Claridge's Championship view

By Steve Claridge

The Championship tussle explained

This season's Championship is incredibly close - as things stand much more exciting than the Premiership.

I don't think that any of the teams are as good as Reading were last season but that it not to say there is a lack of quality.

Preston have a small squad and depend too heavily on David Nugent

I hear people say that the quality in the Championship is poor but there are a lot of evenly matched sides and what you tend to find is that when they meet they cancel each other out.

What has happened to the table is that the clubs who have spent money have moved to the top - it is as simple as that.

Birmingham, for example spent £4m on one player in Gary McSheffrey last summer and are top of the table, while WBA, Southampton, Sunderland and Derby have all invested heavily or pay decent wages.

Money does not guarantee success but it does give you the latitude to have a good go.

I think that Preston boss Paul Simpson and Wolves manager Mick McCarthy have been the best managers in the division precisely because they are working with smaller squads and limited budgets.

Simpson has hardly spent any money and lost key players last summer - he has done an unbelievable job.

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However, I think Preston, like Cardiff, are always likely to be caught out by their small squad size and over-reliance on one player.

Preston depend too heavily on David Nugent and Cardiff on Michael Chopra.

Wolves lost a lot of their best players last summer but McCarthy has bought well in the likes of Andy Keogh and Michael Kightly - and they are on a great run of form.

Birmingham are top again but I'm not sure they will go up automatically.

Had they beat Luton on 30 December they would have gone into the new year eight points clear.

RECENT FORM (l-r) Birmingham - DWWDL West Brom - WWDWWD Derby - WWWDLL Sunderland - DWWWDW Southampton - WLDWLW Cardiff - WWDWLW Preston - WLWLWL Wolves - WDWWWW

They lost to Ipswich on 1 January and then played several FA Cup ties while the poor state of their pitch resulted in successive Championship postponements.

By the time they played another league fixture - on 30 January - they had been overhauled at the top by a Derby side that spent big in the transfer market.

Birmingham had gone from a team that had almost won it to a side that had to dig in and fight all over again.

There are some fantastic fixtures coming up, with the top teams meeting each other, and it is so difficult to predict what might happen.

But I think the top five will comprise West Brom, Sunderland, Southampton, Birmingham and Derby.

Of these I think that WBA, the Black Cats and Saints will contest the two automatic promotion places, while the sixth and final play-off spot will be claimed by one of Wolves, Preston and Cardiff.