito Santos Hello, my name’s NUNO!

Oppo View – Rob Armstrong “I think it's generally accepted we've been in a state of managed decline ever since the European seasons. In the league things had started to turn a little sour under David Moyes with some big defeats and underwhelming signings with the Declan Rice money. The fiasco with hiring a director of football, Tim Steidten, who was soon banned from the training ground (under two different managers) and then fired really summed up our transfer business. A turnover of three managers with three different styles of football after Moyes has also left us under equipped for just about every different tactic that a manager could apply.

“Having Bowen might make it different this time, as he has the quality and the little bit of magic required to break down teams that are parking the bus. Yet still, I refuse to allow myself to believe it's going to be that easy. It's a long season, the club is a bit of a mess, and that stadium is going to be a potential great day out for all the away fans in the league. My heart and head both think we absolutely stink of finishing 8th and going up from the unprecedented new last position in the play-offs.”

Prediction: 2nd (@LoftusIQ 3rd) You wouldn’t back anyone at 9/4 for a league title anyway, but you certainly wouldn’t trust these. Lots of business still to do, presumably.

Wolves 11/2

Last Season - 20th in Prem Another relegation a long time coming played out at Molineux.

Poorly run clubs overpaying for mediocre players overseen by uninspiring managerial appointments was always likely to catch clubs like West Ham and Wolves (and nearly Spurs) out if any of the promoted teams ever got their act together more than the Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton cohort who went straight up and down the season before and so it proved. There’s a few more cabs waiting on that rank as well, should Coventry, Ipswich and Hull make any kind of fist of the top flight this year.

The Fosun ownership and de-facto managership of agent Jorge Mendes had served the club well for a number of years. Promoted in style out of the Championship and part of the top flight for eight seasons in which they’d finished as high as seventh and briefly played European football, there were some fabulous Raul Jiminez, Diogo Jota and Ruben Neves types who formed the backbone of this heavily Portuguese-influenced club under Nuno Espirito Santo.

Managers, though, have come and gone from here with increasing frequency. Of Bruno Lage, Julien Lopetegui, Gary O’Neil and Vitor Pereira none managed more than 18 months in the chair. The big names were picked off by the bigger boys and replaced with an ever rapidly rotating cast of Mendes clients and associates at ever escalating prices. At one point last year Wolves’ had four players called Gomes in this team. The direction of travel has been clear for some time – 7th, 13th, 10th, 13th, 14th, 16th… 20th. I know TransferMarkt.com is only a rough guide on these things but over this time Wolves have spent £667m on players (£127m of it last summer on the team that finished dead last) while recouping £608m. At Wolves. This is now a sick, insane sport.

For it all they began last season under Vitor Pereira, finished it under Rob Edwards, and won three league games out of 28 in between. A couple of the wins they did get – an unlikely home double against Villa and Liverpool at the end of February – showed there was talent here capable of still doing damage on the biggest stage. But there was no kind of team, the relationship between the fans and their club was completely fractured, and chairman/CEO Jeff Shi stepped aside midway through the campaign amidst increasing howls of protest.

They’re never shy of getting stuck into their own around the Molineux. This is a support base who prepared a “you’ve let us down again” bed sheet in advance of a relegation six pointer just in case it didn’t go their way. This time they had every right to be annoyed. Bottom, with 20 points, some 21 adrift of safety.

Ins >>> Rafiki Said, 26, LW, Standard Liege, £8m >>> Ladislav Krejci, 27, CB, Girona, £7m >>> Raul Jimenez, 35, CF, Fulham, Free >>> Kieran Trippier, 35, RB, Newcastle, Free >>>

Outs >>> Joao Gomes 25, CM, Aston Villa, £35m >>> Matt Doherty, 34, RB, Sheff Utd, Free >>> Tolo Arokodare, 25, CF, Ajax, Loan

This Season: Wolves will figure highly in most predictions, including this one, because of the talent and resource they have at their disposal.

Raul Jiminez, who still looked a handful at World Cup level, is here now as talismanic striker looking to right the recent wrongs at the club where he’s a modern day legend. The sort of signing that makes you wonder why the rest of us are bothering. They beat Port Vale at the weekend with a goal from midfielder Andre, a £20m Brazilian midfielder they have hanging around, which nicely summed up the disparity they’ll hold over many teams they face this season. Kieren Tripier is also here to lend experience and crossing, potentially in a back four after many years in a three. Adam Armstrong is back at Championship level, which usually spells goals. Watch out for 18-year-old Mateus Mane.

The first of their problems is probably summed up best in goal. If Jose Sa, back from the World Cup with Portugal, sticks around then there will be few better in the Championship. If occasional England international Sam Johnstone does the same, likewise. It’s been assumed for most of the summer that neither of them will, and yet here we are on season eve with both still in situ. Brentford’s former chintastic number one Dan Bentley hangs around as third choice but as the window ticks down this is one of several spots in this Wolves team where the regular starter could be any one of those three or somebody else entirely.

There has not been the rush of outgoings and big money departures we usually see from a relegated side. The only name that has fetched money (£40m) is Joao Gomes, and he’s gone to rivals Aston Villa just to piss the fanbase off all over again. It’s left Wolves with a very bloated, very expensive squad full of players one would suspect do not want to be there. In fact there’s no suspect about it – Nigerian forward Tolo Arokodare caused a training session to be cancelled earlier this pre-season after a bid from Fiorentina was rejected and has since been loaned out to Ajax (£24m to Genk a year ago and only three goals since, another fine acquisition). Getting some experience and some standard setters in nice and early in Jiminez and Trippier might be smart, but there’s a real blockage here against many more coming in without some serious outgoings.

This is an enormous squad by second tier standards and lashing £8m on 26-year-old winger Rafiki Said does not immediately suggest they’ve cracked their addiction to overspending on tat.

The second issue is the manager. Wolves were already effectively relegated when Rob Edwards jumped ship from Middlesbrough to come here last November, one would presume on the understanding he’d be the man to lead the Championship rebuild. Trippier and Jiminez were both (presumably) encouraged to talk up Edwards on their welcome videos – “say something like, can’t wait to work with Rob etc etc”. He found out he was being dismissed later that week when a family member spotted it on social media and for his replacement we’re back on this Portugeezer 4.6 carousel with César Peixoto whose record at home is middling. Difficult to feel too sorry for Edwards mind, given he’s walked out on two of his previous four jobs of his own accord. And a possession-based, attack-minded manager is probably a better idea for this squad in this league.

Still, it all speaks to problem three which is a very grumpy, very restless crowd. I’ve rarely encountered a football support that get onto their own players and team quite as aggressively as Wolves during a downturn. Patience is very thin here with the owners, and one would suspect pretty quickly the manager. There are a lot of good players in this squad, but their relationships with the Molineux crowd are in many cases beyond repair. Jiminez is really going to have to do some hard work bringing this all back together around him. And even if this ownership group moves on, the bad news is John Textor is circling around in the background – our third headless horseman of this summer’s previews. Never a good thing or sign.

A lot (a lot) to not like here – both these and Burnley could easily turn into this year’s Leicester -but it’s a talented squad of immense depth, with a load of money, and a parachute payment to boot so, for now…

Manager – Whoever Jorge Mendes Wants It To Be In this case it’s Nuno’s non-union Portuguese equivalent Snr Peixoto.

Oppo View - @TalkingWolves “It was a huge mess for Wolves last season. However, I think it had been coming for some time. A real lack of investment from the owners, poor recruitment, constant turnover in managers, it’s no surprise to see Wolves eventually face the drop. Vitor Pereira started the season, got given significant recruitment control (which was awful) and really couldn’t get any quality out of this squad. Although Rob Edwards had slight sparks of quality at times, unfortunately it wasn’t much better under him either.

“I think we’ll be up there. It’s such a tough division though as you know. I’ll back us to get automatic promotion though.”

Prediction: 3rd (@LoftusIQ 5th) Fantastic team as it stands, how many are still there September 1 will be key.

Burnley 11/1

Last Season - 19th in Prem I’m going to treat myself, after a long fortnight of preview writing, to a bit of a copy and paste if I may. Two years ago in writing about the Champiosnhip contenders we had Daniel Farke’s Leeds as the title winners and not to go all dick swingy on you but that’s exactly what happened.

We also had Burnley second, and here’s how we said Parker would achieve this, and what would happen next…

“Burnley are going to be promoted. They’re going to be promoted in second, when they should be first. They’re going to be promoted with 20-something single goal wins, and zero memories. They’ll top that up with a dozen draws, of which half will be nil nil. When they have a little wobble in January Parker will demand, and be given, another half a dozen signings. Watch out for a Morgan Whittaker-type turning up here on deadline day on loan with a view to a £15m permanent in the summer, starting five times in the second half of the season and scoring once. Once promoted, back to a league they know they can’t compete in and don’t really enjoy being part of, they’ll lose eight of their first nine games churning out this footballing purgatory, and Parker will be sacked. He will later take over newly relegated Wolves, where he’ll spend £50m+ on 20-something signings he’ll use to get a positive early 0-0 draw on the road away to newly promoted Mansfield Town. Wolves are going to be promoted. They’re going to be promoted in second, when they should be first. They’re going to be promoted with 20-something single goal wins, and zero memories. And so it continues.”

And, lo, having cakewalked the Championship conceding 16 (!!) goals in 46 games and drawing 0-0 on 12 occasions (including our trip to Turf Moor) with JohnJo Shelvey arriving on deadline day to get them over the line and playing a grand total of four times (two as a sub) they went back to a league they know they can’t compete in and don’t really enjoy being part of. They lost five of the first nine and then seven on the bounce straight after that. Parker said he couldn’t fault the boys’ efforts, but they’d need a bit of extra help in January. Across his two seasons in charge and four transfer windows Burnley signed 35 different players at a cost of around £170m. Last season they spent more than £100m on players for Parker. For it all, they won four games out of 38 and failed to score in 14 of the others. They won one of their last 29 league games and just in case an FA Cup run got in the way at all they lost 2-1 in that competition at home to Mansfield Town.

Having taken a lavishly furnished and incredibly talented squad and actively chosen to win promotion from the Championship in the most excruciatingly boring way possible, I’m sorry, I’ve got to ask… what was the fucking point?

Ins >>> Florentino 26, DM, Benfica, £20m >>> Ugo Raghouber, 23, DM, Lille, £4m >>> Lluc Castell, 19, LW, Espanyol, Undisclosed >>> Ben Amos, 36, GK, Port Vale, Free >>>

Outs >>> Maxime Esteve, 24, CB, Leipzig, £20m >>> Loum Tchaouna, 22, RW, Coventry, £20m >>> Jaidon Anthony, 26, LW, Brentford, £15m >>> Florentino, 26, DM, Ipswich, £15m >>> Luca Koleosho, 21, LW, Paris FC, £12m >>> Lesley Ugochukwu, 22, DM, Galatasaray, Loan >>> Martin Dubravka, 37, GK, Spurs, Free >>> >>> Owen Dodgson, 23, LB, Stockport, Undisclosed >>> Quilindschy Hartman, 24, LB, Espanyol, Loan >>> Oluwaseun Adewumi, 21, AM, Hertha, Loan >>> Axel Tuanzebe, 28, CB, Released >>> Crazy Vaclav Hladky, 35, GK, Released

This Season: If you want an indication of how the summer is going at Burnley, they’ve spent £20m+ to make Florentino’s move from Benfica permanent even though they don’t want him and had to shovel him straight out to Ipswich at a loss. Leicester and Luton have shown over the last two seasons that despite the myriad financial advantages available to the relegated teams it is absolutely no guarantee of success in the Championship, and potentially quite the opposite if you don’t get your house in order.

Now, to be perhaps a little fairer to the Clarets, they have done a better job of clearing house than their fellow relegatees Wolves who, as already discussed, are currently carting around a 30+ man squad of big earners. As you can see, Burnley have shipped out a dozen players in one form or another with about £85m coming in the other way. Incomings though, at the moment, number two – because Florentino has already gone and Ben Amos doesn’t count. They do have quite a few Jayden Banel types hanging around, who you may remember from such movies as Derby’s comeback win at Loftus Road last year, but there will need to be further business done. Banel, as it stands, is injured, as is Liam Cullen.

Centre back is a good example where Maxime Esteve was an absolute class apart at this level last time and has predictably gone for big money this summer, but a move to replace him with our own Ronnie Edwards has floundered at the valuation stage. The team looks ropey at centre half to me, where Joe Worrall is not the man for this system but Max Alleyne is linked from Man City, and short on pace all round, but recruitment has been slow even by the standards of a World Cup summer. Max Weiss is at least well liked as a promising young keeper.

There is just that feeling here that the whole situation with owners ALK Capital and Alan Pace may not be all that healthy. The dreaded leveraged buy-out, saddling the club with debt. You knew what Burnley were in the Sean Dyche era – fiscally responsible, super well run, difficult to beat on the pitch with a clear identity to the team - do we know now? Just another club owned by a clueless American consortium that thought they could beg and borrow a way into the Premier League? Grim stuff, and it might get grimmer still. This structure of takeover should not be allowed in our sport, end of.

They spent much of the summer searching for a manager. Steven Gerrard and Rob Edwards were linked either side of a protracted chase for Wales boss Craig Bellamy, who assisted Vincent Kompany the last time this lot won the Championship. They’ve settled in the end of Nicky Hayen who did win the Belgian league with Club Brugge in 2024 but has since been with Genk and was previously with Haverfordwest County in the Welsh Premier League. Niche stuff.

What happens next will depend on whether Burnley are going to be Burnley or Burnley are going to be Leicester.

The last four times this lot have been in the Championship they have won promotion from it. The last three times they’ve been relegated from the Premier League they’ve bounced back immediately. The talent, particularly going forwards, that is available to Hayen in this squad is ridiculous. Dutchman Zian Flemming, formerly with Millwall, is a formidable line leader if he sticks around and they’ve kept Ashley Barnes hanging about so we can laugh at his fringe. Mike Tresor is somehow still here too. Armando Broja cost them £20m, Lyle Foster £11m. They’re supplied by Marcus Edwards, Hannibal Mejbri, Aaron Ramsey (not that one), Zeki Amdouni… If they’re up for it, together, behind the new manager, and click, they’ll be a problem.

Here’s another bit of copy and paste for you. Here’s what we said about the Foxes in this preview last year…

“Look who’s still here, for goodness’ sake. Mads Hermansen in goal, giant Harry Souttar at the back a Championship cheat code, Jannick Vestergaard, Wout Faes, Wilfred Ndidi, Harry Winks, Oli Skipp, El Khannouss, Choudhury, Fatawu who was fantastic at this level before but injured for most of last year, Mavididi, Ayew. Jeremy Monga has already played Premier League football aged just 15. This lot are playing Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, they’ll tear them a new arse the size of the Blackwall Tunnel. They haven’t made signings yet but the first serious addition through the door is said to be Burnley midfielder Josh Brownhill who was a machine at this level last year – 18 goals in 39 starts from central midfield. If this lot stay together that’s a title winning team.”

Manager – Nicky Hayen Steven Gerrard, Craig Bellamy, Rob Edwards

Oppo View – Matt Townson “Where to begin? The team that only conceded 16 goals in 46 games then went on to look incredibly poor defensively, conceding 75 goals in the process. Selling Trafford back to Man City and losing Egan-Riley on a free to Marseille didn’t help. The recruitment was more miss than hit, with Broja, Hartman, Ugochukwu and Tchaouna being generally disappointing. We don’t have unlimited transfer spend so can’t afford to take too many failures in the market, and the elephant in the room is the leveraged buy-out which has saddled the club with debt interest repayments in the millions and increasing (much brighter people than me have been digging into the seemingly intentionally opaque finance structure of the ownership, so I will leave it to the experts to opine on the sensibility of that. My opinion is it’ll be a fucking disaster, and the chickens will come home to roost eventually).

“Despite how negative my tone is so far, a good part of me thinks a play-off push is more than possible. I don’t think we will be picking up 100 points and walking promotion like the last couple of seasons, but I think there is sufficient quality in the squad for that.Equally could be an absolute disaster and we end up pulling a Leicester (how quickly that term has changed meaning).”

Prediction: 7th (@LoftusIQ 6th) Not convinced they’ll even be that high to be honest.

Middlesbrough 11/1

Last Season – 5th (We said 14th +9) Having overtipped Boro for years we finally lost faith in the Teessiders last summer and grumpily stuck them in the bottom half of our predicted league table, so of course they suddenly got good again and ended up in the play-off final. That defeat to Hull City at Wembley, however, barely scratches the surface of what went on here in 2025/26.

The year began with the rehabilitation of Rob Edwards following Luton’s double relegation. Edwards was refreshed and ready to go again, there was a tan to his skin and a glint in his eye, the Boro mams swooned as he talked togetherness, family, building something special together. Then, after a reasonably good start, he up and left for another family in Wolves. Marty, the young ones never stay.

As we know ourselves, in times of crisis you can shop in far worse places than Hammarby for your new manager, and so Kim Hellberg was summoned. Turns out this former primary school teacher’s penchant for a high press, high tempo, three-man midfield ‘Hellball’ extravaganza was absolutely note perfect for a team that already had the best midfield in the division – Alan Browne ever the shrewd recruit, Aidan Morris and Riley McGree a class apart, Hayden Hackney in a league of his own.

So, while Edwards lost every game at Molineux believing it would all be fine as he’d been brought in to rebuild for the Championship anyway (cough), Boro actually got better. By the time they won at a canter at Loftus Road in March they looked the best side in the Championship and likely destined for the second automatic spot behind Coventry – eight wins in 11 games at this stage.

Weirdly, they won only two of their last ten. There were a lot of draws, there was a scandalous late penalty at Ipswich when they were leading, but at home they managed to lose to Charlton, Millwall and even Portsmouth in short order. Hackney, meanwhile, got injured. Having spent 200 days in the automatic spots, they found themselves in an unexpected play-off semi-final against Southampton, the first leg of which they dominated to an alarming extent without scoring – Tommy Conway coming up with myriad ways to hit every part of the goal except the back of the net over a bizarre 90-minute 0-0 draw.

There was (much) more to come, however. Relations between the two clubs exploded when it not only transpired the “Saints” had dispatched an intern to hang around in the trees and have a sneaky peak to see if Hackney was training, but then at the first leg attempted to placate owner Steve Gibson with a cackhanded “sorry, we’ll pay whatever the fine is”. Enraged, Gibson lit the big Nick De Marco sign up in the sky and it was all off back to The Court of Footballing Stupidity to pursue a sporting sanction. Boro ran out of puff in a second leg Southampton seemed to treat as a big joke – binoculars, camouflage suits, Taylor Harwood-Bellis’ tiny dick energy again – and Hellberg started to cry in his press conferences.

Just when the whole thing really started to go a bit J G Ballard the verdict was handed down that Southampton were out, Boro were back in, you’ve got 40,000 play-off final tickets to shift in three quarters of an hour, see you Saturday.

All a little bit Cleethorpes and District Sunday League by this point and little wonder, perhaps, that it was then Hull who won through in a low-quality Wembley affair – as if Boro hadn’t been through enough, here’s a last-minute cup final winner from Oli McBurnie for you to get your stomach around. Hellberg’s side completing the unlikely feat of losing a play-off semi-final and final in the same fortnight. Don’t shine that light in my eye mate, I’ve lost a pint of blood.

Battered, bruised, confused and dangerous to know. Few teams needed a summer break more than Middlesbrough FC.

Outs >>> Tony Springett, 23, RW, Orient, Free >>> George Long, 32, GK, Southampton, Free >>> Louie Moulden, 24, GK, Accrington, Loan >>> Jeffrey Schlup, 33, LW, Released >>> Emiliano Marcondes, 31, AM, Released >>> Shane Duffy, 34, CB, Coach & Horses, Free >>> Daniel Barden, 25, GK, Stevenage, Free

This Season: For a long time you knew exactly where you stood with Norwich. Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones, demolishing the table wine. Stuart Webber, directing the football. Daniel Farke, dressed like a German Indianna Jones, sounding like an American trying to do a European accent. He leaves, replace with another German. Teemu Pukki, scoring the goals. And that was enough to yo-yo, a bit, between this division and the one above for a while, but little more. Times are tough for these provincial founding fathers of the Premier League, we’re a long way from Munich and Jeremy Goss now, the sport has moved on and to a certain extent left clubs like Norwich (and QPR) well behind – third and fifth, us two, in the first Prem season.

The clubs that have replaced us at the top table fall into certain set categories. They’ve either been artificially doped there by some oppressive Middle Eastern state or dodgy war-mongering Russian, they’ve chucked a load of completely unsustainable and often rule-breaking cash dollar at it, they’ve happened upon a generational managerial talent… or secret option number four. There are Brighton and Brentford types who through owners’ propriety data models and super smart thinking have been able to go from bottom division to top and new stadiums. The days of local TV chef selling a few branded pan sets and staggering out onto the pitch at half time for a bit of a yell are no more. In an attempt to replicate success elsewhere a whole generation of “trust me bro” football execs have grown up with zero playing experience, often no coaching background, but an ability with numbers, data sets, analysis, computers. They’re in charge, they do the vision, the manager is essentially Bart Simpson in Martin Prince’s soap box derby racer – ballast.

Norwich’s new American owner Mark Attanasio fancied a bit of this and so handed the keys over to Arsenal’s former loan manager Ben Knapper who had Jack Wilshere with him for a bit but has never done anything like this wide-ranging role before and had, up until November last year, really made rather a pig’s ear of it. Quite by accident, Norwich have stumbled back into the traditional model where the manager is the best thing about them – Philippe Clement is Norwich City this season, and Norwich City are Philippe Clement. His interview at Carrow Road less “let me tell you about our vision for the club” and more “we’ve completely fucked this up, can you help us out?”

The results to this point have been spectacularly good and as it stands three days before the start of the new season I see little reason that won’t continue. The 56 points from 31 games Clement achieved in the second half of last season is obviously promotion form. Norwich were obviously significantly underperforming anyway and now have a well-balanced, confident squad, with plenty of goals in it, and two good players for each position – perhaps Knapper was onto something after all, just needed a manager to bring it all together.

Up front, they’re very exciting. Mathias Kvistgaarden hasn’t hit the heights yet (six in 12 starts and 24 sub apps last season) but has a lot of growth potential in him, Mohamed Toure arrived on the final day of the winter transfer window and posted frankly ludicrous numbers (11 goals in nine starts and four sub appearances) and former Lincoln starlet Jovin Makama looks the real deal after 13 goals in 18 starts and 12 sub apps in his first year at the level. Of the supporting cast another promising January arrival Ali Ahmed has unfortunately done his ACL and is already out for the season, but to an already intriguing crop of Schwartu, Forson and Maghoma (several of these you may remember giving us a torrid time at Carrow Road last season) has now been added Sheff Utd’s player of the year Andre Brooks. All these lads are under 25, by the way. No surprise to see MK Dons swept 4-1 in the League Cup at the weekend

There’s more experience and game smarts behind them where Kenny McLean remains and our own cardigan-wearing reliable sort Sam Field has joined permanently. Stacey and Fisher on the right side of the defence about as good as they come in this league, Chrisene on the other side is fine and Harry Amass is linked from Man Utd despite his loan last year being ended early by injury. Harry Darling isn’t to everyone’s taste in the middle of the back line but Grant Hanley was jettisoned a year ago and Scotland’s exploits seem to have finally woken the world up to just how grossly overrated he was, and Shane ‘lock up your daughters’ Duffy is no more either which is good news because - without going all new age football hipster on you - I don’t think it’s ideal when your centre back drinks more than your season ticket holders.

Goalkeeper Vladen Kovacevic, as we saw at Loftus Road, absolutely bloody mad. To be kept on a very short leash, by a man with a powerful blow dart gun, but other than that this lot look hot to trot to me.

Exciting, young, full of goals, lots of options in all positions, demanding manager with credit in the bank, momentum…

Manager – Philippe Clement Managers matter.

Oppo View – Phil Harris “Chalk and cheese? Night and day? Hard to believe at times, but probably one of the most astonishing transformations we’ve seen at Carrow Road in such a short period of time. Somehow, a dunderheaded, directionless rabble, hurtling to relegation under the hapless Liam Manning, became world beaters, launching a highly unlikely play-off challenge, with Philippe Clement at the helm, which only fell short with a game to go. Hyperbole much? Honestly... it was extraordinary.

“Expectation management will be important, and supporters will try not to get carried away. West Ham, Wolves, Burnley and Middlesbrough all present a daunting challenge, so finding our way into the top two may well be beyond us. But it’s hard not to look ahead with genuine excitement, and it does feel like we really could have a proper crack this season. Anything could happen, and the ball is round etc – but we’re in a good place right now and light years ahead of where we were in the dark and damp days of last November.”

Prediction: 4th (@LoftusIQ 8th) I’m excited about this lot in a way I’m just not with several others on the page. If the relegated teams don’t live up to their billing don’t be surprised to see them push for automatics. I’d be absolutely astonished if they’re not in the play-offs.

Sheff Utd 20/1

Last Season – 13th (We said 5th -8) A change of host can often be quite jarring. Radio Two, before it became Lancs FM, replaced Terry Wogan with Chris Evans. It upsets the routine. It doesn’t feel right. Like turning on the Big Breakfast and finding out Johnny and Denise are on holiday that week. Or a Christmas Match of the Day with Ray Stubbs filling in for Des. Bah, who are you? Why are you here? Who’s going to do the paper review?

Perhaps the Bramall Lane owners should be grateful. After all, it makes their job a lot easier. It does seem that the only man who can manage Sheffield United, in the entire world and for the very foreseeable future, is Chris Wilder.

American AI enthusiasts COH Sports decided to try and roll the dice on that last summer when Wilder wasn’t quite as on board with the various Bulgarian full backs their supercomputer kept throwing his way and, in theory, it shouldn’t have been much of a gamble. Sheff Utd amassed 90 points in 24/25 and missed out on promotion only due to a horror 20-minute spell just at the wrong moment in the play-off final. As we said in this column last year, even a moderate drop off in performance under Ruben Selles, even a really sticky start to life at Bramall Lane, say seven fewer wins and 21 fewer points, and they’re still on 70 and qualifying for the play-offs again. Probably be fine.

Well, they thought the same on Deepwater Horizon too. Starting with a 4-1 home loss to the same Bristol City side they’d whitewashed in the play-offs just a couple of months prior, the Blades lost their first seven league and cup games and failed to score in five of those. Beaten 5-0 at Ipswich, Selles was fired when a do-or-die home game with Charlton went the way of the visitors.

Barely two months into the new season the board had to go flat cap in hand back to Wilder and ask him to come and rescue the situation. By the time the bleeding had been stemmed, and QPR had turned up with the generous donation of a Bramall Lane point for the cause, United had lost 12 of their first 15 matches and their season, as far as a promotion push was concerned, was over.

Some promising bouts of form did follow. They scored 13 goals in winning four straight through November. The arrival of hitherto disliked Patrick Bamford as a free agent was a typically astute bit of Wilder wheeling and dealing. But they never got truly kick started for real, lost 4-3 at home to Mansfield in the FA Cup, and limped through with three wins from the final 11 games into 13th place with Wilder giving it lots of “it won’t be like this next season” chat.

A remarkable piece of boardroom mismanagement all round.

Ins >>> Matt Doherty, 34, RB, Wolves, Free >>> Romelle Donovan, 19, RW, Brentford, Loan

Outs >>> Andre Brooks, 22, CM, Norwich, £8m >>> Gus Hamer, 29, AM, Coventry, £6m >>> Christian Nwachukwu, 20, LW, Sabah (Azerbaijan), Undisclosed >>> Alex Matos, 21, CM, Goztepe (Turkey), Loan >>> Mihail Polendakov, 19, RB, Ludogrets, Loan >>> Tom Davies, 28, CM, Released >>> Danny Ings, 33, CF, Released >>> Ben Mee, 36, CB, Retired

This Season: You won’t find many teams tipped across such a broad range of predictions as Sheff Utd this summer. Even by the standards of this nonsense, this is an incredibly difficult call.

There are really two schools of thought here. The first is that with a full summer and pre-season under Wilder, there will be absolutely no repeat of last August’s fucktastrophe. They’ve already knocked over Nigel Clough’s wily Mansfield side in the League Cup – the same opponent beat them 4-3 at Bramall Lane in the other knockout comp in January.

Andre Brooks leaving for Norwich perhaps indicative of the respective directions of travels for those two old Championship rivals, but it’ll provide money to spend on a team that is already strong across the park. Michael Cooper strangely went from the Championship’s best keeper to one of its worst statistically last year, but should be able to recover from that. Plenty of Sam McCallum, Harrison Burrows, Rhys Norrington Davies-type full back options either side of Tanganga and McGuinness. Peck, Arblaster, Rothwell, Ridewald a super solid central midfield. New Brentford boy Donovan to compete with Chong and Callum O’Hare behind a strike force still containing Bamford, Tyrese Campbell and Tom Cannon. It looks decent. Difficult to beat. A Wilder team.

And yet you do just wonder about this lot. Outstanding playmaker Gus Hamer has successfully forced through a move back to Coventry and the Blades are not the same team without him. Money from there, and Brooks, should be used to replenish the team but as PSR enters our life reports suggest United could owe as much as £31m in back transfer fees over the next two years while former owner Prince Abdullah is pursuing the club’s present board for £35m he says he’s owed post-takeover. Parachute payments from their most recent Premier League stint are now at an end.

There’s largely silence on all of this, with Wilder left to front up in the press. Having lost several experienced foot soldiers (Danny Ings, Tom Davies, Ben Mee), the manager is also now without long serving assistant Alan Knill. Incomings so far number Brentford B winger Romelle Donovan and creaking 34-year-old right back Matt Doherty. This side could also look stodgy and stale, with a volatile manager and tricksy boardroom situation. Are they still intending to inflict AI-sourced Bulgarians on the Championship’s most Championship of managers, or is he to be given free rein? The next three weeks will be highly instructive on this, and Harry Souttar is being linked with a return from Leicester to hopefully kick start a much-needed refresh.

Manager – Chris Wilder 13/8 favourite to be the next Sheff Utd manager

Oppo View @BeastlyOli “Last season was a huge disappointment. Coming off the back of a play-off final defeat expectations were high and with it being the final year of parachute payments we expected United to go all out for promotion. Instead what manifested was relegation worries, some minor play off dreams and the season tailing out into mid table nothingness. Wasted our last real opportunity at getting back to the Premier League with bad off field decision making, poor transfers and Ruben Selles!

“Some outside observers have picked United as their dark horses for relegation, while the most optimistic of Blades fans are talking about a play-off push. The current position probably sits somewhere in the middle, based on the current squad position, expected outgoings, potential incomings and off field concerns I would suggest 10-14th is a realistic position for United this season. The extended play-off positions does give us a chance of making the top eight, but I see further mid table obscurity in our future.

Prediction: 12th (@LoftusIQ 6th)

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Pictures - Reuters Connect