good morning!
The EFL Champinoship is well come and gone. Leicester are champions (but without a manager), Ipswich defied expectations and are in the PL (and with a manager), and Kyle Walker-Peters Football Club joined them.
Conversely, Tom Brady Town (with a new Spurs head coach) were relegated, joining Huddersfield and Rotherham.
So let’ review fitzie’s EFL predictions:
Overall, I’ll give myself a D.
I predicted Boro to be the champs, but they couldn’t seem to shake off their poor start to the season. Even bigger than that, I underestimated the huge gap between the relegated clubs and the rest of the competition. Leiecester, Leeds and Soton were way better than 20 of the 21 clubs they joined this past season.
But, cmon fitzie. Leicester 8 and Ipswich Town 7th? A lot of people pipped Ipswich Tow nfor a big year, and some even in the automatics. I didn’t see it, so I chose the conservative route. And I thought a new year under a new manager would be too much for Leicester.
Can’t wait for the Foxes to finish 20th next season.
Meanwhile, I’m happily surprised Wednesday and QPR stayed up. Although that’s mostly because of mid-season managerial moves. Note: Do look for both of these clubs to finish mid-table next year.
Among my biggest misses was Stoke City. Idk what I saw in them except for Alex Neil. Millwall and Sunderland were big losses, too.
I was close generally with many of the other clubs (Preston, Bristol City, Cardiff, Swansea, Watford, Blackburn, Argyle) although I think that’s mostly because we know who the mediocre teams are.
I’m also pleasently surprised with WBA. I picked them ninth originally, thinking they wouldn’t keep Carlos Cobreran. I know they were awful in the second leg against Soton, but I like em to be competitive next season.
Final EFL Champions standings (fitzie’s predictions in parentheses)
Leicester City Harry Winks United (8)
Ipswich (7)
Leeds (3)
Southampton (P) (2)
WBA (9)
Norwich (14)
Hull (18)
Boro (1)
Coventry (11)
Preston (15)
Bristol City (12)
Cardiff (21)
Millwall (4)
Swansea (16)
Watford (10)
Sunderland (5)
Stoke (6)
QPR (22)
Blackburn (17)
Wednesday (24)
Argyle (20)
Birmingham (13)
Huddersfield (19)
Rotherham (23)
Fitzie’s track of the day: Waiting For The End Of The World, by Elvis Costello
And now for your links:
Alasdair Gold: Ange Postecoglou speaks as he loses assistant manager to Birmingham
The Athletic ($$): Alan Shearer does an intervie with Jurgen Klinsmann