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The 2016/17 season of the Sky Bet Championship will begin on Friday 6th August.

• Replacing the three promoted and relegated teams from last season are Newcastle United, Norwich City, Aston Villa, Wigan Athletic, Burton Albion and Barnsley
• Pre-season managerial changes have already occurred at Blackburn Rovers, Cardiff City, Rotherham United, Reading, Derby County, Leeds United and Aston Villa. Nottingham Forest are without an manager

Pre-Season Odds (Coral)

 

Newcastle United 9-4f

Aston Villa 9-1

Norwich City 10-1

Derby County 12-1

Brighton & Hove Albion 12-1

Sheffield Wednesday 16-1

Wigan Athletic 18-1

Brentford 20-1

Ipswich Town 22-1

Cardiff City 22-1

Bristol City 25-1

Huddersfield Town 25-1

Preston North End 25-1

Fulham 28-1

QPR 28-1

Wolverhampton Wanderers 28-1

Leeds United 33-1

Blackburn Rovers 33-1

Birmingham City 40-1

Barnsley 50-1

Burton Albion 66-1

Rotherham United 80-1

 

 

 

Any early predictions?

Opening Fixtures:

Fulham v Newcastle United (Friday, 5 August - 19:45 BST)

Birmingham City v Cardiff City

Blackburn Rovers v Norwich City

Bristol City v Wigan Athletic

Derby County v Brighton

Huddersfield Town v Brentford

Ipswich Town v Barnsley

Nottingham Forest v Burton Albion

Reading v Preston North End

Rotherham United v Wolverhampton Wanderers

Queens Park Rangers v Leeds United (Sunday, 7 August - 12:00 BST)

Sheffield Wednesday v Aston Villa (Sunday, 7 August - 16:30 BST)

 

This is our first five fixtures:

 

H. Wigan Athletic

A. Burton Albion

A. Norwich City

H. Newcastle United

H. Aston Villa

 

Ouch! :o

Newcastle are going to absolutely OWN this league.

Especially with the signings they've made with Ritchie and Gayle.

 

 

Hard to believe Burton Albion are playing at this level. Although with Nigel Clough in charge they will struggle I woulda guess.

Impressive result for Fulham tonight. Newcastle looked very ordinary though.

The championship tends to swallow managers up - might happen to Rafa too - need a Chris Hughton or a kick McCarthy rather than a continental manager

The championship tends to swallow managers up - might happen to Rafa too - need a Chris Hughton or a kick McCarthy rather than a continental manager

 

I think Rafa will be fine, it might just take him and his players a few games to get used to the hustle and bustle of the Championship.

 

Really looking forward to Bristol City v Wigan today. No idea how it will go but I feel like we could do with three points on the board early seeing as we've got Norwich, Newcastle and Villa in August. City and Wigan rarely win their opening games so it'll probably be a draw.

Excited for today's game. Hopefully we'll be able to pull off a result.

A second loss in two games for Newcastle United and Rafa Bentiez. Dearie me.

 

 

So much for the odds on Newcastle going the whole season unbeaten. Newcastle to be relegated to league 1!

Leeds to flop in this league as always :(

Tis the problem with the Championship for relegated teams, it's a brutal league. Having said that I still fancy Toon to win the league when they get their asses in gear. I think a good number of the squad probably think they're better than the Championship so are going into games expecting to win which is never the way to approach any match.

Yeah, it's a terrible start for Newcastle and very unexpected due to how their team is full of quality players but I can't see them not winning the league still once they get used to it all.

 

I do hope they get promoted too, as someone who used to live in Newcastle, I do love it when the Toon, Boro and Sunderland are all in the same league :D

After three games, no team has a 100% record and Brighton are top on goal difference :cheer: They seem to have learned a lesson from last season when they didn't win a game by more than one goal until well after Christmas.

Newcastle will be fine, you can lose 10 games in the Championship and still get promoted. Themselves and Norwich are the best teams on paper, but I would expect Brighton, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield to push them close.

Newcastle will be fine, you can lose 10 games in the Championship and still get promoted. Themselves and Norwich are the best teams on paper, but I would expect Brighton, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield to push them close.

 

You'd expect Derby to be in the mix too, although they've started slowly again. Not sure about Villa really. I think they might be too inconsistent to really challenge for automatic promotion.

http://onefootballforum.co.uk/index.php?at...mage-jpeg.4208/

 

Ashton Gate is looking rather nice these days... :D :wub:

I'm pretty pleased with how we're doing at the moment. A 3-0 win over Norwich this time last season would make me spit my tea out but, although we're in a lower place than we were this time last year we look as though we could genuinely challenge for the play-offs.

 

Also, I'm absolutely delighted to see the scum/Villa playing badly. Please get relegated.