The Championship is one of the most unpredictable leagues in the world and some pretty inconceivable things have gone down in 2022/23.
Not many would have seen second-tier specialist Dwight Gayle being a flop at Stoke City or Chuba Akpom turning into an Erling Haaland-esque goalscorer…
Dwight Gayle being a flop at Stoke City
There are many strikers who have struggled in the Premier League but have guaranteed goals in the Championship. Teemu Pukki and Cameron Jerome come to mind as prime examples but Gayle was king of the hill.
Prior to this season, Gayle had 33 goal involvements in 145 Premier League outings; this compared to 75 in 100 appearances in the Championship.
Stoke appeared to pull off a coup by signing Gayle on a free transfer from Newcastle United in the summer. But a move to a pretty mediocre Potters side has proven to be the striker’s kryptonite.
The last time Gayle was in the Championship, he netted 23 goals in 39 games for West Brom in 2018/19. Yet this term it took him 21 appearances to score his first league goal for Stoke.
With Gayle failing to fire, Stoke’s joint-top goalscorers – Tyrese Campbell and Lewis Baker – sit on five apiece and Alex Neil’s side are in a perilous position just five points above the bottom three.
You imagine that Stoke will have enough quality at their disposal to stay up, but they will be praying that Gayle can rediscover his Championship scoring touch.
Chris Wilder’s ugly Middlesbrough exit
Prior to this season, Boro were many people’s favourites to get promoted with ex-Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder being spoiled with an abundance of quality throughout his squad.
But under Wilder, they managed to win just two of their opening 12 games of the 2022/23 campaign. While this was ongoing, he was being heavily linked with the vacant manager’s job at AFC Bournemouth.
Wilder was seemingly tempted by this significant fall upwards and this cannot have helped his cause at the Riverside. With the talent at Boro’s disposal, it seemed only a matter of time before they picked up, but the funk stretched into October and he had to go as his position became untenable.
The lure of a return to the Premier League with Bournemouth was always going to be tempting for Wilder, but these links added to what was going wrong at Boro. Had things played out differently, he could have ruled himself out of the running for the south coast job and rebuilt the Teesside outfit to realise their promotion…
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