Middlesbrough – another club with recent Premiership experience – are current favourites. Manager Gordon Strachan has bought in Kris Boyd from Rangers; if Boyd reproduces his outstanding goalscoring record in the Championship, he could be play a vital part in Boro’s promotion bid.

Although the clubs relegated from the Premiership shouldn’t be entirely written off, Burnley look the best equipped for a serious promotion challenge: Chris Iwelumo’s arrival from Wolves looks like a shrewd investment. Both Hull City and Portsmouth have off field issues that could hinder their efforts to make an immediate return to the top tier.

Two of the teams that reached the play offs last season should challenge for promotion places. Nottingham Forest were outstanding at home last season and Leicester City – where former Swansea City boss Paolo Sousa replaces Nigel Pearson as manager – look capable of maintaining their form from 2009/2010. Cardiff City’s prospects are unclear, but they should still be capable of a top ten finish, a prospect that both Ipswich Town and QPR will be hoping to achieve.

It’ll be interesting to see how the new arrivals from League One will perform. Champions Norwich City return after one season but may have to settle for a mid table finish; Leeds United will probably lead the division in attendance numbers, but their season may depend on how well new signing Billy Paynter adapts to the Championship. Millwall should avoid relegation but may have to be content with a bottom half finish in their first season at this level since 2005/2006.

A number of teams look as if they may struggle. Scunthorpe always seem to be punching above their weight but selling Gary Hooper to Celtic leaves The Iron without a proven goal scorer. Barnsley need to improve at home, Crystal Palace entered administration but eventually owed their survival to an outstanding away record that culminated in a win at Sheffield Wednesday on the last day of the season.

However, every club in the nPower Football League Championship will start on equal terms when the season starts on the evening of Friday August 6th, when Watford travel to Norwich City (7:45pm kick off, live on Sky Sports 3).

Despite taking Swansea to the brink of the play-offs, Sousa has not endeared himself to the fans, players or board it would appear and the club have decided to allow him to leave sooner rather than later, before too much harm is done within the club.

Leicester City are understood to have agreed a compensation package with Swansea as Sousa still had two years to run on his contract.

Having arrived from a short stint at QPR that lasted just 26 games, Sousa led Swansea to within a point of the play-offs in his first season in charge at the club, but should really have done better in the run in when Swansea picked up just three wins in the final 13 games.

The club boasted 24 clean sheets during the season and the defence shipped just 37 goals throughout, but they also failed to score in 18 of their games and the goal shy attack managed just 40 goals all season.

Despite denials from both parties the relationship between Sousa and club chairman Huw Jenkins has often appeared strained and I get the feeling that Swansea will ultimately be glad to resolve the issue now before too much damage is done.

Nigel pearson joins Hull City

Nigel Pearson has been confirmed as the new Hull City manager, he will replace caretaker Iain Dowie who was hired short term by Hull but failed to keep the club in the Premier League.

Pearson arrives from Leicester City where he has led the club to the League One title and to the Championship play-offs in his two seasons in charge.

Leicester chairman Milan Mandaric said:

“Nigel’s done a fantastic job. It would have been wrong of us to deny him the chance to speak to another club. We were greatly surprised to receive the initial approach from Hull. The past few years have been a turbulent time for both me and the supporters at Leicester City. We have been striving to get a degree of continuity at the club. After speaking to Nigel, we have reluctantly agreed that if he wished to pursue this opportunity at Hull, we would permit it.

I am deeply grateful to him for everything he has done for the club. He has put together the foundations of a strong squad and it is now up to us to find a manager to build on those foundations.”

Hull City’s head of football operations Adam Pearson added:

“We are delighted to welcome a manager of Nigel’s experience and calibre to the club. We feel it is a real coup for Hull City and that Nigel is the best man to mould the existing squad into a competitive Championship squad. Nigel had two outstanding seasons at Leicester City and I feel sure that this experience and winning formula will ensure the very best chance of bringing success back to the club.”

Iain Dowie was hired by Hull with nine games remaining following the departure of Phil Brown in March, he was always on a hiding to nothing but hoped that he had shown enough to be considered as a long term replacement for Brown.

While I am sure he was given consideration, Hull City appear to have shown patience in finding the right man for the job and on the basis of Pearson’s recent managerial history he has to be the right man.

Why they feel the need to constantly remind us that the teams on show are not as good as the top Premier League ones is beyond me. Perhaps they believe that there are people out there who only started watching football in 1992; as if the existence of the other 72 professional clubs has a sole purpose to provide a structure of promotion and relegation that eventually leads to the Premiership.

This is not to say that fans of Football League clubs should have reason to resent Sky Sports. Their live coverage of the play-offs and league games is an excellent option for both fans and neutrals interested in the outcome of these games; just as live Premiership football gives us the opportunity to watch some of the best players in the world week-in week-out. Instead, the issue is the tone used by commentators and pundits when covering league football. How often does one hear a player described as ‘very effective at this level’?

Robert Earnshaw has perhaps been one of the most frequent victims of this label, one of a number of players who aren’t good enough for the Premiership. This is undoubtedly true, he has had opportunities in the top flight and not quite imposed himself, but the very culture that Sky Sports and the Premiership itself creates means that players like Earnshaw, and there are many of them, are frequently underappreciated for their excellence in the Football League because of their inability to shine at the highest level.

If you ask a fan of any club for which players like Robert Earnshaw, Gavin Mahon or Graham Kavanagh have played then you will hear glowing reports as to their consistence and quality. The journeyman footballer evokes images of hard working yet not particularly gifted players moving from club to club in the lower echelons of English football.

This is often not the case and one only has to look at a player like Nicky Forster to highlight the enduring quality of some players. At 36 years of age he has scored 40 goals in 98 games for Brighton, an outstanding achievement from a player who has averaged a goal every three games over a 15 year professional career. This feat has been achieved with a natural talent the like of which so many fans would die for, and there are very few, if any, professional footballers who are where they are as a result of hard work alone.

I recently heard a commentator on Sky Sports describe volleying as a ‘difficult technique to master’ after a player ballooned the ball into the stands from just inside the area. This may be the case for 15 year olds learning the game but for professional footballers earning in excess of £200,000 a year it is just patronising. If a Premiership footballer misses an easy chance then commentators are quick to criticise and the same should be true when one of the many quality players in the Football League does the same.

Indeed, this is all many of us would ask for, to be allowed to watch any televised game for what it is without the constant references to the Premiership. There are of course some outstanding matches played throughout the course of the Premiership season, yet there are also some terrible ones.

Give any avid football fan the choice between a dull, meaningless mid-table Premiership contest and an important, season-defining game in any one of the other professional leagues and they will choose the latter.

This is because we are fans of the game first and foremost, beyond any team or player loyalties, and it is the drama and excitement of it that keeps us watching.

Every so often, Sky could do with acknowledging this and showing us that they are football fans instead of Premiership fans.

The former Bolton player has been in impressive form for the Magpies scoring nine goals so far this season. While the 29 year old is chuffed with the award he says his main goal is returning to the Premier League with Newcastle at first time of trying.

He said he would be happier for Newcastle to win every remaining game without scoring himself, to get back to the Premiership.

Stern John, who joined Ipswich from Crystal Palace on loan until the end of the year, says he would be up for making the deal permanent if he is wanted by the Suffolk club.

John made his debut for the Tractor Boys in last weekends 2-1 win over Cardiff and said he is keen to leave Selhurst Park and will see what happens in January.

He is contracted with Palace until next summer, with a possible one year extension, but admits that the chances of remaining with Palace are slim with the current financial difficulties at the club.

Derby County are keen to terminate the contract of Australian midfielder Ruben Zadkovich, who was brought to the club by previous manager Paul Jewell, but has spent 10 months out injured and has yet to feature in the first team under current boss Nigel Clough.

Zadkovich has been offered a termination agreement to cover the remaining six months of his contract at Derby and Clough said they are waiting for a response from the player’s agent. The Australian has made seven appearances for Derby since joining the club in April 2008.

Nigel Clough says he is keen to re-sign Everton striker James Vaughan on loan in January. The 21 year old was injured soon after arriving at Pride Park on a previous loan agreement in September.

Vaughan has recovered from surgery on the injured knee and is back in training with Everton and Clough said he is hoping to get him down to the midlands to train with Derby in an effort to re-sign the player on loan in the January window.

The Rams face losing the services of Paul Dickov and DJ Campbell in the New Year, both players are on loan from Leicester City until the end of the year.

Newcastle were easy winners against a Peterborough side who are struggling for form and find themselves unceremoniously dumped at the bottom of the table, thanks to Roy Keane’s Ipswich picking up a point from the 1-1 draw with Reading.

West Brom who faced a recent dip in fortune found their way back to winning ways at Leicester, who despite the 2-1 loss remain in the dogfight for promotion play off places in sixth. Albion are clinging to Newcastle’s shirt tails in second place, two points behind the Magpies.

The game of the weekend in the Championship, for me anyway, was the clash between Welsh clubs Swansea and Cardiff. Cardiff have been scoring goals for fun as Ron Atkinson might say and were favourites going into the tie. Swansea have been doing pretty well themselves following the adjustments at the club following the departure of Roberto Martinez.

New manager Paulo Sousa has instilled a winning mentality into the Swans and before Saturday’s derby they were unbeaten in nine games, having conceded only ten goals and five points adrift of Cardiff but heading in the right direction.

Cardiff manager Dave Jones on the other hand has a team that had scored 31 goals, the division’s top scorers, and had just picked up the Manager of the Month award for guiding the team to third in the Championship.

On the day it was Swansea who came out on top in an enthralling encounter which they won 3-2, with two goal Darren Prately the player of the match.  It is hard to argue with the result, Swansea just having that extra edge throughout an excellent and exciting game, for a neutral.

Elsewhere, Middlesbrough continue their free fall from the top of the league, even Gordon Strachan needs time it seems, Crystal Palace taking three points from them with a 1-0 win.

As ever in the Championship, at least half of the table are within early sight of the automatic and promotion play off places, leaving the other half desperately trying to accumulate enough points not to be dragged into a relegation place.

Barnsley

It is the second defeat on the trot in the Championship and third in a week including the Carling Cup loss at Arsenal for the Baggies and has put a temporary dent in their attempt at marching straight back to the Premiership.

Barnsley, who are at the other end of the Championship table, were much the better team and deserved the win with a performance that belies their position in the league.

Michael Chopra scored four in Cardiff’s mauling of Derby County as the Welsh team found their early season form and thrashed Nigel Clough’s side 6-1.

Promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough and Preston were both beaten, the latter by lowly strugglers Reading who won away 1-2 and lifted themselves up the table but will need to build on this result to avoid a relegation battle later in the season.

Gareth Southgate was booed by the home crowd following the 0-1 defeat by Leicester who are now just one point behind Middlesbrough after an indifferent start to the campaign.

Roy Keane’s Ipswich were robbed yet again as Sheffield United scored an equalising goal in injury time to make the score 3-3. Ipswich had led 3-1 and will be disappointed at letting the game slip away, although one point is better than none.

Ipswich Town’s Simon Clegg was quick to dispel any rumours that Keane’s time at the club was coming to an end by issuing a statement to say there is no pressure on the Irishman.

Coventry staged a late comeback to take all the points from their visit to Watford, trailing 2-1 the Sky Blues scored twice in the last ten minutes or so to seal the win 2-3.

Bristol City beat Blackpool 2-0 who are now both on 16 points just outside the play off places which is becoming very congested with five teams on the same points.

Crystal Palace were held to a 0-0 against visitors Sheffield Wednesday, the same result as at Doncaster who entertained Swansea. The bottom of the table clash between Darren Ferguson’s Peterborough and Plymouth was won by the south west team 1-2, their first win of the season.

Newcastle have the chance to stretch their lead to five points at the top of the league when they take on QPR tonight, while Nottingham Forest will host Scunthorpe in the other game.

Danny Guthrie was the Newcastle goal hero, scoring in the early part of the second half  to secure the points for his team. Leicester survived two  penalty appeals for hand ball, the first when a shot from Taylor clipped Gallaghers arm and then for a more blatant handball by Brown which went unpunished.

Newcastle started the game with a weak looking team, missing the likes of Coloccini who has joined up with the Argentinian squad, but also without Butt, Gutierrez, Ameobi and Carroll through injury.

Caretaker manager Chris Hughton was happy with the win but said after the game that Newcastle are still keen to bring ‘one or two players in’ before the transfer window closes. He added that he is totally confident that no other players will be leaving the club at this stage.

Football betting tends to peak at this time of year too, as football fans attempt to forecast what is going to happen over the next 9 months.

As far as this season’s Championship goes, I really can’t see there being clear favourites for promotion to the Premier League.

Bookmakers have made Newcastle United favourites to bounce straight back to the Premiership but even with a convincing display against Reading at the weekend, I still don’t fancy them for automatic promotion all the time there is board room and ownership turmoil at St James Park.

I believe Sheffield United and Cardiff City will kick on from last season.  But what effect will Roy Keane have on Ipswich Town’s chances to return to the top league in English football nad likewise, Nigel Clough at Derby County?

Of the three teams relegated from the Premier League last season, I can only really see West Bromich Albion as possible champions, even with new manager Roberto Di Matteo.  Until Mike Ashley sells Newcastle I think they will be destined to lose their best players and remain a Championship side.  While at Middlesbrough, I’d like to see Gareth Southgate do well but I really don’t think they will be equipped for life in the Championship this season, and will have to accommodate a different style of play.

As previously mentioned on this blog, I think Leicester City had such a good season winning promotion from League One that they could quite easily win two promotions on the bounce.

The internet is full of good quality websites offering football news services to keep fans buzzing throughout the season.  But as football fans, we all know only too well that there can only be one winner at the end of the season.

Ian Holloway joined Leicester from Plymouth Argyle in November 2007 but after winning only nine of his 32 games in charge, Leicester City were relegated on the last day of the season, following a 0-0 draw that saw Stoke achieve automatic promotion to the Premiership. Not many championship bets would have been placed on this in August.

After a meeting with Ian Holloway earlier this month it seemed that Mandaric might have learnt his lesson that managers need time to sort things out.

But yesterday Holloway was the ninth manager to be hired and fired since Milan Mandaric, the 69-year-old Serbian, took charge of Leicester City in April 2007. An amazing, yet shocking statistic.

“We both felt it would be in the best interests of Leicester City and its long-term future if we amicably parted company,” said chairman Milan Mandaric.

So who is going to be the next lamb to the slaughter?

Whoever becomes Milan Mandaric’s tenth appointment will need to hit the ground running unless they wish to become Milan’s tenth Leicester City managerial casualty.