Sunday, May 20th, 2012
The Championship odds say it’s West Ham and Leicester first and second, and the rest scrambling for bits and pieces.
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Peterborough, Coventry, Barnsley and Doncaster are expected to be the sides struggling to survive.
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4/1 West Ham United, Leicester City, 14/1 Nottingham Forst, 16/1 Middlesbrough, Blackpool, Birmingham City, Ipswich 18/1 Southampton, Reading, Brighton & Hove Albion
It’s interesting to compare West Ham and Leicester. As thing stand, for us, its incredibly difficult to see past the Hammers. They have a proven manager and at the time of writing, a squad of players with considerable quality and experience. When put together in the right framework, they should be capable of easing through the division as Newcastle United did.
Leicester have spent heavily, throwing big wages at players, which comes after a weak finish to the season. Matt Mills and Paul Konchesky do look good signings, but we’d back the Hammers to finish above them.
Of the other sides to come down, its difficult to feel positive about Birmingham, who may need to sell more players and who were thoroughly unispiring in front of goal anyway. Blackpool have more to recommend them, with Barry Ferguson and Kevin Phillips looking decent replacements for Charlie Adam and D.J.Campbell.
The arrival of Steve McLaren should help Nottingham Forest keep their play-off place, while Middlesbrough finished well under Tony Mowbray. Brighton should have good moments, but might quite lack the physical presence to match Norwich’s back to back promotions, while we wait to see if Ricky Lambert can score at Championship level with Southampton.
Reading, if they keep Shane Long, can also contend again.
It’s hardly imaginative but West Ham at 4/1 with Paddy Power look good to win the divison, and Blackpool at 16/1 with Paddy Power are our each way selection. Use our links and you can claim a £20 free bet!