Bookies odds on getting out of the 2022/23 Championship – Interesting (to me anyway…)

Something caught my eye on the 2022/23 Championship.

Less than five weeks until it kicks off (a week earlier than the Premier League).

The 2022/23 Championship season actually kicking off their matches in July, not sure if this is the first time ever for that (and can’t be bothered to check!).

Anyway, like the Premier League they are having a break mid-season due to the Qatar World Cup finals, although the 2022/23 Championship season is only interrupted for four weeks (stopping after the weekend matches of Saturday 12 November and restarting weekend of Saturday 10 December 2022), unlike the Premier League which is off for over six weeks (returning with Boxing Day fixtures).

Newcastle United could of course have been one of the participants in this 2022/23 Championship upcoming season, indeed would have been sure if the club had continued with Mike Ashley and Steve Bruce in control.

All the dreams of Sunderland fans coming true, the return of the derbies with the two clubs moving divisions from opposite directions and meeting in the second tier.

Happily, Ashley didn’t succeed with a third relegation in his thirteenth Premier League season with NUFC, the new owners and Eddie Howe coming to the rescue and averting disaster.

You have to wonder (worry!) exactly what state we would be now in if facing the 2022/23 Championship season under Ashley and Bruce but for sure I don’t think NUFC would have found it anywhere near as easy, as was the case under both Chris Hughton (see photo above) and Rafa Benitez, the previous two times Ashley got us relegated.

Anyway, I had a look at the 2022/23 Championship odds from the bookies, these are the generally best prices on getting promoted:

9/4 Watford, Norwich

3/1 West Brom, Sheffield United

10/3 Middlesbrough

4/1 Burnley

6/1 Swansea

7/1 Huddersfield, Stoke

8/1 Millwall, Blackburn, Coventry

9/1 Sunderland, Hull, Luton, QPR, Cardiff

12/1 Wigan

14/1 Preston, Blackpool

20/1 Birmingham, Bristol City, Reading

33/1 Rotherham

Little surprise that five of the six favourites to get promoted, are the clubs who are receiving parachute payments this coming season.

Middlesbrough the odd one out, as Norwich, Burnley and Watford have just been relegated, whilst the season before Sheffield United and West Brom went down.

Not sure I would fancy taking the price on third favourites West Brom to go up. Naturally I took a bit of an interest when Steve Bruce went there last season at the start of February, they looked pretty woeful under Bruce (to nobody’s surprise!) and in his seventeen games in charge only won six, losing seven and drawing four. He took over when they were fifth and looked set for the play-offs, by the end of the season they were tenth and well off the pace.

Under Steve Bruce, the Baggies averaged just 1.29 points per game and over the course of a full season, that average points per game would equal 59 points, a points total that would only have got you seventeenth this season just ended in the second tier.

The likes of Norwich and Watford are surely going to be tough to beat, if they keep most of their squads intact, whilst I think Burnley will be similar, despite the loss of the likes of Nick Pope.

Of interest to Newcastle fans is of course Sunderland, who are equal thirteenth favourites at around 9/1.

With no parachute payments and having struggled to even get to the play-offs last season, I think the mackems could be in for a tough time. The bookies make them 8/1 to be relegated, believing there is slightly more chance of going down than going up!