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2nd Aug 2019 | Championship

Championship Relegation Tip: Stoke City

Plenty of big sides have dropped down a couple of divisions over just a few years. Stoke City are a big price to follow suit but they hardly won a game in the second half of last season and their captain has just broken his leg.

Teams who are recently associated with the Premier League get overvalued in the Championship, and rarely has that been more clearly illustrated than in the case of Stoke City.

The Potters crashed out of the top flight in May 2018 but rock bottom was some way off, and they may not be there yet. Certainly best odds of 25/1 on relegation with Bet365 look out of kilter with results on the pitch.


After Gary Rowett was sacked in January, new boss Nathan Jones managed a woeful 14% win record for the remainder of the campaign (W3 D11 L7). He’s lucky to still be there and a bad start could set the tone for further struggles.

Seven new signings sounds busy until you consider that 5 of them arrived for free, and that the same number departed, including former Premier League stalwarts like Darren Fletcher and Charlie Adam.

A pre-season broken leg for captain Ryan Shawcross also looks like a serious blow to morale at the heart of defence. Down the other end, Stoke scored just 17 goals in their final 23 outings of 2018-19 so the odds are all wrong here with a mere 4 sides less fancied for the drop out of 24.

Odds correct at time of publishing: 15:06 2nd Aug, 2019 but subject to change