Championship preview and 1-24 predictions

[EFL Saints]

Hi 

I'm an Ipswich Town fan who likes to write about the Championship on Substack. I've posted on here before and doing so again to share my 1-24 season predictions articles.

https://jacobpowley.substack.com/p/2026-27-championship-predictions?r=23z423

https://jacobpowley.substack.com/p/2026-27-championship-predictions-b81?r=23z423

How are you feeling about the season ahead? Probably nice to be focussing on the football again rather than the drama. 

Please consider subscribing to the blog if you enjoy (it's free, this isn't one of those annoying adverts begging for money) 

Cheers

Jacob 

[SNSUN]

I personally don't do predictions until the window closes.

Currently, as Saints goes, we're in good shape. Our first XI of: Peretz, Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Stephens, Manning, Downes, Jander, Matsuki, Azaz, Scienza, Larin is one of the best in the League but we lack some depth in squad areas. But with the window open we could lose the likes of Scienza, Harwood-Bellis and Jander and suddenly (great signings pending) we look like an upper mid-table team fighting to get into the play-offs. 

I watch Youtubers (Benjamin Bloom, MattSB) that rank Championship teams and in the run up to the window closing it changes week by week although i appreciate it is a bit of fun. We sell Harwood-Bellis, we drop. We sign Vipotnik (hypothetically) and we suddenly win the League. We sign Vini Jr... never mind. 

Overall I think Saints fans are a bit mixed but in the main, positive. Spygate didn't help (we will be reminded of that a lot this season) and there are questions over the running of the club but we backed the manager who took us on a massive unbeaten run and, thanks to the signings of Larin and Peretz, we start the season (at least) with the same team that finished the last one so well, and, in my opinion, would have won the play-off final. Hull fans can fight me on that. 😝

Dobbin adds attacking prowess and cover but currently we lack decent goalkeeping depth and striker depth. We have unwanted players we are trying to offload and until we do, signing more players becomes more difficult financially. Additionally we are probably close to selling Shea Charles which creates a fair gap in central midfield, even though he's not quite first choice for us (though important). It is sales like this (and potentially some of our first XI listed above) why good recruitment is so key...

...and why it is difficult to predict until the window closes. All IMO of course. 

[EFL Saints]

8 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

I personally don't do predictions until the window closes.

Currently, as Saints goes, we're in good shape. Our first XI of: Peretz, Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Stephens, Manning, Downes, Jander, Matsuki, Azaz, Scienza, Larin is one of the best in the League but we lack some depth in squad areas. But with the window open we could lose the likes of Scienza, Harwood-Bellis and Jander and suddenly (great signings pending) we look like an upper mid-table team fighting to get into the play-offs. 

I watch Youtubers (Benjamin Bloom, MattSB) that rank Championship teams and in the run up to the window closing it changes week by week although i appreciate it is a bit of fun. We sell Harwood-Bellis, we drop. We sign Vipotnik (hypothetically) and we suddenly win the League. We sign Vini Jr... never mind. 

Overall I think Saints fans are a bit mixed but in the main, positive. Spygate didn't help (we will be reminded of that a lot this season) and there are questions over the running of the club but we backed the manager who took us on a massive unbeaten run and, thanks to the signings of Larin and Peretz, we start the season (at least) with the same team that finished the last one so well, and, in my opinion, would have won the play-off final. Hull fans can fight me on that. 😝

Dobbin adds attacking prowess and cover but currently we lack decent goalkeeping depth and striker depth. We have unwanted players we are trying to offload and until we do, signing more players becomes more difficult financially. Additionally we are probably close to selling Shea Charles which creates a fair gap in central midfield, even though he's not quite first choice for us (though important). It is sales like this (and potentially some of our first XI listed above) why good recruitment is so key...

...and why it is difficult to predict until the window closes. All IMO of course. 

Yeah, there's still loads of guess work to be done at this time of year! More fun to do it before the window shuts though. 

Do you think Vipotnik is likely to happen? Saw that slightly cryptic instagram post that suggested he might be off to Southampton. 

[23rdSaint]

49 minutes ago, EFL Saints said:

Hi 

I'm an Ipswich Town fan who likes to write about the Championship on Substack. I've posted on here before and doing so again to share my 1-24 season predictions articles.

https://jacobpowley.substack.com/p/2026-27-championship-predictions?r=23z423

https://jacobpowley.substack.com/p/2026-27-championship-predictions-b81?r=23z423

How are you feeling about the season ahead? Probably nice to be focussing on the football again rather than the drama. 

Please consider subscribing to the blog if you enjoy (it's free, this isn't one of those annoying adverts begging for money) 

Cheers

Jacob 

20-match espionage mission?

[SNSUN]

7 minutes ago, EFL Saints said:

Yeah, there's still loads of guess work to be done at this time of year! More fun to do it before the window shuts though. 

Do you think Vipotnik is likely to happen? Saw that slightly cryptic instagram post that suggested he might be off to Southampton. 

Pie in the sky. I think fans of most Championship clubs and probably some Prem clubs would be delighted to sign a player who was the best striker in our League last season. But it's pie in the sky until something happens. We are one of the strongest clubs in the League in terms of talent and financial muscle... we should be attracting the better players the League has to offer. As we did with Azaz last season. 

Whether it happens or not... who knows. We're a club known for making daft signings as much as good ones in recent times.