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Don Goodman reveals who he thinks are 2024/25 Championship promotion and relegation contenders

Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman reveals who he thinks are the Championship promotion and relegation candidates for the 2024/25 season.

He’s someone that often causes a stir through his predictions (scroll further down in the article), commentary and reporting, even Ipswich players poked fun at Don Goodman’s ‘mid-table’ jibe at the end of the 2023/24 season.

An interviewer asked Luke Woolfenden at the promotion parade: “So how many years have you been at this football club now?

Woolfy said: “Too many. Too many. 13? 12? 13 years.

Interviewer: “12 or 13 years learning your trade, coming through the ranks and then getting involved. And then being involved in two promotions, mate, does it get any better?

Woolfy: “It will get better when we have a moment. Silence for Don Goodman. I think he is gutted that we’ve got promoted. He’s been calling us crap all season.”

In another interview, he said: “Listen, I’ll have to sit for six weeks now and listen to Don Goodman tell us we’re not good enough to do anything in the Prem like he did in the Champ.

“We’re still going to finish mid-table, Don, but don’t worry about it, this group can do anything we want.”

Well, Goodman says he’s pleased that Kieran McKenna is staying, that it’s a win-win for the club, that it must have been very tempting to leave if he was indeed offered another job, and that even if Ipswich struggle in the Prem, he doesn’t think McKenna’s reputation will be damaged.

He adds that they’re different from Burnley, “a lot more versatile and tactically flexible in their success, Kieran and Ipswich will fancy their chances of competing with those five or six teams that will struggle” with stability is a massive thing, and they have given themselves the best chance of survival by persuading Kieran to stay.

Goodman adds that transfer business, from their perspective, has been fantastic, Omari Hutchinson came into his own during second half of last season, made the right decision in staying and snubbing Chelsea, Ben Johnson being similar to Tuanzebe in terms of injury problems and Prem experience, called Jacob Greaves ‘one of the best defenders in the Championship’ and Jaden Philogene ‘good, if not better’, so are doing all the right things to strengthen.

See what he said on Ipswich, in full, by clicking HERE.

With the new campaign due to get underway in less than a month, he has now had his say on who he fancies for promotion and relegation from the Championship, once again some fans have took issue with it. Take a look below…

Asked who do you fancy for promotion and relegation from the Championship, he said: “Last season was one of the easiest Championship seasons to predict in terms of who would be at the top as Leeds, Leicester and Southampton all retained a plethora of Premier League-quality players They were always going to be competing at the top end of the league.

“However this season I’m not so confident in the relegated clubs. For Burnley and Luton, it depends on what their squad looks like when the transfer window shuts. Will Burnley keep the likes of Lyle Foster, Luca Koleosho and Sander Berge? If they do, you fancy them to be a force. Will Luton keep the likes of Alfie Doughty, Elijah Adebayo and Carlton Morris? If they do, you’d also tip them to be competing at the top.

“But Sheffield United look like a club in disarray and are coming down from the Premier in a very weak state. A massive overhaul is required for Chris Wilder and his backroom staff. I’m not saying they can’t do it, but he’s up against it at the moment.

“You’d expect Leeds to be towards the top, with the sale of Archie Gray possibly meaning they’ll be able to keep hold of the attacking force that tore apart Championship defences for 80% of the season before falling at the last hurdle.”

“Then with some teams, you don’t really know what to expect from them. You cannot rule out West Brom with Carlos Corberan in charge still, Coventry’s FA Cup semi-final proved a hindrance to their promotion hopes last season, and Middlesbrough ended the campaign very strongly.

“The upcoming Championship season will not be as strong as last season’s, which had the best top-four that I’ve ever seen. That’s going to give an opportunity for some teams to surprise us.

“At the bottom, Des Buckingham has a huge job on his hands at Oxford as play-off winners are notoriously the teams that struggle the most. It’s just brilliant that they’re in the Championship.

“Derby County remind me of Sheffield Wednesday last season as they have one of the oldest teams in the division. Wednesday struggled with the physical side of things early on last year, so it’s interesting to see Paul Warne move on a number of 30-plus-year-olds and bring pace and energy into the club. That gap still needs to be bridged, though.

“I would expect Portsmouth to be the strongest of the relegated clubs and, therefore, I’m looking at the clubs that just about survived. John Eustace has a big job on his hands at Blackburn after they relied so heavily on Sammie Szmodics, it would be some achievement if he could replicate such performances. I’m not sure about Plymouth, and that’s not because of Wayne Rooney, it’s just the nature of them being in the Championship.

“Even Sunderland finished the season winning just two of their last 15 games. They’ve got a new manager in Regis Les Bris, whose background is in developing young footballers but this is the Championship so it’s very difficult for a whole group of young players to succeed and they didn’t have any strikers capable of performing at that level and struggled for goals. Those would be the clubs I’d be concerned about.”

Click on the buttons to see more of what he had to say for the following clubs…

MIDDLESBROUGH

PLYMOUTH

BURNLEY

COVENTRY

DERBY

HULL

LEEDS

NORWICH

PORTSMOUTH

STOKE

SUNDERLAND

WEST BROM

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