The Best Championship Season Yet?

The 2014/15 Championship season looks set to be one of the most open title races we have seen in the division. This league seems to get stronger each and every year and there are arguably ten teams in with a shout of winning this season’s title.

The bookmakers are just about of the opinion that Cardiff City should be favourites to win the Championship and make a swift return to the Premier League. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side are available at odds of 8/1 with bookmaker Betfair and it will be interesting to see of the former Manchester United striker is able to turn the club around. Cardiff were a laughing stock last season thanks to chairman Vincent Tan but hopefully he will take more of a back seat and Solskjaer can make a better fist of things.

Last season’s beaten play-off finalists Derby County are also one of the more fancied sides to be challenging for the upcoming Championship title and are also on offer at the 8/1 mark at betfair.com.

Former England boss and ‘wally with the brolly’ Steve McLaren did a fantastic job with the Rams last season and could well build on that success during this campaign. The recent signing of Cyrus Christie should bolster their defence and that is arguably the only area of the team which really needed a bit of strengthening. Although McLaren is often mocked for his time in charge of the national side, he is actually a very capable coach and certainly has the respect of his Derby County squad.

Fresh from relegation, both Fulham and Norwich will be looking to get back into the Premier League at the first time of asking. Both sides can be backed at odds of 9/1 with bookmaker Betfair and those odds will definitely appeal to plenty of football punters out there.

While he was unable to do enough to save them last season, Fulham have a very experienced manager in the shape of Felix Magath and the German still has a very good squad of players at his disposal. Magath is sure to bring some players in before the start of the season and put his own touch on the side.

Norwich are sticking with Neil Adams after appointing him as manager from within the club for the last few games of a doomed Premier League campaign. Adams is very highly thought of at the club but was really in a no-win situation as far as keeping Norwich in the top flight last season was concerned.

Rank outsider’s for the 2014/15 Championship title are Blackpool who Betfair customers can back at huge odds of 125/1.

Blackpool were always struggling during the previous campaign and were ultimately lucky to stay in the Championship, finishing in 20^th position in the table. Paul Ince parted company with the club in January and put Barry Ferguson in temporary charge. Results continued to be disappointing and Belgian Jose Riga was named permanent manager last month. Blackpool fans will be hoping that the new boss can keep them well away from the relegation zone this time around.