Leeds United will win the Sky Bet Championship this season, ending their exile from the Premier League.
That’s according to the UK’s bookmakers, who are tipping Marcelo Bielsa’s men for the Championship crown.
Betting analyst Mark O’Haire has put together a predicted Championship table according to the accumulated odds of the UK’s bookmakers.
And that puts Leeds on top, winning promotion with Fulham, who are tipped to bounce straight back up.
Neil Warnock’s Cardiff are predicted to finish third, just missing out on automatic promotion, earning a spot in the play-offs with West Brom, Stoke and Middlesbrough.
The bookmakers are predicting that a number of the second tier’s big players will miss out on the top six, including Brentford, Derby, Huddersfield, Bristol City, Forest and Sheffield Wednesday, who will have to settle for a spot in the top-half, if these predictions do come true.
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the table, Barnsley are favourites to go down, along with Charlton and Wigan Athletic.
Perhaps surprisingly, newly promoted Luton are being tipped to beat the drop relatively comfortably, finishing in 17th.
Millwall, Reading, QPR and Birmingham are all predicted to finish below the Hatters this season.
Here’s a full Championship table, as predicted by the bookmakers.
1 Leeds
2 Fulham
3 Cardiff
4 West Brom
5 Stoke
6 Middlesbrough
7 Brentford
8 Derby County
9 Huddersfield
10 Bristol City
11 Nottingham Forest
12 Sheffield Wednesday
13 Swansea
14 Preston
15 Blackburn
16 Hull
17 Luton
18 Birmingham
19 QPR
20 Reading
21 Millwall
22 Wigan
23 Charlton
24 Barnsley
