Championship predictor: What will final 2018-19 table look like?
Last updated on .From the section Championship
Frank Lampard's Derby County for promotion? Stoke City to bounce straight back to the Premier League? Will any club "do a Sunderland"?
Here's your chance to predict the final Championship table for the 2018-19 season.
A group of 23 BBC Sport journalists have made their choices - more on that to follow... but it's time to have a go yourself!
Championship table predictor 18-19
How will the Championship table look at the end of the season? Pick how you think it will look at the end, placing all 24 teams in order. Have a go then share with your friends.
- How close were BBC Sport's 2017-18 predictions?
- Lampard's Derby start Championship season at Reading
- 2018-19 Championship fixtures in full
BBC Sport's predictions
Last season, you may remember that our group of reporters correctly picked five of the top six finishers and three of the eventual bottom four. Well done, team.
Now for the bad bit. Middlesbrough were tipped to go up as champions, Sunderland would finish in the top half of the table and Millwall would be relegated.
What have they predicted for 2018-19?
| BBC Sport's predicted final table | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos | Team | Average |
| 1 | Stoke City | 1.48 |
| 2 | Middlesbrough | 2.64 |
| 3 | Derby County | 5.08 |
| 4 | West Bromwich Albion | 5.24 |
| 5 | Nottingham Forest | 6.08 |
| 6 | Leeds United | 7.00 |
| 7 | Swansea City | 8.32 |
| 8 | Aston Villa | 8.56 |
| 9 | Brentford | 10.40 |
| 10 | Sheffield United | 10.56 |
| 11 | Norwich City | 11.36 |
| 12 | Preston North End | 11.44 |
| 13 | Sheffield Wednesday | 11.92 |
| 14 | Bristol City | 13.40 |
| 15 | Queens Park Rangers | 13.84 |
| 16 | Millwall | 14.12 |
| 17 | Blackburn Rovers | 14.52 |
| 18 | Birmingham City | 14.60 |
| 19 | Wigan Athletic | 15.00 |
| 20 | Hull City | 15.04 |
| 21 | Reading | 16.64 |
| 22 | Ipswich Town | 16.92 |
| 23 | Bolton Wanderers | 20.36 |
| 24 | Rotherham United | 21.48 |
Before you reach for the email address of the BBC complaints department because your side are tipped to struggle - please remember that it's just a bit of fun!
How our predicted table was put together
Our journalists were asked to place each Championship team in positions one to 24. Once all responses had been received, the team with the highest average position was placed first in our final table, then second and so on.
What do you think of our selection? Let us know using #bbcefl on social media or use the comments section at the bottom of this page.
Some of your responses will be used in BBC Sport's live text coverage during the opening round of English Football League matches.
How did we rate your club?
The title favourites
We predicted Cardiff City to end 13th last season but the Welsh club surpassed expectations to finish second behind champions Wolves, who had received only one vote to finish top of the table.
- Thirteen of our 23 reporters selected Stoke and Middlesbrough as their two teams to be promoted automatically.
- The Potters, relegated from the top flight in May, were tipped to be champions by 14 of our journalists. Boro received six votes, while West Bromwich Albion got two and Nottingham Forest one.
The teams coming down
None of last season's three relegated clubs were able to bounce back at the first attempt. Middlesbrough were beaten play-off semi-finalists, but Hull City were in a relegation battle until the closing weeks of the campaign and Sunderland went down again into League One.
- In addition to their two votes to be champions, one of our reporters tipped them to finish second and a further 13 expect the Baggies to finish in a play-off place.
- Swansea were predicted to finish in a play-off spot by seven of our journalists, while five others believe they will end up in the bottom half of the table.
The surprise package?
Other than Cardiff, Millwall were the biggest surprise of last season, confounding a pre-season prediction of relegation to finish just outside the play-off positions.
- Nottingham Forest finished 17th last season but are intent on a promotion push this term, breaking their transfer record to sign Portuguese midfielder Joao Carvalho for a reported £13.2m and spending a further £6m on striker Lewis Grabban.
- Two of our reporters think Aitor Karanka's side will be promoted automatically, while 12 predicted they will finish in a play-off place.
Lampard and Bielsa to fare well?
Seven Championship clubs will start the season with new bosses. Two of the more eye-catching appointments were at Derby County and Leeds United, where ex-Chelsea midfielder Lampard and former Argentina coach Marcelo Bielsa have taken their first managerial roles in England.
- Nobody tipped either Derby or Leeds to win the Championship, but both got three votes to finish second.
- Fourteen think the Rams will end up in the play-offs for the fourth time in six seasons, while seven reporters believe Leeds will finish between third and sixth.
What next for Aston Villa?
Play-off final defeat by Fulham in May left Aston Villa facing an uncertain future. Serious financial trouble quickly became public knowledge, although those worries eased somewhat when billionaires Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris were announced as new investors in July.
- Nine of our journalists believe Steve Bruce's side will contest the play-offs, while five think they will finish in the bottom half of the table.
- Two reporters predicted a bottom-six finish for Villa, although nobody tipped them to be relegated.
The teams coming up
All three of the teams promoted from League One in 2016-17 - Sheffield United, Bolton Wanderers and Millwall - stayed in the Championship last season.
- League One champions Wigan Athletic and fellow promoted club Blackburn Rovers had similar records in our predictions; both clubs had one vote to finish in a play-off place, while there were two votes apiece for them to be relegated.
- However, play-off winners Rotherham United did not fare so well; 20 of our 23 journalists tipped them to be relegated, with 16 of those predicting the Millers will finish bottom of the table.
The relegation battle
In one of the closest Championship relegation battles for many years, five clubs - Reading, Birmingham City, Bolton, Burton Albion and Barnsley - were in danger of going down on the final day of last term. Burton and Barnsley eventually joined Sunderland in the bottom three.
- Only five of our 23 reporters believe Ipswich Town will finish in the bottom three, but an average prediction of about 17th is the third lowest among our group of journalists, meaning they are 22nd in our predictions table.
- Reading had seven votes to finish in the bottom three - two more than Ipswich - but their average position was slightly higher.
- Bolton, who scored two goals in the last five minutes of their final league game last season to stay up, are the other club predicted to go down; 18 of our team believe they will finish in a relegation place.
Comments
Join the conversation
Love that the BBC think Ipswich are going down - I'd be very happy but I think unlikely. I also don't see Stoke doing particularly well - maybe playoffs.
Looking forward to seeing Leeds under Bielsa (could go either way) and Forest, who have spent the money but have a very negative manager - he could be first one sacked. Champs is great fun!
Actually, I know the answer, it's because Derby has appointed a famous ex-player (with no managerial experience) as manager.
On a site note, when did Derby County rebrand themselves? Everything I see about them at the moment refers to them as Frank Lampard's Derby.
Obviously prefer to be in the top tier but we actually win games in this league and pretty much any game you can win, draw or lose.
Predicting this table is near impossible!
I don't see us doing incredibly well, but I would love to know what idiot pundit picked us to finish in the bottom 6? Robbie Savage perhaps?
The favourites to go up will always be the ones who have just come down. The parachute payments from the Premier League are an unfair advantage.
Totally agree. Teams just spend big on new players instead of existing players Premier contracts which is what it is intended for. See Aston Villa. They thought they would buy promotion.
Selling players constantly and their tippy-tappy passing football wont save them in the Championship.
They need a good start or I can see them going down.
On a sadder note our neighbour has washed her 4 grandsons Wednesday shirts in preparation for Saturday.
She has gone to shops, come back and some lowlife has nicked the pegs.
Looking forward to the season.
1. Leeds Utd
2. Bristol City
3. Stoke
4. Mbro
5. Derby
6 Forest
Going down: Rotherham, Ipswich, Hull City
Swansea will be done there. WBA midtable
SWFC to start well then fade away vis-à-vis Sheff Utd last season..
First manager to get the tin-tack Adkins at Hull..
Im a Leeds fan and although i would be very surprised and delighted if we finished top 6 i cant see any reason why you would predict us to go down? we have a world class manager and we are slowly building a better team than last season. If i were to predict anything id say we will be near the top by Christmas, mid table end of season.