How’s It Gonna End? — English Premier League, EFL, and National League 2024/25
I’m gonna predict where all the tables are gonna end up, using a combination of my head, my heart, and my arse.
Somet I do every year and these articles are essentially an excuse to keep track of it and to marvel if I do an exceptional job. Exceptional refers to my scoring, which I have to get as close to 0 as possible by adding the difference between where I predict and where they actually finish.
Let’s get to it.
PREMIER LEAGUE
1. Manchester City
2. Arsenal
3. Liverpool
4. Tottenham Hotspur
5. Aston Villa
6. Chelsea
7. Manchester United
8. Newcastle United
9. West Ham United
10. Crystal Palace
11. Leicester City
12. Brighton & Hove Albion
13. Fulham
14. Wolves
15. Brentford
16. Ipswich Town
17. Bournemouth
18. Everton
19. Nottingham Forest
20. Southampton
Yeah, City and Arsenal again, Liverpool aren’t gonna be in it as much as it looks, and Spurs I’m feeling are gonna be in the top four by being the best of a wildly inconsistent bunch. Same goes for Villa finishing fifth and especially Chelsea in sixth. I don’t think Maresca is seeing out the season, and that’s why his side being that high doesn’t feel right, but I can’t see Man U or Newcastle getting up that high either, and same goes for West Ham and Palace despite my reckoning that they’ll both have optimistic seasons. As for the bottom, I’ll predict Everton’s relegation until it happens and I can certainly see Brighton struggling under new management (with 12th being optimistic) no matter how much I don’t want them to. Forest have streamlined but still have that see-what-sticks approach, and Southampton won’t have a bad season, but I can certainly see them getting overwhelmed at points.
I’ll stick with it, but I don’t think a best-ever score is in the offing — too tough to call — it’s had me.
My previous Premier League scores look like this, so I’ve got a best-ever score to beat from last time out:-
2018/19 — -56
2019/20 — -72
2020/21 — -56
2021/22 — -84
2022/23 — -90
2023/24 — -46
CHAMPIONSHIP
1. Burnley
2. Leeds United
3. Sheffield United
4. Middlesbrough
5. West Bromwich Albion
6. Luton Town
7. Coventry City
8. Bristol City
9. Watford
10. Sheffield Wednesday
11. Sunderland
12. Blackburn Rovers
13. Norwich City
14. Stoke City
15. Swansea City
16. Millwall
17. Hull City
18. Cardiff City
19. Preston North End
20. QPR
21. Oxford City
22. Derby County
23. Plymouth Argyle
24. Portsmouth
Luton’ll have to have a good ‘un to get into the play-offs, but I don’t have ’em going up. Burnley look well-suited to Scotty P, in need of stern organisation post-relegation. Coventry will also do well to be as high as I’ve got ’em and I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone I’ve got 8th through 10th finishes above ’em instead. Down south, I reckon Hull are gonna have a mighty drop-off to go alongside Preston’s. QPR will be strong enough to survive if not thrive, and Oxford should have the guile and applicable experience necessary to outlast their other two promotion partners as well as a Plymouth side whose relegation will have little to do with Wayne Rooney and more to do with the quality of recruitment in on-pitch personnel.
Here’s what my previous scores look like, with another best-ever score to beat from last season:-
2019/20 — -140
2020/21 — -104
2021/22 — -138
2022/23 — -108
2023/24 — -76
LEAGUE ONE
1. Bolton Wanderers
2. Rotherham United
3. Huddersfield Town
4. Birmingham City
5. Stockport County
6. Barnsley
7. Wrexham
8. Lincoln City
9. Peterborough United
10. Bristol Rovers
11. Charlton Athletic
12. Wigan Athletic
13. Mansfield Town
14. Burton Albion
15. Reading
16. Stevenage
17. Blackpool
18. Exeter City
19. Northampton Town
20. Wycombe Wanderers
21. Leyton Orient
22. Shrewsbury Town
23. Crawley Town
24. Cambridge United
A lot about this doesn’t seem right to me. It seems harsh on teams like Exeter, Northampton, and Wycombe to be so low down, but the fact is, this league ain’t big enough for twenty-four teams (even though that’s how it seems to be most of the time). I may not be a fan of Leyton Orient this season, but do I really think they’ll go down? Maybe not, but I do think they’re the 21st best team in League One this season. As for the teams at the top, BOLTON WILL FINALLY DO IT. I can’t stop predicting it until they do. Rotherham’ll get straight back up under Evans’ supergroup, and missing out on the top six by not so much will be Wrexham, Lincoln, and a depleted but rebuilding Posh. Bristol Rovers will have a season to be proud of, I reckon, and Mansfield will blend seamlessly in to the third tier landscape.
Here are the scores from previous years:-
2019/20 — -86
2020/21 — -106
2021/22 — -142
2022/23 — -104
2023/24 — -102
LEAGUE TWO
1. MK Dons
2. Doncaster Rovers
3. Gillingham
4. Bradford City
5. Port Vale
6. Wimbledon
7. Barrow
8. Tranmere Rovers
9. Notts County
10. Crewe Alexandra
11. Carlisle United
12. Walsall
13. Chesterfield
14. Colchester United
15. Harrogate Town
16. Cheltenham Town
17. Salford City
18. Fleetwood Town
19. Swindon Town
20. Newport County
21. Bromley
22. Morecambe
23. Accrington Stanley
24. Grimsby Town
I do not think Barrow will make the play-offs. If Wild couldn’t do it, I certainly don’t think Clemence can. But I also don’t think Tranmere, Notts County, or Crewe will. League Two always seems to be the duck’s arse of the divisions when it comes to chasing the top seven, so I wouldn’t be surprised if someone unexpected does sneak in at the death, but there’s a gulf for me this season between my top six and the mid-table bunch.
Never been in double digits for this league, here’s proof:-
2019/20 — -152
2020/21 — -117
2021/22 — -142
2022/23 — -158
2023/24 — -122
NATIONAL LEAGUE
1. Barnet
2. Oldham Athletic
3. Southend United
4. Sutton United
5. Forest Green Rovers
6. Solihull Moors
7. Gateshead
8. Rochdale
9. Dagenham & Redbridge
10. AFC Fylde
11. Halifax Town
12. Hartlepool United
13. Altrincham
14. Maidenhead United
15. Aldershot Town
16. Eastleigh
17. York City
18. Wealdstone
19. Braintree Town
20. Yeovil Town
21. Woking
22. Tamworth
23. Ebbsfleet United
24. Boston United
Clearly not thinking much of the newly promoted sides, with Boston and Tamworth going straight back down (no matter how much I want them both to defy the odds) and the Yeovil/Braintree combo surviving just barely. I was gonna have Oldham go up automatically as well but I just reckon Barnet’ll finally have the will and the power to get it over the line (wouldn’t be surprised if Oldham snatch it though). Southend and Gateshead will have the desire to bounce back from all they’ve been through to (hopefully) qualify once more, and the relegated duo of Forest Green and Sutton will recover from sluggish starts to become forces in the play-offs, shrugging off the likes of depleted sides such as Aldershot and Altrincham. Fylde should be the surprise package this season, never really threatening but certainly playing spoiler on more than a solitary occasion.
Gots to get back from a worst ever score last season:-
Keep it streets ahead,
C.L.R.
