Can you believe it? The EFL Championship kicks off in just over a week. And we at hoddle headquarters are seriously excited this year because Tottenham Hotspur Boy Ryan Mason will be on the touchline for West Brom.
The notable news on the managerial front from this month, though, was Marti Cifuentes making the switch from QPR to Leicester City. It’s certainly a loss for the London club, but I think they should still be right about midtable.
Other than that, attention turns towards the transfers. Birmingham
made a few big signings with Demarai Gray (Al-Ettifaq), Kyogo Furuhashi (Rennes) and Kanya Fujimoto (Gil Vicente) as the Blues return to the second tier. From what I’m seeing out there, a fair amount of people are backing them to finish right around the playoffs or, at the worst, top 12.
WBA brought in some reinforcements for Mason including forward Aune Heggebo (Brann) for a 4.75m fee, Nat Phillips from Liverpool and centreback George Campbell from Montreal.
Meanwhile, Sheffield Wednesday’and Hull City’s futures are both in peril and both facing transfer embargoes.
10 days until the Championship season starts and this is the state of play at Sheffield Wednesday:
— Second Tier podcast (@secondtierpod) July 29, 2025
No manager
10 players over the age of 21
Very possibly having to close a stand at Hillsborough due to safety concerns
Owner wants £100 million for the club#SWFC pic.twitter.com/FU9OtG8qws
One big loss for Wednesday was forward Josh Windass, who left the club for Wrexham on a free transfer. And manager Dani Rohl has also left the club by mutual consent.
Hoddle Headquarters are still going to be monitoring the transfer wires in the EFL Championship before releasing our predictions this year, so stay tuned.
Fitzie’s track of the day: Magic of Meghan, by Dry Cleaning
And nwo for your links:
BBC: “No manager, unpaid wages and a closed stand - Sheffield Wednesday latest”
More from cartilagefreecaptain.sbnation.com:
- Team news: Victor Wanyama is back! And there’s a slight issue for Harry Kane
- Tottenham eying Brazilian attacker Malcom in January transfer window
- Pochettino: Harry Kane can be Tottenham’s Totti
- Jan Vertonghen thinks Belgium has the advantage over England in World Cup
- Saturday football open thread
- The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Friday, December 29
- Italian media claims Tottenham in for Ajax starlet
