English Football League / Sean Calvert / 16 August 2007 /

The Man with the Baggie Sean Calvert trousers on why Watford, Charlton and Sheffield United have it all to do in The Championship this year

This season's Championship protagonists include once more those teams attempting to buck the trend of relegated clubs struggling to adapt to life in The Championship.

Only Charlton (1999/2000), Manchester City (2001/02) and Sunderland (last season), have achieved the improbable and returned to the top flight as winners of The Championship in the last decade. Indeed, out of the 30 sides relegated from the Premier League during that time, just seven have come straight back up, either automatically or via the play-offs.

This tends to suggest that it will be a struggle for Watford, Sheffield United and Charlton this season. How will they adapt to life in The Championship? Will they need to change their styles of play to achieve success week-in, week-out against the likes of Burnley, Stoke and Colchester?

As a West Brom fan, I have witnessed two relegations, two promotions, a 'Great Escape' and a play-off final defeat in the last six seasons, so I know a little bit about getting into (and out of) the Premier League.

We were promoted twice under Gary Megson using the excruciatingly dull tactic of 'score first and hold on to what we've got' and I believe we broke numerous records relating to clean sheets and one-nil wins along the way. I had a season ticket that particular year and I think I used it six times. Each goal cost me about fifty quid! But it worked and we were promoted without any flair players (Jason Koumas aside), just a solid, well-organised bunch of grafters.

Derby were exactly the same last season - no stars in the side, but well-drilled and hard to beat. It will be interesting to see if Derby change their style this season, because if they don't, the same fate will befall them as happened to us and to Watford - certain relegation with a very poor points total and very few wins.

As a fan of teams that play what I call proper football, the Megson era was not to my taste and I think that as soon as promotion was achieved at West Brom, we had no idea of where to go from there in the Premier League and so we tried to not lose matches instead of going for the win and (one huge stroke of luck apart) we ended up being soundly demoted on each occasion.

The same is true of the reverse situation - the relegated teams and I'm thinking specifically of Charlton here - may well struggle to change their style for The Championship. Apart from Portsmouth (2002/03), Manchester City (2001/02) and Reading (2005/06), no team has dominated the league with an attractive, entertaining style and gone on to be successful in the Premier League with that same brand of football. It will be interesting to see if Alan Pardew takes that same approach and tries to play his way out of the second tier or resorts to a more industrial style. Charlton are currently 8.2 to win the Championship and just 3.15 to be promoted.

Watford and Sheffield United for my money are further examples of teams that were promoted by being the second (or sixth in Watford's case) best sides in the league and didn't really possess the ability to survive for long in the top division, however the way that these two teams play is more conducive to The Championship and they should have no problems this year, as they won't have to change much. I hope for the sake of Blades fans that they don't deploy a 36 year-old striker on his own up front this season, as Mr Robson did during his tenure at the Albion. Sales of strong coffee amongst other substances will be on the rise in the South Yorkshire area if he does I can assure you. Sheffield United trade at 12.5 to be top of the pile come the end of the season but the smart money may be on them to be promoted at

It appears that Albion's lack of success in the Premier League has led to a rethink at boardroom level, in the sense that the penny has dropped that we won't survive in the top tier of English football unless we build a team capable of attacking at pace, which utilises young players hungry for success with great ability on the ball and bags of potential for improvement and capable of the step-up in standard.

To this end we have a modern coach with fresh ideas in Tony Mowbray and he has spent the proceeds of the summer sales on young talent with the long term goal of sustained Premier League survival. All we have to do now is get back there. We're available at 10 to win the thing and 4.3 in the Promotion market.

It will certainly be interesting to observe how the relegated sides fare this season.

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