Here is the first of our 2009/10 Seasonal Previews. it comes from our sister site, Wakuba.com…

The Championship

Over the past few seasons the Championship has become one of the most competitive leagues in the world, with 24 teams all of relatively similar standard fighting it out in attritional game after attritional game. Managers and signings that turn out to be good, injuries, luck… all can have a strong influence. So you really can’t rule anyone out, although it is perhaps slightly fanciful to think Barnsley or Scunthorpe will win it.

That is why, in the ‘To Be Promoted’ market, 19 of the 24 sides are 16/1 or less to be promoted – and Scunthorpe are the longest price to finish in the Top 6 at (again) just 16/1. Contrast that with the Premiership, where Burnley are 50/1 to finish Top 6 (remember there are only 20 teams), and you can see the difference. Any one side can beat any other.

Newcastle are currently favourites for the title in most places – as short as 5/1 in places – which seems absurd considering the turmoil on and off the field. Yes, they have good players on paper – but if they cannot perform in the Premier League its unlikely they will fancy a midweek trip to Plymouth. Of course if a takeover is completed they could well have an influx of money designed to bring a quick return to the Premier League – but that is a big if.

Where Newcastle aren’t favourites, West Brom are, and this seems a far better pick. They have the nucleus of the side that went down last season, which is also the team that won the division so comprehensively the year before. In Roberto Di Matteo they have a promising young manager who did well at MK Dons, and will stay true to Tony Mowbray’s footballing principles. At a best price 13/2, if our money was going anywhere, it would be on the Baggies.

Other teams to consider include Boro, the other team to be relegated – they’ve remarkably kept most of their good players, and though Tuncay will probably join Downing in exiting the North East, they still have good players and an excellent crop of youth players.

Roy Keane’s excellent Championship record and the money available at Ipswich makes them a worthy consideration, and the teams who were there or thereabouts last season, like Reading, Cardiff, Preston, and Sheffield United are all worth considering.

After a summer spending spree Nottingham Forest have shortened from 40/1 to 25/1, and could be a decent each way punt even at that reduced price. In Billy Davies they have a canny manager with an excellent record at this level, and the word is they are making a concerted push for the Premier League.

As we said, any team could have a good season and push on – two that stand out are Doncaster, whose end of season form would have taken them into the playoffs over the season (12/1 for top 6) and Nigel Clough’s Derby, although the 3/1 in the same market is very short.

In terms of relegation, in the same way any side could conceivably finish top 6, a lot of sides could be dragged into the mire. It’s difficult to see any of the sides we mentioned as challengers actually getting relegated; but Scunthorpe, Plymouth, Blackpool and Barnsley must be anticipating tough seasons ahead.

Then you have the unknowns; the promoted sides Leicester and Peterborough, Swansea under new manager Paolo Sousa, and teams that could be dark horses like Sheffield Wednesday, Palace, and QPR. Any of these could feature at the top of the table – but also at the bottom!

Now watch one of the few teams we haven’t mentioned streak away at the top of the table…

Paul Hart is looking, after two battling Pompey performances, increasingly likely to take the Portsmouth job full time. If he does, he’ll join a curiously long line of failed Forest managers who have gone onto bigger and better things. Stuart Pearce, David Platt, Paul Hart, Joe Kinnear, Gary Megson, and Colin Calderwood have all been sacked, or left, Forest – and then reappeared (with little or no interim success) at International or Premiership level!

Truly bizarre.

That may be enough information for you – but if you don’t believe us, or want to read more, please carry on…

1. Stuart Pearce

Forest legend Stuart Pearce took the job on a caretaker basis in 1996-97; and despite winning manager of the month in January, Forest were relegated and Pearce left at the end of the season as the board wanted more experience (in the shape of Dave Bassett). His next managerial job, on the back of half a season and a relegation, was with Premiership Manchester City. A steady decline in performances brought upon his sacking in 2007; but not before he was appointed manager of the England Under 21s. He remains in charge of them to this day, and his reputation is steadily improving.

2. David Platt

After tenures of varying brevity and success (i.e. very little or none) under Dave ‘Harry’ Bassett, Micky Adams (sacked by Brighton at the weekend), and big racist Ron Atkinson, the job was given to David Platt in July 1999. An extract from Wikipedia on Platt’s tenure:

He was manager at the City Ground for two seasons, but had little success despite spending several million pounds on players who did not perform well and plunging the club into large sums of debt. Platt’s tenure at Forest was marred by disagreements with several experienced, long-serving players, leading to them being isolated from the first-team picture and subsequently released by the club. He is still hugely unpopular with many Forest fans who blame him for the club’s decline on and off the field during the 2000s, which culminated in relegation to the league’s third tier four years after his departure.

And a brief summary from the History of Nottingham Forest:

David Platt is one of the most disliked figures in Nottingham Forest’s history. He was responsible for making some poor signings that cost millions of pounds. This plunged the club further into debt. Under his guidance the team generally underperformed and the quality of the football was often poor. Platt’s reign was nothing short of disastrous and arguably Forest still haven’t recovered from the damage he did.

So not great, then…

Yet he left Forest to take over the England U21s in July 2001. What he did to deserve that remains a mystery.

3. Paul Hart

Hart was immensely successful as Head of Forest’s Youth academy, bringing through the likes of David Prutton, Marlon Harewood, Jermaine Jenas, Michael Dawson, Shaun Wright-Phillips, and Andy Reid (imagine if they had held onto them!) – but due to the financial mess Platt had left the club in Hart was forced to sell many of them, plus other established first teamers. Admittedly largely due to forced departures, Hart was sacked with Forest near the bottom of Division One. Hart then had undistinguished spells at Barnsley and Rushden and Diamonds before popping up again now, as Portsmouth caretaker, and looking increasingly likely to be given the job full time.

4. Joe Kinnear

Kinnear left Forest after guiding them to the lower echelons of Division One. He walked before he was pushed – then, after an extended absence from the game, he popped up earlier this season – in a wave of expletives – to take charge of Newcastle! Truly an odd appointment. What did he do at Forest to deserve one of the biggest jobs in the country?!

5. Gary Megson

Next up, after a flirtation with Mick Harford, was Gary Megson. Another who was universally hated by the fans, Megson created a Forest side which not only became the first former European Cup winning side to play in the third tier of English football, but played what was generally agreed upon to be, aesthetically and stylistically, their worst football in living memory. Megson departed ‘by mutual consent’ in February 2006 with Forest in 13th place, just four points above the relegation zone, having won just once in the last ten games. His next stop was Leicester – but after just 41 days he was ‘poached’ by Bolton in 2007, after they identified him as a ‘must have’. Forest fans – and many others – simply asked ‘why?’.

6. Colin Calderwood

Calderwood took charge in May 2006 after the extremely successful caretaker tenure of Barlow and McPartland. He stabilised the club and led them to promotion, but sub-standard performances this season saw them sit bottom of the Championship and led to his dismissal. Calderwood left with his tail between his legs; but then re-appeared at Newcastle… and is now in (part) charge after Kinnear’s medical problems! Another absurd addition to the list.

7. Billy Davies

Will he fail? If he does, will he go onward and upward as his predecessors have done?!