Aston Villa - financial worries may well limit Villa to another unsuccessful season. Should be on the fringes of promotion though
Birmingham City - a good organised manager will give them a better season than last but can’t see beyond mid-table obscurity
Blackburn Rovers - too good for Division 3 last time but think they’ll have the same struggle as before at this level, like Birmingham I think they’ll be mid-table somewhere
Bolton Wanderers - think Parky will have close to the same problems as last season with financial limitations so quite probably another struggle lies ahead
Brentford - great little club with limited but well organised resources and a management team that seem able to continually find playing gems. While I don’t think they’ll be promoted they’ll certainly be towards the upper end of the goings-on
Bristol City - Lee Johnson did really well with City last season but it all just tailed off in the last couple of months. This season I think it’ll be more of the latter half of last season form wise and they’ll be one of those inconsistent teams showing great capability one week and then just as much incapabilty the next
Derby County - the rising sun has reached it’s zenith and now slowly nights draws on
Hull City - as the night draws on at Pride Park so shall there be a dawn beginning to emerge at New Boothfery Park, enough to see ‘ull sneaketh to a comfortble top half finish
Ipswich Town - taken a chance by appointing the Shrewsbury boss to the Portman Road hot seat and therefore one of those teams! Like Reading really, that no one knows what on earth to expect.
Leeds United - and the same could be said of this band of happy warriors as they set out on a new season with yet another new manager in the Argentine, Bielsa on a 2 month, sorry 2 year deal. For all the comedy that comes out of the club my expectation is for them is another season challenging the play offs
Middlesbrough - good and well organised team that’s hard to be. Expect them to be around the top 3/4 pretty much all season
Millwall - excellent finish to the season last time out but I think they may well find this season running closer to their standard norm at this level as being on of the also-rans
Norwich City - another consistent season of being remarkably inconsistent this way comes.
Nottingham Forest - there’s something brewing here. Not sure what, how or why but money seems to be appearing from somewhere and a team of last season with fairly useful though horrendously inconsistent individuals might well find themselves involved in a promotion push. The dark horse to watch mantle therefore.
Preston North End - appear to be a team of consistent top 10 finishes but not really quite able to find the top 6. Harder again this time round though and might be the surprise strugglers
Queens Park Rangers - Steve McLaren has taken over and there maybe a little investment available to him as well. Not really expecting very much from them but not really expecting them to struggle either. Typical mid-table well organised difficult to beat team? Probably.
Rotherham United - and thus completed the most pointless Division 3 promotion race for some time with the same three returning. Just boring. Will present murch more of a painful presence about the division than their last sojourn at this level but it’s still hard too see any anything much more than a relegation battle for them
Sheffield United - like Millwall, will find it harder but still too good to go down, thinking upper half
Sheffield Wednesday - I expect a contrasting season to last time out, a much improved set of performances will see them on the fringes of promotion but not quite there yet
Stoke City - a quick return to the top flight beckons. Really struggle to see past them for the title as they have immediately invested wisely in appointing Gary Rowett and will keep the majority of a fine squad for this level. Anything other than promotion will be a shock.
Swansea City - another clever managerial appointment with Graham Potter? Maybe. Good players in their squad too but for some reason I think they will be the one club of the three relegated that might be in for a bit of a rude awakening. Still think there’ll be a challenge from them at some point so wouldn’t rule them out completely.
West Bromwich Albion - I expect to see a side that delivers far more than it fails. Definite promotion contenders though perhaps some players might be found out as they find themselves embroiled in 46 cup finals. Like the look of Darren Moore as a manager so far though, very calm and seems very good at getting things organised. Going to be a tough team to beat.
Wigan Athletic - another challenging season awaits but think they’ll have enough to survive and see the season out satisfactorily
And as for our lot? Really and honestly just do not know what to expect. Could be as bad as last season or worse. Could be a challenge. Let’s play safe and say somewhere between 1st and 24th though I sense our expectation is as low its been for some time and all we want is to see clear and distinct improvement on the pitch and a season of preferably not looking downwards.
Overall, looking forward to a season in the division that actually is the best in the world for competitiveness, unpredictability and entertainment. Much rather be watching this week in and week out than City, United, the pool etc. generally winning week in and week out in the PL snooze fest (doesn’t stop me wanting Reading to get there though
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