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).

Many top flight football clubs are faced with the prospect of being earmarked for relegation during the festive period. With the Premiership tables being crammed full of football clubs with wealthy backers, it seems somewhat a dreadful situation for them to know to have spent millions on players and managers only to see results fall flat. Ultimately relegation looms. We can just look at Newcastle United for such a classic example last season. Newcastle was a sad story of mismanagement which actually started off as being quite promising. A rich multi-millionaire in Mike Ashley with a long standing clothing business bought the club in 2006 but where things turned sour was the continuation of the infamous revolving door policy for managers which led to all kinds of instability in the dressing room. Players lost interest and the club’s results slid until they were demoted in 2009 to the Championship via a lack lustre performance against Aston Villa – a match they had needed to win.

A club like Newcastle United, who enjoyed 16 years of the premiership football and they have begun their Championship campaign with gusto, much to the surprise of sports pundits. Some football bookmakers on the online betting circuit had faith in seeing the Toon promoted with odds of 15/8 back in August 09. Not bad considering that Newcastle United had just dumped its talisman, Alan Shearer, in favour of the untested Chris Hughton as manager at the time. However, the last thing a club would want to know is the betting odds; the first priority for any ex-Premiership club was to get rid of the excesses and there usually are plenty of them in player wages.

Players who expressed no desire to play on were quickly shown the door. In the case of Newcastle, those players were Damien Duff (undisclosed), Obafemi Martins (£9m) and Shay Given (£6m). Obviously, the sale of high profile players would help cushion some of the blow of reduced income from TV and sponsorship deals. That coupled with a parachute payment which totalled around £12m for dropping a league down.

Compare this to being in the Premiership, where a club get £38m just for being in that league and that’s discounting other lucrative deals on top. Ticket prices are normally affected as well with 8-10% price reductions to try and entice disgruntled fans back into stadiums as well as keeping those all important season ticket holders. Right now, Newcastle can comfortably fill around 42-49,000 spectators for a home match which is nothing to be sniffed at. Newcastle United has always been credited for having a large hardcore fan-base and this season so far has proved nothing less.

Both West Brom and Newcastle have adapted well to life in the Championship whilst Middlesbrough have been the surprise strugglers despite the help of the newly recruited, Gordon Strachan. Newcastle had to do much more to bolster its chances for promotion at the start. Much to their credit, there work has so far paid dividends, with a club managing to keep a lot of its past season’s players who have so far proved that a class above the rest in this league.

A higher wage bill will probably be the price to pay for returning to the Premiership.  Some may argue that playing in the Championship has done Newcastle more good then if they experienced another hapless season in the Premiership. Just look at them now as they have got rid of some deadwood and now play with certain ambition in them that has led to back-to-back wins – a feat they could not achieve in the past few years in the top flight league.

The Premiership 2009-2010 season is just as tight at this stage with three out a possible 11 teams trying to avoid the drop. Like Newcastle United before them, Portsmouth have been handed the uphill task of trying to regain some kind of form against a dire backdrop of boardroom controversies.

Will they be relegated to the Championship? A betting man will no doubt put money on it.

Kitson will join Birmingham City striker Marcus Bent on loan at Middlesbrough as Strachan attempts to bolster the squad in an attempt to gain automatic promotion back to the Premier League.

Former Reading striker Kitson has scored only two goals in 29 games for Stoke, the player was loaned back to Reading last season and is seriously short of match fitness, having spent much of this season on the Stoke bench.

Kitson could make his debut for Middlesbrough on Saturday at home to Nottingham Forest in the Championship.

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.

Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson believes that the terrier like qualities of Strachan will be better suited to getting the club back into the Premier League at first attempt and despite employing rookie managers at Boro in the past he feels the time is right to bring in a coach with more experience now, while the team are in a position to challenge for the title.

Steve Gibson said;

“When I sat down and considered our start to the season, I felt that the league table was actually more favourable than some of our performances. Then I looked at the important games against the teams immediately around us, and took those results into account. In general the results and the performances have not been to the level I would have hoped for.”

Middlesbrough are currently fourth in the Championship following Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Preston when caretaker manager  Colin Cooper took charge of the team.

Gareth Southgate

Middlesbrough are currently fourth in the Championship table and are generally considered to be among the favourites for promotion or a play off place, come the end of the season.

It does seem a rather bizarre decision given Middlesbrough’s position in the division, just one point behind the leaders West Bromwich Albion and most surprising following the home win against Derby.

Southgate may have had some idea of what was about to unfold when he said after last night’s game;

“The margins are fine. We are a point off the top but it would have been very different if we had not won against Derby. You wonder about the consequences of defeat. You know four home defeats on the bounce would have been difficult for everyone involved with the club to accept.”

In what he describes as ‘the most difficult decision’ he has had to make in football, chairman Steve Gibson said;

“Gareth has given Boro magnificent service as a skipper and, in very difficult circumstances, as manager. I appointed Gareth in a situation that was greatly unfavourable to him. He is a good man and has all the qualities and integrity that we wanted in a manager.

However, the time is right for change and that change has had to be made. Gareth will always be welcome at our football club. English football needs people of his stature and we feel certain that this experience will serve him well. Gareth deserves another opportunity once he has had the chance to rest and refresh himself.”

A great timefor Gareth Southgate to book a winter ski holiday!

Who would you like to see replace Gareth Southgate at Middlesbrough?

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.

Middlesbrough

A deal reported to be worth £4.5m will be struck between the clubs in the January transfer window should the player live up to expectations. The 24 year old currently holds down a regular first team place in the Republic’s World Cup qualifying team.

St ledger joined Preston from Peterborough three years ago and has made 139 appearances for them, he cost Preston £225,000.

Preston are reluctant to part with the defender but chairman Derek Shaw believes that the deal will help keep his club liquid in a financially tough league, saying:

“My honest view is if we don’t do this type of thing we’ll be getting 10 points deducted and we’ll end up going into administration.”

Alves arrived at Middlesbrough from Dutch club Heerenveen, where the Brazilian could not stop scoring goals, but despite early promise the player could not reproduce that same form in the Premier League where he managed just ten goals in 42 appearances for the club.

Alves should find the pace of the Qatar league more to his liking, he will be playing for one of the top clubs in Asia and eleven times league champions in Qatar.

Alves has yet to play this season after undergoing surgery to a broken foot at the end of the last campaign, but is looking forward to the new challenge and also to linking up with compatriot Felipe Jorge in the Al Sadd team.

Choosing to forget his awful experience in the Premiership and the relegation of Middlesbrough, Alves instead clearly focused on the future when saying;

“I want to have great success with Al Sadd just like I did with Heerenveen in Holland in 2007 where I scored a lot of goals and I hope that I can do the same with Al Sadd.”

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.