Championship preview: Wayne Rooney seeks redemption, Leeds favourites, Coventry in contention | Football News

The EFL Championship, in its current guise, has thrown up many weird and wonderful surprises over its 20-year history. There have been 14 different winners since the competition was rebranded in 2004, and of those winners, half will compete in this year’s gripping edition.

To celebrate the anniversary, we’ve selected some of the most compelling stories that will be making their way through the Championship in 2024-25, including Wayne Rooney’s return to manage Plymouth, Portsmouth’s 12-year exile and the leading promotion contenders.

Is Parker the right man for the Burnley charge?

Vincent Kompany’s departure to Bayern Munich was a huge blow to Burnley’s hopes of an immediate return to the Premier League, before a ball had even been kicked.

And the appointment of Scott Parker, about a month later, did little to rekindle faith.

The former West Ham midfielder has been out of charge since leaving Club Brugge in March 2023, having won just two of his 12 games as manager.

But let’s not let our logic be informed only by short-term memory, but by the big picture.

Parker has won promotion from the Championship twice. Done. Fulham secured the golden ticket via the play-offs in 2019-20 and Bournemouth won automatic promotion in 2021-22. There is precedent. Not only that, but they did it by playing attractive football.

Burnley start the new season away to another newly relegated club, Luton Town, which will be an early indicator of how the Parker pendulum is likely to swing this season. A reminder that the last time Burnley competed in the Championship, they reached 101 points.

A hat-trick of promotions on the horizon, perhaps? Or does this project require longer-term thinking?

Is the Luton romance over? – or has it just begun…

Luton didn’t go down without a fight. Many had written them off before a ball was kicked last season and, despite eventually succumbing to Premier League pressure, they were only axed on the final day.

Rob Edwards’ team enjoyed their moment of glory, as they should, having played in the National League (the fifth tier of the pyramid) as recently as 2015.

Some continuity ahead of this new term will be helpful. Their rise through the ranks has been rapid and unexpected, but they now need stability, something that the steady guidance of Edwards and his established coaching team can provide.

Luton fans love him. Football fans in general seem to have developed a fondness for him, too. Edwards is, above all, recognisable, seen wiping tears from his bloodshot eyes as Luton’s fate was sealed on the penultimate weekend at West Ham: the fans’ response was to serenade him, and the club’s was to offer him a new four-year contract.

His efforts, and those of Luton, have been applauded across the division. They are expected to compete for promotion once again this term, but expectations create pressure. And we all know how quickly things can happen. Candies to fall apart under pressure.

Rooney’s redemption at Plymouth?

“I don’t want to be the next Gary Neville,” Rooney exclaimed, when asked why he preferred a job as a football manager to a pundit. Fair enough.

Both Manchester United mainstays, Neville and Rooney shared a dressing room for seven years when they were playing, but, evidently, sharing a TV studio was less appealing.

Rooney’s previous full-time managerial role was an ill-fated 83-day stint at Birmingham City, which did more to ruin his reputation than build it. Could this time be different?

The 39-year-old certainly has something to prove. Taking over from Ian Foster, who was sacked in April after less than three months in charge at Home Park, looks an easier task than Stephen Schumacher, the man who led Plymouth to the League One title, but that remains a tall order.

Plymouth’s budget is modest compared to the Championship, and Rooney may have to rely on youth to bolster the numbers, which shouldn’t faze a player who made his professional debut at just 16. “If you’re good enough, you’re old enough,” he said in his first official press conference.

Rooney’s name comes with expectations, but all that credit has been earned during his illustrious playing days, and has not yet been transferred to his coaching capacity. This is an experiment that could go either way.

Leeds’ biggest favourites

In early July, Leeds announced that ownership of Elland Road had transferred back to the club for the first time since 2004. It was a significant moment for a club that slipped out of the top flight that same year.

Daniel Farke guided Leeds to third place last season, only to be beaten in the play-off final by Southampton.

This time the German will be reluctant to leave things to chance.

So what’s there to improve on? A fast start always helps: it took until the fourth league game for Leeds to get their first win last season, a thrilling 4-3 win at Ipswich.

Not disastrous on the face of it, but that initial stutter combined with a late-season decline is what ultimately cost them a top-two finish. What was impressive, however, was the switch from a counter-pressing system to Farke’s preferred possession-based style so quickly.

It looks like things are starting to look up, with a more stable environment than last summer, despite some disappointing departures, such as that of Archie Gray to Spurs.

Farke, however, has had an entire pre-season to pass on ideas and fine-tune his team.

He will firmly believe that a promotion is due.

The Coventry Abyss is a distant past

Remember when Coventry City came close to beating Manchester United in the FA Cup final last season? Yes, that actually happened. Football has a funny way of providing unexpected fun. Anyway…

Coventry devotees will also remember when the club fell on harder times, hitting rock bottom before a massive comeback. In this case, Mark Robins was the instigator.

Takeovers, promotions, cup classics, Robins has seen it all in his seven years in charge. Coventry have quietly inched their way up the divisions, and were within touching distance of the Premier League, only to fall at the final hurdle when they were beaten by Luton in the 2023 play-off final.

To say it has been a long journey to this point would be a colossal understatement. Coventry’s situation has been murkier than most since they dropped from the top flight in 2001, sliding all the way down to League Two, before finding solace under Robins.

The way they reset after last year’s play-off disappointment was symptomatic of the manager’s low-key style: his successes during his second spell at the club went largely unnoticed. No matter, that’s the way he likes it.

Coventry fell a little short of their play-off ambitions last season, but the overall direction of the club is positive. The fans are happier. Relationships have been rebuilt and confidence has been restored.

That’s a good place to start.

Portsmouth’s 12-year exile is finally over

Portsmouth fans have had a tough journey. Falling out of the Premier League is one thing, but being unceremoniously tumbled down the divisions, all the way to the fourth tier, and close to extinction is another.

There were dark days. And Portsmouth supporters, long suffering, were close to breaking point. Enter John Mousinho, a player-turned-manager, who openly admitted he was an “off-the-field” choice when he was appointed to his first managerial job in January 2023.

But the gamble paid off. Portsmouth were promoted back to the Championship as League One champions in his first full season in charge, ending a 12-year exile.

There’s a wonderfully touching video of the Pompey dressing room after their promotion win over Barnsley in April, where the team entertain Mousinho with a version of “Who needs Mourinho? We’ve got Mourinho.”

This is a unique club. One that has experienced the heights of Premier League, European and FA Cup glory in the same 20-year period with three fateful relegations in four seasons and two spells in administration. The rise and fall is quite extraordinary.

Fratton Park, one of the country’s oldest stadiums, has seen better days, but under Mousinho it is starting to rediscover its former glory.

Portsmouth have had by far the toughest start to their opening five games, but they also have the chance to give heavy favourites Leeds and Luton, among others, a run for their money.

Mousinho, after all, has the highest win percentage of any Portsmouth manager in the last 120 years, and fans will be eagerly waiting to see whether that record holds up in the Championship and, hopefully, beyond.