Championship: who will win the season 2025-26?

The Championship is underway, after the kickoff on Friday, the 14th of August. The tournament is obviously still young and it is not possible to accurately predict the winner after a mere 180 (when we write) or 270 (when this article will be read) minutes into the new season. Leicester City, Southampton and Ipswich are back, after a disappointing year in the top flight, as are Birmingham, Wrexham and Charlton Athletic, teams coming from the third tier of English football, the League One.

 For what we know until now, the bookmakers may be right also this year in guessing the teams that will be promoted. Last season the experts predicted everything very well, indicating Leeds and Burnley as favourites for promotion to the Premier League. According to Oddschecker, the 2025-26 season will be a three-way battle for the top spot, between Southampton, Sheffield United and Leicester City.

An unpredictable league

 The Championship is one of the most unpredictable leagues in the world. There are a lot of variables. Momentum is quite important for a team and whoever puts some wins together may grow stronger and more dangerous, even if there are better sides. Some teams may favour the domestic cups instead of the Championship and upsets are behind every corner. 

 How can you find a true favourite in a similar competition? The analysts use an Opta supercomputer to make predictions about what can be expected between now and May. According to this technological brain, each of the 24 clubs finished bottom of the league at least 12 times across 10.000 pre-season simulations ran by this computer. Every team won the title in a minimum of 104 scenarios.

 Obviously, these projections are somewhat limited, since they are based on what the operative system knows now. Essentially, the predictions tell us what would happen if every game were played today; a lot of dynamics happening in a long season are not taken into account. The forecasts are bound to change a lot of times throughout the season.

Leicester City

 Leicester are remembered everywhere for their incredible Premier League title in 2016, but the times have changed a lot since those years. Today, the team is looking for its lost identity and the league didn’t begin in the best way possible. The Foxes won a game and lost one and are 12th on the table with 3 points. Obviously, they have a lot of time to become better, especially if their youngster, Jeremy Monga, keeps on playing as he is doing right now. They should correct some of their mistakes, though, if they want to avoid disappointments like the defeat against Preston North End.

Sheffield United

 The disappointment was great for Sheffield Utd in May, when they were 15 minutes away from an immediate return to the Premier League. After a 92 points run, and a defeat in the playoff finals, the Blades said goodbye to coach Chris Wilder and hired Ruben Selles. The new manager has already lost three games between the league and the Carabao Cup and fans are not happy at all, at the moment. The reason for this slow start is probably linked to the summer departures of important players that weren’t adequately replaced. However, the talent is there and Selles has to find a way. Perhaps, the team will give him a couple of players before the transfer market shuts down.

Southampton

 The Saints are the better positioned team, after a couple of games, among the three we are taking into consideration. They won their opener and drew their second match, against Ipswich Town. They are quite active on the market and recently signed Mads Roerslev, a Danish wing-back who played with Brentford last season. They are obviously trying their best to get back in the Premier but the road will be long and difficult.

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