There is just one coveted place in next season's Premier League up for grabs and four teams are preparing to try and claim it in the upcoming Championship playoffs. Adrian Kajumba takes a look at the sides hoping to reach the Wembley final on Sunday 26 May and seal a return to the Premier League.
Championship playoff semi-finals
Sunday 12 May
12:00 BST Norwich v Leeds
14:15 BST West Brom v Southampton
Thursday 16 May
20:00 BST Leeds v Norwich
Friday 17 May
20:00 BST Southampton v West Brom
Leeds United
Leeds hoped that, like Championship title winners Leicester City, relegation from the Premier League in 2023 would be followed by automatic promotion from the second tier a year later.
But a run of only two wins in their final eight matches saw Leeds fall from top spot in mid-March to a third-place finish.
Leeds were a Premier League club for each of the competition's first 12 seasons, securing seven top-five finishes along the way.
Following relegation in 2003/04, Leeds spent 16 years away, including a spell in League One, before finding their way back to the top division in 2020, where they remained for three more seasons.
Now, Leeds have to quickly rediscover their form to secure a Premier League return via the playoffs.
They might consider themselves unfortunate not to have already sealed promotion after becoming the first side since Sunderland in 1998 to win 90+ points and not go up automatically.
Can Leeds end playoff curse?
Leeds may also not exactly be thrilled their fate will be decided in the playoffs, having failed to win any of their five previous attempts.
A more encouraging statistic is that on nine occasions out of 19 - almost 50 per cent - since the Championship’s 2004 rebrand, the team finishing third have ended up winning promotion via the playoffs.
For Leeds manager Daniel Farke, their semi-final against Norwich City will be of personal significance - he managed the Canaries for over four years, twice leading them to the Championship title.
Ones to watch
Winger Crysencio Summerville, the division’s 19-goal third-top scorer, former Chelsea defender Ethan Amapdu, who has started every Championship match, and exciting young midfielder Archie Gray will be key to Farke’s hopes of a third promotion.
So too will influential striker Patrick Bamford if he recovers from a knee injury.
Norwich City
There is no disappointment about what might have been during the regular season at Norwich, only an excitement at the opportunity ahead after reaching the playoffs.
A top-six finish was their pre-season target, but back in November it looked like being well beyond them when four straight defeats saw the Canaries slip to 17th place, their lowest position of the season.
A much-improved second half of the campaign led to a steady climb into the playoff picture, but their final day loss at Birmingham City resulted in Norwich dropping a place to finish the 2023/24 season in sixth spot.
Manager David Wagner has described securing a playoff spot as “an absolutely unbelievable achievement,” and while he believes Norwich will be underdogs against Leeds, he has experience to draw on.
Wagner's playoff experience key?
In 2017, Wagner led Huddersfield Town into the Premier League for the first time in the club's history via the playoffs with a penalty shootout win against Reading.
Norwich have previous success they can lean on too, having won the 2015 final against Middlesbrough.
Their first attempt, though, ended in a 2002 penalty shootout defeat against Birmingham.
Norwich have now been out of the Premier League for two seasons and a return would give them the chance to break an unwanted sequence - their three most recent stays have all lasted just one season.
Once upon a time, though, they were title challengers, finishing third in the Premier League's inaugural 1992/93 season.
In total Norwich have spent 10 season in the Premier League spread over six separate spells.
Ones to watch
They will continue to look to midfielder and player of the season Kenny McLean, while 16-goal striker Josh Sargent and midfielder Gabriel Sara (13 goals and 12 assists) will be their main attacking threats against Leeds.
Championship 2023/24 meetings
21 Oct: Norwich 2-3 Leeds
24 Jan: Leeds 1-0 Norwich
Southampton
A top-two finish was Southampton’s aim having only dropped out of the Premier League a year ago.
But a playoff spot will not have come as the biggest surprise given how their season unfolded.
Southampton spent most of the 2023/24 campaign on the outside looking in at the automatic places and ultimately finished fourth.
Saints had a promising start before suffering four straight defeats in September and teething problems with new manager Russell Martin's possession-based, passing philosophy.
However this proved a minor hiccup and they then embarked on a club-record 25-match unbeaten run, including 22 league matches, to cement their position in the promotion mix.
Three defeats in one April week - including a 5-0 thrashing at Leicester City in the second of those matches - all but ended their automatic hopes.
Realistically, though, Martin and his players had been mentally preparing for the playoffs before the Leicester defeat.
This will be Southampton’s second playoff campaign after a 2007 semi-final defeat to Derby County - and Martin’s first as a manager.
Ones to watch
Southampton certainly possess the firepower to trouble any of their playoff opponents, with 21-goal Adam Armstrong supported by Che Adams, who has netted 16 times.
In a strong squad, midfielder Flynn Downes plus defenders Kyle Walker-Peters and Manchester City loanee Taylor Harwood-Bellis have also stood out this season.
Winning the playoffs would secure a third Premier League spell for Southampton.
Their previous 13 and 11-season stays came either side of a seven year drop into the Football League, which included two years in League One.
One potentially positive omen for them is that the three sides to previously beat West Brom in the second tier playoffs (Bolton in 2001, Aston Villa in 2019 and Derby in 2007) have gone on to win promotion.
West Bromwich Albion
Since October, West Brom largely occupied fifth spot, so it was fitting that the Baggies eventually finished the season there.
A late wobble of one win in seven matches made it a nervy finish to the campaign for Carlos Corberan’s side during which their playoff place, which had looked certain for so long, was at risk.
But their final day win over Preston, coupled with Norwich’s loss at Birmingham, enabled West Brom to overtake the Canaries and jump up a place from sixth.
That made it first mission achieved for Corberan - and for West Brom - as the head coach transformed their fortunes, steering them from second-bottom to the playoffs after taking charge last October.
Both Corberan and the Baggies, who are aiming to end a three-year absence from the Premier League, will be hoping for better after previous playoff disappointments.
In 2022, the Spaniard - who had also previously been a member of Marcelo Bielsa's backroom team at Leeds - led Huddersfield to the playoff final before they were beaten 1-0 by Nottingham Forest.
Fourth time lucky?
West Brom, meanwhile, are hoping to make it fourth time lucky after two semi-final defeats and one in the 2007 final against Derby.
They will always have a place in Premier League folklore after becoming the first side to stay up having been bottom at Christmas in 2005.
Their best-ever finish of eighth in 2013 under Steve Clarke was another highlight from their 13 Premier League seasons, spread across five spells.
West Brom's latest attempt to return to the top division will rely heavily on Corberan’s tactical nous and flexibility.
Ones to watch
Wingers Grady Diangana and Mikey Johnston, on loan from Celtic, will be West Brom's most likely providers of attacking inspiration on the pitch.
Diangana's 15 goal contributions (seven goals, eight assists) is a West Brom high.
Meanwhile, Johnston's seven strikes in 2024 make him West Brom's top scorer since his arrival from Scotland in the January transfer window.
Championship 2023/24 meetings
11 Nov: Southampton 2-1 West Brom
16 Feb: West Brom 0-2 Southampton
