English Football League / Ralph Ellis / 04 July 2008 / Leave a comment

Ralph Ellis takes an early look at who is in contention for promotion to the Premiership as the squads of the main contenders begin to take shape

The Championship provided the most open and unpredictable race of last football season, and the signs are it won't be any different this time round. Okay, so backing West Bromwich Albion to finish top of the table this time last year wasn't too complicated a decision. They were the club with the strongest squad by a distance. But if you had money on Stoke and Hull for promotion too then you must own a crystal ball.

All this means that if you can get it right, then the Championship is a lucrative betting market. And if you pick in between the acres of space given to Premier League transfer gossip and the British Grand Prix in this morning's papers, there are some clues to where the honours in England's second league might go.

The current betting has Queen's Park Rangers at [2.88], Birmingham at [3.35] and Reading at [3.95] as the favourites to fill the three promotion places. To win the title they are [7.8], [8.2] and [9.6] respectively.

Rangers are top of the list thanks to their awesome spending power. A club already bankrolled by three billionaires in Flavio Briatore, Bernie Ecclestone and Lakshmi Mittal has just announced the biggest shirt sponsorship deal outside the Premier League with Gulf Air paying up to £7million for a three-year deal. But beware of thinking that immediately makes them certainties for the title or even to go up at all. So far none of the Three Amigos have given their new manager Iain Dowie budgets to buy anything other than decent Championship come lower Premier League players. And Andy Rose reports in this morning's Daily Star that Briatore is planning to keep the project long term. "There is no obligation to go up this season. We need a little bit of patience from everyone because the moment we do go up we want to stay up," he says. Okay, so that's sensible talk to keep the pressure off Dowie, but it does underline that a club which a year ago were close to going bust, and had a squad that reeked of relegation, has still got a long way to turn that round completely. At [2.88] they are a definite lay at the moment.

Birmingham, in contrast, could be this year's equivalent of West Brom last season. Alex McLeish has kept the bulk of a squad that were a whisker away from surviving in the top flight, and according to this morning's papers is about to add Kevin Phillips to it. There's another similarity between Blues and their near neighbours from last year. Phillips is one of those honest professionals who goes on and on, and will always score goals - especially in the Championship. At [7.8] Blues are a great bet to finish top of the pile.

Reading are a different story. Steve Coppell might have stayed as manager but has he really got the fire to bring them back? And especially as he looks certain to lose all the key players from the squad which has been so settled for the last four years. Today's Sun says that Sunderland are close to taking winger Stephen Hunt and striker Kevin Doyle, with Hunt admitting that he wants to move to a Premier League club. Nicky Shorey is on Portsmouth's radar, James Harper is also likely to move on, and big striker Dave Kitson has been linked with Blackburn. That would rip the guts out of the team and make it impossible to put it back together again in time for a proper campaign.

Who might be this year's equivalent of Stoke and Hull? Have a look at Sheffield United [5.6] and Bristol City to go one better than last year's play-off final defeat [9].

Five things you didn't know about Kevin Phillips

1.As a YTS Southampton told him he wasn't tall enough to be a striker and made him play at right back

2.His Dad stopped him going out on Friday night's while he was playing for Baldock - and working stacking shelves in a warehouse - in case somebody was watching

3.He was still at Baldock when he met wife Julie. They have four children, Millie, twins Toby and Tia, and Alfie

4.His breakthough move to Sunderland from Watford only happened because Ipswich pulled out of a deal to sign him at the last moment

5.Pundit Rodney Marsh said he wouldn't score six goals in his first Premiership season in 1999. (He actually got 30)

Tags: Championship promotion, Premiership promotion, Reading football club