BIG-SPENDING Birmingham and 3/1 title favourites Ipswich kick off the 2025/26 Championship season this Friday evening, and a ferocious atmosphere awaits at St Andrews.
Having accrued 111 points last term – an EFL record – Brum have wasted little time in flexing their financial muscle, upgrading their squad to the tune of ten new players this summer, including loan deals. Of these, Kyogo Furuhashi stands out, a £9m purchase who fired 52 goals in 101 league appearances for Celtic before experiencing an ill-fated six months at Rennes.
By any metric, Birmingham are a club on the up and they go into this campaign seeking to become only the second side since 2000 to jump from League One to the Premier League in consecutive seasons. They’re strong contenders to finish top six for sure.
The only team in recent times to have achieved back-to-back promotions to the promised land, of course, is Ipswich, and it’s hard not to be impressed by how they’ve handled the drop, after finding the top-flight one long reality check.
Resisting the temptation to splurge, the Tractor Boys have instead identified weaknesses and judiciously addressed them, bringing in Azor Matusiwa to bolster their midfield and adding experience to their backline.
By and large, they have kept faith in a squad that tore up the Championship just two years ago and that’s a sensible move that could reap dividends.
It’s an approach epitomised by a forward line consisting of George Hirst and Ali Al-Hamadi, and it’s worth noting that both have enjoyed decent preseasons. Hirst has scored in all three friendlies in which he has started – all first-half strikes – and with goals anticipated at St Andrews, he’s good value to back here.
The following lunchtime brings a mirror image of this fixture in many ways as an emerging promoted powerhouse – propelled by serious money and American glamour – comes up against a team still bruised from weekly losses in the top-flight.
In this instance Southampton have home advantage when taking on their ambitious upstart of an opponent, but maybe that isn’t such a significant factor. Last season, Wrexham accrued 1.6 points per game on the road, while the Saints gained a miserable six points at St. Mary’s from August to May.
That was then, though, and this is now, and the appointment of Will Still makes the South Coast side a wait-and-see proposition, capable of rejuvenation or further toil. As for the Dragons, their summer business thus far has been commendable. Conor Coady is a great buy at the back, while Josh Windass will create plenty for Ryan Hardie, who has twice hit double figures at this level.
If this game took place last season in the FA Cup the visitors would be strongly fancied at generous odds. With the Saints failing to overhaul a chronically poor defence the thinking remains the same.
Birmingham and Wrexham feature heavily in this preview, just as they have received the most column inches in other Championship previews, but while it’s easy to have our heads turned by the greatest quarterback of all time and Deadpool, we should not overlook clubs that have quietly gone about their business this summer, improving, upgrading, and correcting wrongs.
Norwich City is one such example, a team that wholly underwhelmed last year despite being blessed with two of the league’s finest attacking talents in Borja Sainz and Josh Sargent.
Shipping in 1.4 goals per 90 didn’t exactly help their cause, but new arrivals Harry Darling and Jakov Medic should address that and though Sainz has departed, Sargent remains, scoring vs NAC Breda last weekend in the Canaries’ final warm-up.
The addition of Jeffrey Schlupp from Crystal Palace is another big plus, but most convincing of all is the arrival of Liam Manning in the hot seat. Last season the highly rated coach guided Bristol City to their best league finish for 17 years.
The Canaries are tipped to fly in 2025/26, but their opening encounter will be a testing one, hosting a Millwall side that excelled under Alex Neil across the second half of last season. Pertinently, the Lions got on the scoresheet in 10 of their last 12 away fixtures.
This, therefore, is the division’s BTTS bet for this weekend.
Let’s end with a couple of quick-fire tips, starting with the stars aligning for Portsmouth’s Josh Murphy to trouble his former club Oxford this Saturday, a side priced at 5/2 to drop.
For one thing – though it leans into superstition – Pompey are opening day specialists, losing only one curtain-raiser in their last 12 seasons.
For another, Murphy assisted against the Us last term, firing five attempts in 180 minutes into the bargain.
Staying with efforts on goal, the winger – who has been handed the captain’s armband and was instrumental in Portsmouth’s pre-season – was a shot machine at the tail-end of 2024/25, taking on 23 in four outings.
The 30-year-old is expected to thrive on his old stomping ground as Oxford’s campaign begins bad before it gets worse.
Lastly, there is a possible Bristol City slump to consider in light of Manning’s exit.
As recently as last May, Sheffield United thumped the Robins 3-0 twice over in their Play-Off semi-final, and that was against the Robins in good shape and full of confidence.
Fast-forward a few months, and a revisiting of mid-table awaits City while Ruben Selles inherits a promotion-challenging squad in Yorkshire.
Multiple goals for the home side tempts at Bramall Lane.
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