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With six new teams, 11 new managers and one storied old club reduced to such levels of penury by a pernicious owner that one of its unpaid suppliers have reportedly refused to provide sock-tape for its belatedly-paid players, the new Championship campaign kicks off on Friday night, with fancied sides Birmingham and Ipswich ready to get the first of the regular season’s 552 games started. Of course there could end up being considerably fewer if Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri doesn’t do the decent thing and sell up for a price that isn’t totally outlandish, but for now the Owls remain hopeful of fielding a team for their season-opener at relegated returnees Leicester on Sunday, even if whatever side they can cobble together is forced to show more leg than is considered appropriate or decent on a football pitch. As things stand, Wednesday fans would almost certainly be delighted if their club lives up to its status as hotter-than-the-sun favourites to finish bottom of the league come season’s end, because it would at least mean they still have one to support.
A white-knuckle ride so unpredictable that … erm, five of the past six pre-season favourites have gone on to win it, the Championship still remains one of football’s more exciting leagues in so far as anyone in it can beat anyone else without it registering particularly high on the Richter scale. An ongoing soap opera with no ends of overlapping and intertwined narrative arcs and characters, this season will boast no end of intriguing interlopers in the form of Wrexham custodians/opportunists Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, Snoop Dogg sidling into the Swansea City hood and the Birmingham minority owner, documentary star and charisma vacuum that is Tom Brady.
