Who could face relegation from the Championship?

As the Championship season marches on, sides will be desperate to get points on the board before the enforced winter break due to the World Cup in November. This season has obviously felt unique due to the early start, and we’ve already seen teams crack under the pressure now we’re a few matchdays in.

There’s still plenty of time for managers to get their affairs in order and with the transfer window still yet to shut there’s plenty of time for sides to turn their poor fortunes around and look more favourable when it comes to WinDrawWin Championship predictions.

However, with games coming thick and fast, and the Championship living up to its reputation for unpredictability, all it takes is a poor run of form for sides to be dragged back into a relegation dogfight. While it’s too early in the season for the table to take shape, it will be interesting to see how the sides initially tipped for relegation carry on as the campaign progresses. Read on, as we take a look at the Championship teams we think could face the drop come the business end of the season.

Coventry City

It’s hard to see a situation where Coventry City don’t get relegated this season. Years of mediocrity were almost forgotten last season in the East Midlands when the Sky Blues perhaps overachieved to earn a 12th-place finish in the second tier last term. However, a poor start to this season and uncertainty over their home ground, as the CBS Arena pitch continues to be deemed unsafe, has led to frustration from their fans, leaving Mark Robins to pick up the pieces.

The 52-year-old has been in charge for five years now and despite working with a shoe-string budget has always managed to keep Coventry afloat. This season though it looks as though he’s navigating a sinking ship, with his side rooted bottom of the table at the time of writing. The signings of Kasey Palmer, Callum Doyle and Jonathan Panzo are all loans or free deals that show a real lack of ambition, and it could be a long season for Coventry fans wherever they end up watching their team.

Reading

While it’s unlikely the likes of Luton Town and Queens Park Rangers will go down this season, that is down to the quality of their squad and the managers in charge in each respective dugout. Sadly, in the case of Reading, Paul Ince simply doesn’t have the same experience, or indeed ability in his side to run things the way he’d like at the Madejski Stadium.

Having not been able to pay a fee for any of his summer signings, the Royals won just one of their opening three games and are conceding far too many goals for a team that is hoping to beat the drop. Ince was a talented player, but his managerial approach seems far too old-fashioned from an outside perspective, and an embarrassing defeat to League Two outfit Stevenage in the EFL Cup only served to expose the fragility of his squad depth.

Expect more doom and gloom over the course of the next few weeks as Reading face some tough opposition in Norwich City and high-flying Watford. The Royals will suffer, but the question of how long Ince will be in charge still remains to be seen, as he’s currently one of the favourites for the first sacking of the new campaign.

Wigan Athletic

This season will mark a decade since Wigan Athletic’s last stint in the Championship. The Latics, who won the title last season having been automatically promoted from League One, have flattered to deceive so far this season, struggling to brandish the same attacking flair that elicited so much fear from defences in the third tier.

Leam Richardson clearly needs reinforcements, but the former Accrington Stanley boss has admitted recruitment has been tough this summer, and would like to bring in some more players having already secured the services of just one player — Ryan Nyambe from Blackburn Rovers — permanently alongside a couple of loans in a desperately quiet summer.

"Everybody knows, with no depth of squad, you're never going to get any type of success," he said. "Because we all know about the Championship and how tough it is.

"I've been here before and I know what levels of competition you need to keep pushing on and driving on. I certainly want to get out of this league in a good way, in good form, and work at the highest level.”

Too many signings could create friction in the sides though, and if the team fails to gel, we could see Wigan in the third tier again as the dream of Premier League football looks further away than ever before.