The opening weekend of the Championship season will include a battle for Midlands supremacy as Stoke City and Coventry City clash at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Potters are looking to kick on following countless seasons of midtable mediocrity, whilst the Sky Blues are striving to reach the Premier League after false horizons in recent years.
ince suffering relegation to the Championship from the Premier League alongside Swansea City and West Bromwich Albion in 2018, Stoke City have endured six straight bottom-half finishes in the second tier, giving supporters at the bet365 Stadium little to get truly excited about.
Staring a relegation dogfight in the face at the beginning of last campaign under the leadership of Alex Neil, the Potters made a managerial change in December and appointed Steven Schumacher, with the former Plymouth Argyle boss guiding the Staffordshire-based club to safety, finishing six points ahead of 21st-placed Birmingham City.
Stoke struggled to pose a consistent attacking threat to their opponents last season, as highlighted by Portuguese winger Andre Vidigal winning his side’s Golden Boot race with just six Championship strikes, with Schumacher’s troops requiring serious improvements in order to challenge at the top of the division this time around.
The Potters have started to address that goalscoring issue during the first part of the summer transfer window, with second-tier stalwart Sam Gallagher joining from Blackburn Rovers, who are expecting a season of considerable struggle as their unfavourable ownership situation rumbles on.
After pitting their wits against EFL counterparts Crewe Alexandra, Bolton Wanderers and Stockport County earlier in pre-season, Stoke rounded off their packed summer schedule by facing Dutch powerhouses AZ Alkmaar on August 3, when a strike from Troy Parrott sealed a narrow success for the Eredivisie visitors.
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Missing out on a long-awaited return to the Premier League after a penalty-shootout loss to Luton Town during the playoff final in 2023, Coventry City were unable to reach the same heights during the 2023-24 term, finishing three places and nine points behind Norwich City in sixth.
A midtable finish did not mean a quiet campaign for the Sky Blues, who enjoyed a marvellous run in the FA Cup to reach the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium, where the Midlands outfit were denied a historic victory over Erik ten Hag‘s Manchester United by a highly-controversial VAR decision.
Disregarding the glamour aspect of a fairytale run in the competition, the FA Cup run impacted the ability of Coventry’s small cohort of players to also compete for a top-six finish, with the majority of this summer’s transfer business aimed at improving the Sky Blues’ squad depth.
That strategy can be seen in Coventry’s most recent acquisition, with striker Brandon Thomas-Asante joining from Championship rivals West Bromwich Albion, despite Haji Wright and Ellis Simms already being within the attacking ranks at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Into his eighth season as Sky Blues boss, Mark Robins is by a considerable distance the longest-serving manager in the second tier ahead of the start of the 2024-25 campaign, with the 54-year-old set to take charge of his 400th game at Coventry during the course of the term.
