Championship 2023/24 season promotion tips: Back Leicester City to win the league

George Dempsey
25 July 2023

Planet Sport takes a look at the 2023/24 Championship season and picks out the best outright bets for league winner, automatic promotion and a dark horse.

Leicester City, Leeds United and Southampton are the favourites to win promotion back to the Premier League this season, but it won't be easy.

Roughly one in three teams bounce back at the first time of asking and an extended stay is always a possibility - just ask Leeds.

There haven't been any instances of all three relegated teams achieving promotion together and dating back to 1995, there are just four examples of more than one side going back up.

Planet Sport has picked out four main contenders to win the 2023/24 EFL Championship and achieve automatic promotion.

Bet: Leeds United to be promoted

Leicester City

The Foxes have made some good additions to an already strong-looking squad at this level, adding Harry Winks to the engine room.

There's never any guarantee that a team can shake the hangover caused by relegation and City have been in decline for, arguably, a couple of seasons.

Their cycle of buying diamonds in the rough and polishing them up to sell on for a profit has hit a wall and they've lost their key assets.

The assumption is they won't be short of funds but Championship clubs can't often afford to spend north of £10 million and the club recorded a record loss in 2022.

There are a lot of unknowns including how the new manager, Enzo Maresca, will perform, who else will the club be forced to sell and how difficult it will be to bring in further targets.

But it's possible they already have the quality. Patson Daka was a coup when he joined but his lack of Premier League goals means he could stay at City.

There's an ever-growing gap between the two divisions, though, and this is a player who has bags of scored goals at higher levels. He could be key.

Maresca will bring a sampling of Guardiola to the second tier with Ricardo Pereira operating in the Joao Cancelo/Rico Lewis role during pre-season while Timothy Castange drifts wide. They'll be a conundrum.

Verdict: We think City will make some big signings before the window closes and play a unique brand of football under Maresca. We expect them to finish in the top two.

Leeds United

You can copy and paste most of what we've said about Leicester and stick it here. Will Leeds be able to shake off the disastrous end of their Premier League stay?

They find themselves in a different position to Leicester having not been a properly established top-flight team for over 20 years.

Their finances are in order and there's always been the option to generate over £100 million in income with the sales of Ilan Meslier, Jack Harrison, Wifried Gnonto, Tyler Adams, Luis Sinisterra and more.

Instead, they've opted to slice their wage bill by loaning out many of their biggest earners, which avoids the disaster of selling players a year into a contract which would rob them of amortization.

Planet Sport Bet Special: Leeds & Southampton to be Promoted - Boosted to 12/1

A club is rarely relegated with so many high-quality players and in being ambitious about retaining a good number of them, Leeds have given themselves a chance of being a cut above.

But August is a busy month and the risk is more talent could yet be sold. They also need to make sure they recruit to Daniel Farke's specifications because there's a lack of patient technicians.

That said, he'll have a number of old heads at this level at his disposal and the return of Charlie Cresswell, Dan James and Joe Geldhardt mean they already have depth.

There were teething problems at Norwich and after Leeds won 3-0 at Carrow Road, the German was nearly sacked. They were largely unbeaten after that game.

Verdict: Leeds will start slowly under Farke but they'll be in the promotion picture by Easter and if they retain their best attackers, they could be top scorers.

Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough found themselves struggling in the bottom three come October. Chris Wilder's tenure was a disaster and pre-season was a bit of a farce.

If he had it his way, Chuba Akpom may have been replaced with David McGoldrick. Lucky for Boro fans, Akpom scored 28 goals and Wilder was gone in October.

Michael Carrick gave the players a new lease of life, playing a style that fits and showing many the respect they hadn't received from Wilder.

The 2023/24 Championship doesn't look that strong on paper and even a marginally better start last season would have had them in the play-offs.

They'll need to manage the higher expectations this season and impose their familiar style for a second season, which can be tough.

They've lost some key parts of that team, such as Ryan Giles, Cameron Archer, Zak Steffen and Aaron Ramsey, so they'll need to recruit well.

Josh Coburn could prove to be a secret weapon in Archer's role ahead of Akpom after the 6ft 2 youngster had a good loan spell at Bristol Rovers.

From November through May, they played stunning football, particularly in their 3-1 win over the Blades in February, and averaged 1.96 points per game. That's promotion form.

Verdict: Middlesbrough will continue to develop under Carrick with an emphasis on making a better start. We think they're top six and possibly more with the right additions.

West Bromwich Albion

Last but not least, we've opted for West Brom to be in the automatic play-off picture. The Baggies' X factor is their manager Carlos Corberan.

The Spaniard has been able to instantly transform both the way Huddersfield and Albion play their football and flew up the table last season.

The Midlands club were second-bottom when he arrived and although they faltered in the latter stages and missed out on the play-offs, it was still a good season.

He has the blueprint for winning the Championship having helped transform Leeds from mid-table to title winners just four years ago.

They'll likely be adding players right up until the deadline and it's clear they need a couple of top-quality strikers. They were wasteful last season and Daryl Dike is absent for a while.

However, the core group remains and the addition of Alex Mowatt to this style will fit like a glove while John Swift and Jayson Molumby will have an important part to play.

The risk is they still haven't fixed a lot of the internal and financial issues arising from relegation from the Premier League.

However, we think Corberan will flourish given a full pre-season and while they may not crash the top two, they'll be in the conversation and could opt to strengthen in January.

Verdict: The Baggies will need to make a statement before the window closes but Corberan can transform this team. There's always a dark horse in this league and they're it.