EFL fears Wednesday won't start season as players force cancelled friendly
The Sheffield Wednesday squad were told on Wednesday that the payment of their wages for July would not be made on time, reportedly the third successive month in which this would have happened, and that has led the squad to take a stand.
It is understood that the EFL has become increasingly alarmed about developments at the club and remains in close contact with club officials.
The friendly against Burnley was due to take place behind closed doors on Saturday and was their final pre-season fixture before the new season, but this has now been cancelled. Sheffield Wednesday are due to travel to Leicester City for their first match of the new season on Sunday, August 10.
The scrapped friendly is the latest development after another tumultuous week for Sheffield Wednesday. On Tuesday Sheffield city council issued a prohibition notice to the club, preventing them from hosting spectators in the North Stand at Hillsborough, which can hold up to 9,255 supporters. Councillor Joe Otten said the decision was taken after consulting 'engineering specialists who can no longer reconfirm that the North Stand is safe for spectator use'.
The head coach Danny Röhl also left the club by mutual consent on Tuesday, two weeks before the start of the new season. That followed multiple player departures, including the forwards Josh Windass and Michael Smith, who ended their contracts by mutual consent in mid-July, leaving only a small selection of senior players.
This is compounded by the fact that the club are currently under an EFL registration embargo owing to unpaid transfer fees, having previously been put under embargo for unpaid player wages and delayed payments to HMRC.
Sheffield Wednesday are owned by the Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri, who is blamed by supporters and local politicians for the club's plight. Clive Betts, the Labour MP for Sheffield South East, told the city's newspaper, The Star, this week after the closure of the North Stand that the owner should sell: 'This is just the most recent issue in a host of problems he has brought and failed to recognise and address.
'Chansiri clearly has no idea what he is doing with the club and should just move on and sell to an owner that will actually care about the club and its fans.'
Röhl has since been replaced by his assistant, Henrik Pedersen, whose appointment was confirmed on Thursday.
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Times
27 minutes ago
- Times
How Gordon Brown's ‘baby bonds' failed to raise a nation of investors
Rachel Reeves wants stubborn savers to embrace investing to earn better returns and boost the economy. The chancellor is looking to rip up red tape to let banks to nudge savers towards the stock market, and is also considering cutting back the cash Isa allowance to ensure more of our savings are invested. However, the New Labour chancellor Gordon Brown also had an ambition to create a healthier savings culture, and it did not exactly turn out as he had hoped. Brown wanted to raise a generation of investors by giving every baby at least £250 to kickstart the habit. When detailing the policy in his 2003 budget, he said: 'The child trust fund symbolises the difference between those who believe in modernising the welfare state and those who wish it to wither away. 'At age 18, on the basis of historic rates of return, the child trust fund will accumulate assets that will enable all young people to have more of the choices that were once available only to some.' The tax-free scheme was designed to encourage parents to invest for their children's future, and all babies born between September 1, 2002 and January 2, 2011 were eligible. In all, 6.3 million accounts were opened, and the government paid £2 billion into the accounts, which could be accessed from 18. Yet child trust funds were scrapped by the coalition government in 2011 and many have since been lost or forgotten. Some investors have even been locked out of their funds. The first children with funds turned 18 in September 2020. The latest available data shows the total value of the funds is about £9 billion. While up to 2.8 million accounts have now matured, of these, about a quarter (670,000) have not been claimed. On average it's estimated that each young person could have an account worth about £2,000. A further study revealed that most of the accounts did not have any money paid into them between April 2023 and April 2024, suggesting they've been abandoned as a savings vehicle. Maike Currie, an investment and savings expert who worked for Hargreaves Lansdown until recently, said: 'Child trust funds were a victim of the age of austerity after the 2008 financial crisis. 'On reflection, they were always doomed to fail — starting with the elaborate name. Many people were put off, thinking these were the preserve of trust fund babies, while others simply did not know about them. 'This simply reiterates the importance of awareness and education if you're to reignite a nation of investors. If the government today fails on getting this right, they will have another flop on their hands with disastrous consequences.' Education about these accounts was lacking — and remains the case, as shown by a trip by Money in April to one school where many pupils had no idea they had a child trust fund. The initial sum of £250 was doubled to £500 for low-income families. Children had a second payment when they reached seven. However, in 2010, the initial payment was reduced to £50, or £100 for lower-income families, and the second payment at seven scrapped. The first payment was abolished entirely in 2011. New parents were also invited to choose a home for the free cash. They could invest it in the stock market (either choosing the investments themselves or selecting a stakeholder version where the investments were chosen by the provider) or choose a savings-style account where interest was paid. If an account was not opened by the child's parent, HM Revenue & Customs set up a stakeholder account on the child's behalf. Many parents never engaged with the scheme. HMRC stepped in on behalf of 1.7 million parents (28 per cent) who failed to find a home for the £250 within the required 12-month period. All HMRC-allocated accounts were investment-based. According to the Share Foundation, a charity that helps to trace unclaimed funds, more than £400 million is sitting unclaimed in HMRC-allocated accounts. More than half of the unclaimed accounts worth £274 million belong to young adults on low incomes. About 55,000 trust funds mature every month and the charity forecasts that nearly £1 billion will be unclaimed for low-income young adults by the end of this parliament. Gavin Oldham from the Share Foundation said: 'Since September 2020, when the first account holders started turning 18, child trust fund owners have been able to withdraw funds or transfer savings into an adult Isa. 'Yet there's an enormous amount of money sitting unclaimed by youngsters, who could use it to go towards tuition fees, a first home or simply to kickstart their own savings for the future.' The charity has matched more than 85,000 young people with their child trust funds, recovering more than £165 million for young adult account owners. The accounts will continue to mature until 2029, when the last children to get a fund will turn 18, but the worry is that many won't be reunited with their money. • NatWest says stolen £8,500 child trust fund is not its problem There were many other criticisms of the scheme. For example, the investment options were limited and expensive. A parliamentary report highlighted that investment charges for managing the funds were 'very high'. Another issue is that no provision was made for children with disabilities who were unable to manage their own finances. A report has previously suggested 80,000 such young people were unable to access their funds without their families going through the Court of Protection — a process that can be costly and time-consuming. If the amount in the fund is relatively small, the legal fees might outweigh claiming the cash. Analysts have looked for positive outcomes. There was some evidence to show that the accounts appeared to have led some parents to open savings accounts for older siblings who did not benefit. However, it found the scheme did not have a statistically significant effect on the rate of savings for children overall. Education is essential when it comes to encouraging people to invest. Many prefer to keep their savings safe in risk-free cash accounts, where they are unlikely to keep pace with inflation. If you have long enough to ride out the ups and downs of the stock market, investing usually results in a much higher return. A £100 monthly investment into the average global equity fund for the past 18 years (£21,600) would today be worth about £52,800, according to analysis by the investment platform AJ Bell. The same £100 a month saved in an average child's savings account over the last 18 years at 2.93 per cent would today be worth about £28,465, according to Moneyfacts. That's 85 per cent less than if the money had been invested. Currie said: 'Education, awareness and ease are the cornerstones to creating a nation of investors or to put it differently: there needs to be a seismic shift in trust, ease and confidence. 'In the UK, investing is still associated with gambling — people must understand that when you're investing you're owning real assets and the potential for future growth. It's also about getting to grips with the concept of risk and understanding different levels of risk — and the hidden risks of holding too much cash against a backdrop of inflation and longer lives. These are big hurdles to overcome to establish a culture of retail investing in the UK.' • How to get a nation of savers investing Laith Khalaf from AJ Bell said that the UK had a long way to go before reaching the investing culture in the US. Khalaf said: 'The US has been a leader in terms of financial products such as unit trust funds, exchange traded funds, trackers and self-invested personal pensions. As a result there is a greater familiarity with investments and probably a greater risk appetite amongst everyday Americans. That's positive for US investors and stocks over the long term, but it's not without its risk.' In the UK there's perhaps not enough risk being taken, with many people holding large sums of cash and never considering the stock market. Khalaf said: 'At least £100 billion is sitting in cash Isa accounts held by savers with £20,000 or more in cash, but no stocks and shares Isa investments. 'The chancellor's efforts to ignite a retail investing revolution are therefore well met. Getting more people to invest in the stock market will be positive for their long-term wealth and for the economy as a whole. In particular a regular investment plan can help reassure those who don't like the full thrills and spills of the stock market because it leads to a smoother journey.' He added that some things needed to be addressed to encourage investing. 'For example, it's nothing short of bizarre that the Treasury wants people to invest in domestic stocks but charges stamp duty of 0.5 per cent on UK share purchases. An investor can buy shares in a US company like Apple with no stamp duty to pay, but if they buy £10,000 of London-listed AstraZeneca shares, they will pay the government £50 for the privilege.' • The Share Foundation is campaigning for the government to start automatically releasing unclaimed CTF funds once account holders turn 21.• You can search for lost CTF funds using a free HMRC-linked search tool. Have your national insurance number to hand. Tayo Olutunde, 22, received a £2,500 windfall last year when he decided to check whether he had a child trust fund account. Tayo, who lives in Leeds and is studying accounting and finance, watched a TikTok video that prompted him to check with his parents about a child trust fund. They remembered setting one up and contributing to it for a time but couldn't remember with which bank. Olutunde said: 'As a family we moved a lot, including abroad. The contributions would have stopped when we went abroad and the paperwork was lost. I came across the Share Foundation who helped me locate where my account was — with NatWest. 'It took a long time to access the money because I didn't know which address was registered with my account, so I kept failing security. Eventually I got through and found I had £2,400. I was shocked.' Olutunder decided to spend about £400 on a holiday to Italy to celebrate his 21st birthday and invested the rest. But he said more needs to be done to educate young people about the world of investing. He said: 'I have a friend who also located his child trust fund recently. He spent most of it on a fast car, which I'm not sure is the best use of the money.' Scott and Julie James were thrilled to receive the £250 from the government for their daughter Holly when she was born in 2009. The couple, who live in Glasgow, decided to invest the sum to start building a nest egg for her future. Scott, 54, who works as a company director, said: 'The government was giving away free money which was great. Sadly the rest of the scheme wasn't quite so impressive. We wanted to invest the money, knowing that stocks and shares perform better than cash over the longer term. 'But at the time we opened the account, there wasn't a huge number of companies to choose from, and those that did offer child trust funds had a limited investment choice and the charges were high.' They opened an account anyway and it was topped up with money from grandparents. But when junior Isas were launched two years later, Scott felt they offered a bigger range of investments and lower charges, so they started saving in one of those accounts instead. Scott says they are still saving for Holly, now aged 16, perhaps to help with a first property purchase or whatever she might need in adulthood. He said: 'The child trust fund was a nice try, but it just didn't work.
Daily Mirror
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Championship 1-24 predictions: Promotion race decided as Ipswich and Wrexham discover fate
The Championship is officially back this weekend and the division's 24 teams will all spend the next 10 months battling it out for the prize of promotion to the Premier League After months of ticking off Saturdays on the calendar, we are finally ready to welcome back the Championship ahead of Friday night's big opener between Birmingham City and Ipswich Town. One week on from Leagues One and Two taking centre stage, the Championship will return over the coming days as 24 teams all fight it out for a shot at the big-time: promotion to the Premier League and the untold riches that come with such a feat. The Championship is now regarded as one of the most exciting leagues in Europe in its own right and a big part of that is the unpredictability of it. So, as I'm an absolute glutton for punishment I figured I'd take a crack at trying to do the impossible by predicting where every single team will finish. My 1-24 is below, so feel free to get stuck in and bookmark accordingly for when May comes around... 24 - Sheffield Wednesday Unfortunately, it's hard to see how Sheffield Wednesday recover from a severely damaging summer. Dejphon Chansiri's failure to sell the club has not only caused turmoil off the pitch, from a football perspective it's seen the Owls lose key players. To make matters worse, they are also now bound by restrictions when it comes to replacing them. At the time of writing, Wednesday have made no signings at all this summer and another of their players, Max Lowe, has just handed in his notice and will likely be at a new club before the month is out. If Henrik Pedersen, the Owls' newly minted head coach, keeps Wednesday up then he deserves the keys to the Steel City. 23 - Oxford United In Gary Rowett, Oxford have a manager who practically guarantees Championship survival. Yes, Birmingham went down with Rowett at the helm two years ago, but the damage was done long before he took over. With that being said, I'm tipping them to go down. Why? I'm not blown away with the recruitment in a division which looks far tougher than last year on paper. Goals are probably the biggest concern; Mark Harris started the 2024-25 campaign on fire with four goals in as many games but scored just two more between the end of August and May. They averaged just over a goal a game last season (49 in total) and if Nik Prelec and Will Lankshear fail to hit the ground running, it could be a long hard season. 22 - Hull City Sorry Hull fans, but I've got you marked for the final relegation spot after another turbulent summer under the enigma that is Acun Ilicali. The goodwill that Ilicali built up after acquiring the club back in January 2022 is quickly (and justifiably) eroding and the off-field turmoil that has made headlines in recent months is bound to have a detrimental effect on a squad which has a manager who is untested in the Championship in Sergej Jakirovic. Quality wise, is Hull's squad worse than 21 other Championship teams? No. But I reckon the aforementioned other factors at play will ultimately bring down the Tigers. 21 - Charlton Athletic Charlton will be up against it after coming up through the play-offs, but their activity in the summer transfer window has given me just about enough optimism to back them staying up. While the majority may be untested at Championship level, the Addicks have an abundance of options at the top end of the pitch: Tanto Olaofe, Rob Apter and Charlie Kelman have all arrived for seven-figure fees to bolster an attack which already featured Matty Godden and Miles Leaburn. At the other end of the pitch, Thomas Kaminski and Reece Burke were part of a defence that got relegated last season. But Charlton's options up top should be enough to get them over the line. 20 - Preston North End After sleepwalking into the relegation dogfight last season, Preston North End could well find themselves flirting with League One again in the coming months. Paul Heckingbottom has good Championship pedigree and could be worth his weight in gold if the season plays out how I think it might. At the time of writing, PNE are among a clutch of clubs pursuing a deal for Wycombe's Richard Kone which would arguably be one of the division's top summer coups. But at the moment - like most of the clubs I'm tipping to finish in the lower echelons of the table - I'm not bowled over with PNE's current options in attack. Will they go down? No. But I don't think they'll be tearing up any trees. 19 - Blackburn Rovers Tipping the team who finished seventh last year to end up in 19th place this time around feels bold, but I'm struggling to see how Blackburn improve on that this time around. The reasoning? Well, they've lost two of last season's top performers in Tyrhys Dolan and Callum Brittain. When you then factor in the departure of Andi Weimann, Rovers feel light on firepower and it's hard to see where the goals will come from. The jury is still out on Valerian Ismael for me personally, too. 19th might feel low but at the same time I think Blackburn are substantially better than the bottom five and won't be looking over their shoulder in terms of relegation. 18 - Wrexham This is one of the shouts which could age horrifically over the next nine months given Wrexham are capable of doing pretty much anything in the transfer window between now and 1 September, but their current squad struggles on paper. They've signed well and players like Lewis O'Brien, Josh Windass and Kiefer Moore are quality additions. But the majority of Wrexham's players are not Championship calibre, which is completely understandable given their rapid rise through the divisions. Phil Parkinson has taken Wrexham from non-league to the second-tier but his Championship record is unremarkable to say the least. He won just 26 games across 141 during spells at Bolton and Charlton and I don't see that changing this year, which could leave Wrexham with a tough decision to make. 17 - Stoke City Mark Robins worked wonders during a near-decade long spell at Coventry City. And if anyone needs a bit of magic after a few dire years in the Championship, it's Stoke. They've failed to finish in the top half of the Championship at all since dropping down to the second-tier eight years ago and even with Robins at the helm (who I rate highly) I'm not ultra convinced that sorry run changes this year. They do, however, have one of the best goalkeepers in the Championship in Viktor Johansson. And I like the signings of Sorba Thomas and Maksym Taloverov. I fancy Stoke to be steady but they won't rip up any trees. 16 - Middlesbrough Rob Edwards has replaced Michael Carrick at the helm ahead of the new campaign but I'm not convinced that move has particularly made Middlesbrough a better bet for promotion. Yes, Edwards guided Luton to the Premier League three years ago. But do I deem him as an improvement on Carrick? No. Nor do I think Boro have an infinitely better squad this time around even if I think the additions of Alfie Jones, Callum Brittain and Abdoulaye Kante are good ones on paper. Boro will need to replace the goals of Emmanuel Latte-Lath if they are to trouble the top-six this season. Add in the fact that Boro's other two top players in Hayden Hackney and Rav van den Berg could also be sold all of a sudden things are looking pretty bleak. 15 - Portsmouth Portsmouth stayed up with games to spare last year and I'm expecting a year of consolidation this term under the impressive John Mousinho. Adrian Segecic is an intriguing signing, while John Swift is still a quality operator at this level. They feel light in attack, though, and it's imperative that Josh Murphy and Colby Bishop stay fit if Pompey are to stay clear of trouble. They will be buoyed by how they finished last season, though, and boast one of the EFL's top young managers, so I'm backing more progress for Pompey. 14 - Bristol City Liam Manning took Bristol City to the play-offs last season but I can't see Gerard Struber replicating that feat this season. Style-wise, going from Manning's controlled approach to Struber's heavy metal football is quite the leap. But with the Championship's fascination of keeping possession for possessions' sake dying out, Struber's philosophy should translate well. For me, the biggest question mark yet again is around the goals. Anis Mehmeti top scored last year with 12, followed by Nakhi Wells on 10 and Scott Twine on five. That's a big drop and Wells is no longer around. Is Emil Riis the answer? The jury is out on that for me personally but he has hit double figures in two of his five seasons in the Championship for PNE - including last year - and should be a good fit for what Struber wants to do. A drop-off from last year feels inevitable, though. 13 - West Brom West Brom are probably the hardest team to place for me in this. Much of that is down to their new head coach, Ryan Mason. The former Tottenham man has never been the main man before and while he inherits a decent squad on paper, this is largely the same group which fell away from the play-off picture after Carlos Corberan departed on Christmas Eve (good tidings and all that). Firepower is something they do have with Josh Maja and Daryl Dike now joined by summer signing Aune Heggebo. Sometimes it's alright to hold your hands up and say, in all honesty, I haven't a clue. And that's very much the case with me and West Brom here. 12 - QPR A mid table finish might be boring, but I think QPR will be anything but this season. After all, they have Illias Chair, Karamoko Dembele and Kwame Poku in their ranks after landing the latter from Peterborough United on a free transfer. Will that translate into a top-six finish? Maybe; there's certainly lots to like about their squad and Julien Stephan is an intriguing choice to replace Marti Cifuentes. Keeping goals out was the issue last season, rather than scoring them, but Amadou Mbengue is a shrewd pick-up, as is bringing in Steve Bould - formerly of Arsenal - as head of defensive coaching. Could QPR trouble the top-six? Anyone from this point in should be in the picture and I'd have them higher if I was higher personally on their No 9 options. 11 - Derby County I almost tipped Derby to finish a couple of places higher than this and I quietly fancy John Eustace will make them a bit of a force after coming in and having a huge impact last season. Eustace is a top coach and Derby have added well: Carlton Morris, Patrick Agyemang and Rhian Brewster will spearhead a new-look attack alongside the returning Andi Weimann and David Ozoh is also back for another loan spell. Derby have strengthened in key areas, suffered no big losses and have a coach who outperformed his parts at both Birmingham and Blackburn. The Rams will go well indeed. 10 - Swansea City Swansea have done some quality business. But I'm not sold on them having the depth to push for a top-six finish. Picking up Cameron Burgess on a free transfer from Ipswich is one of the most eye-catching deals of the summer and Ethan Galbraith just oozes class. But they still feel a quality striker short of being bonafide play-off contenders. I like Alan Sheehan, though, and I think Swansea are a good bet for a top-10 finish. Higher than that? Maybe next year. 9 - Norwich City Norwich were one of the Championship's biggest disappointments last year under the uninspiring Johannes Hoff Thorup. Enter Liam Manning, who defied the odds to steer Bristol City into the play-offs last season. I'm a big fan of Manning and Norwich have been ambitious in the transfer market with 11 new signings. Most are unknown quantities at this level but some, such as Papa Amadou Diallo and Mathias Kvistgaarden, are eye-catching additions. If they can hit the ground running in Norfolk, then expect Norwich to push higher than ninth - even if they lose the impressive Josh Sargeant. At the bare minimum, though, the appointment of Manning and Norwich's attempt to overhaul a squad which massively fell short of expectations last year are signs that the Canaries are back on the right track. 8 - Leicester City Plenty fancy Leicester for an instant return to the Premier League, but I don't think it will be as cut and dried as that. Marti Cifuentes is fine as a Championship operator. But the division is strong this year and I'm not sure that fine cuts it. The same goes for Leicester's squad; there have been no major additions to the group that dropped out of the top-flight last year and they look light on quality No 9 options. A possible points deduction would leave Cifuentes and Co with a mountain to climb from the off. When you also factor in financial concerns, fan unrest and the likelihood of key players such as Mads Hermansen and Bilal El Khannouss moving on, it gets harder to tip Leicester for that top-six finish. My gut says they miss out. 7 - Watford 12 months on from being suitably worried about Watford to tip them for the drop, I've done a complete 180 and am labelling them as my dark horses this year. They've got a player I rate as one of the division's very best in Giorgi Chakvetadze and there's serious quality around him, too, in the form of Imran Louza and Kwadwo Baah. Furthermore, Watford's summer business on paper looks exciting even if the likes of Nestory Irankunda and Luca Kjerrumgaard are Championship newbies. The same can be said for the Hornets' new head coach, Paulo Pezzolano. And while that means there's maybe an element of risk backing Watford to finish this high, there's lots to like about them this year. And after being proved massively wrong by them last year, I'm all in on Watford this year. 6 - Birmingham City Birmingham have one thing on their mind this season: promotion back to the Premier League. And while that may seem bold for a team who have just come up from League One, they look nailed on for a top-six finish. If we're being blunt, Birmingham's squad was far too good for the third-tier last year. Add in the likes of Tommy Doyle, Kyogo Furuhashi, Demarai Gray and Eiran Cashin amongst others to that group and you've got a squad which is up there with the best in this division. Do I think Blues go up automatically? No. But they should be shoo-ins for the top-six unless something goes drastically wrong. 5 - Millwall Without being biased (honestly) I think this is the year Millwall finally crack the top-six after some near misses in recent years. 4-4-2 is sexy again down at The Den and Mihailo Ivanovic and Josh Coburn (signed permanently for a club-record fee after a positive loan spell) have the scope to add the goals Millwall have been sorely lacking in recent years. In the former, it feels like the Lions have a genuine golden boot contender IF they can keep him beyond 1 September. The signing of Alfie Doughty is a major coup and his quality can keep Millwall's front two well fed, while in Alex Neil the Lions' boast one of the Championship's most consistent coaches. What does this all add up to? I'm saying a fifth place finish. 4 - Sheffield United We'll start on Sheffield United with this: I really like Ruben Selles and Hull's decision to sack him will be another decision from their eccentric owner that doesn't age well. The Blades already have a strong squad, albeit one which struggled to get over the line when it mattered at the business end of last season. They have quality all over the pitch and in Michael Cooper and Gus Hamer, they have two of the division's best players in their respective positions. Anel Ahmedhodzic would have been pooled similarly and his departure to Feyenoord is a significant blow. But Sheffield United have too much quality to not be in the mix for a top-two finish - even if I'm tipping them to fall short again. 3 - Coventry City Coventry made the top-six last term and while I think they will miss out on going one better, I reckon Frank Lampard and Co will get another crack at the play-offs this time around. They've added to what is already a quality squad and will be all the better for their failed play-off campaign last season. Goals are no concern with only the two promoted sides and Norwich bettering Coventry's tally of 64 strikes last term and in Carl Rushworth they have a quality operator in between their own sticks. Yes, Lampard had the benefit of inheriting a squad with quality all over the pitch when replacing Mark Robins last season but players like Jack Rudoni have flourished under him. And there should be more to come from Coventry, Rudoni and their manager this season. 2 - Southampton Southampton have way too much firepower to not be in the promotion mix and in Will Still, they have one of the most promising young coaches in football. Does that translate to promotion? Yeah, basically. I don't really see any other outcome: the Saints' squad is absolutely stacked and they will overpower plenty of teams in their bid to make an instant return to the Premier League led by Still, whose CV is impressive and varied enough to outweigh the caveat of him being an unknown quantity in the Championship. Sometimes football is simple. The best players, in this case those of Southampton, will win lots of matches and subsequently promotion. 1 - Ipswich Town They blitzed their way to successive promotions two years ago and Ipswich should be all the stronger for last season's unsuccessful crack at attempting to stay in the Premier League. The fact that Kieran McKenna's stock remains largely intact following relegation should tell you everything you need to know about the Ipswich Town manager and the swashbuckling style that took them to promotion two years ago should translate well with how the division is shaping up this year. Liam Delap may be gone but Ipswich have more options in attack than a Swiss Army knife: Jack Clarke and Jaden Philogene have torn up the Championship before, as has Sammie Szmodics. Omari Hutchinson is also still around at the time of writing, and that's before you even factor in the likes of Chiedozie Ogbene, George Hirst and Conor Chaplin. The most important thing about Ipswich is that they don't feel like damaged goods after succumbing to relegation last term. They will start the season as red-hot favourites for the title and it's not hard to see why. Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Daily Mirror
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Alan Shearer's Premier League predictions for all 20 places this season including champions
Alan Shearer has laid out his predictions for the final 2025-26 Premier League table, as Liverpool aim to retain their crown and Manchester United hope for serious improvements Alan Shearer has cast his eye over the upcoming Premier League and believes the status quo could remain at the top and the bottom. Last season we didn't get much of a title race given how dominant and consistent the fast-starting Liverpool were. They have spent huge sums, which includes the British-record signing Florian Wirtz, in an effort to go back-to-back. Alexander Isak could yet move to Anfield and Shearer cannot look past the Reds as champions. Leeds, Burnley and Sunderland are back in the top flight. They'll be wanting to snap the concerning recent trend that has seen promoted teams head straight back to the Championship. However, Shearer has tipped all three to enjoy just one year in the Premier League before they go back down. That would mark the third year in succession that the three promoted teams cannot survive in what is a concerning trend, further highlighting the gulf between the top flight and the second tier. Arsenal have been tipped to finish second for the fourth year running - which will not please Mikel Arteta. He has spent big, adding Viktor Gyokeres as his No.9, but may still miss out on the prize that he is desperate to land with pressure mounting. Manchester City experienced a lull last term and begin a year without Kevin De Bruyne for the first time in a decade. Despite adding reinforcements Shearer hasn't backed Pep Guardiola and Co. to regain their crown, instead picking them in third. Their cross-city rivals, Manchester United, reached new lows last term and have signed some notable names in attack, as Ruben Amorim aims to seriously improve their fortunes. The pundit is predicting a better year but still not one where they return to the Champions League. Instead, he feels Chelsea and Newcastle - two clubs with very different experiences this summer - will both finished above the Red Devils. Newcastle's year may hinge on whether Isak stays or if they get in a top class replacement. Chelsea meanwhile have not struggled to get firepower through the door. Last year's surprise package, Nottingham Forest, will have to combine their domestic efforts with Europa League football. That will be a new challenge but Shearer still believes they will still be a top half side. Tottenham have embarked on a new era, sacking Ange Postecoglou despite his European success. Thomas Frank has a tough job on his hands but Shearer has backed them to finish in eighth, narrowly behind Aston Villa. The Midlands club have benefited from having Unai Emery at the helm but with so much competition at the top they've been tipped to fall again. Brentford now have Keith Andrews at the helm and have been backed to narrowly avoid the drop, finishing just above the bottom three in 17th. West Ham too have been tipped to have a difficult year despite Graham Potter getting a first full season in charge in London. For the likes of Everton and Crystal Palace it is another safe year of mid-table football. The Eagles will have European football, albeit not in the competition they wanted. Shearer's predicted Premier League table 1. Liverpool 2. Arsenal 3. Man City 4. Chelsea 5. Newcastle 6. Man United 7. Aston Villa 8. Tottenham 9. Nottingham Forest 10. Brighton 11. Bournemouth 12. Crystal Palace 13. Everton 14. Wolves 15. Fulham 16. West Ham 17. Brentford 18. Leeds 19. Sunderland 20. Burnley Article continues below *Predictions from Betfair.
