Stoke, Swansea and West Brom: How Are The Relegated Sides Doing?

Stoke City, Swansea City and West Bromwich Albion have made different starts to life in the Championship, following their relegation from the Premier League last season. All three have new full-time managers, with Darren Moore being in temporary charge at the end of last season but being appointed full-time in the summer. So how are they getting on?

STOKE CITY

Last season's PL final position: 19th

Championship position (at time of writing): 20th (out of 24)

Stoke appointed then-Derby boss Gary Rowett as their new manager following Paul Lambert's departure after their relegation, and it seemed initially like a good move that could ensure a swift Premier League return, because Rowett undoubtedly is one of the best English managers around at the moment. Or is he? In his two full seasons at Derby he steered them to the play-offs for the majority of the season, before their annual collapse around Easter, when they then finish just outside the top 6 spots. I still think, though, that he will get Stoke going and whether this season or the next, they will be back in the Premier League at some point. However, it is a tricky one, because they should be doing so much better than they are with the squad they have, but at the same time they have a new manager and, like with any team, it does take time and a number of games for the manager to get the team playing how he wants them to play. Patience is required when there is a managerial switch. Patience is what, unfortunately, managers don't get on the whole in the Championship, because of the desire of club boards to get into the Premier League.

The problem that Stoke have, and for me the main reason why they are struggling a little at the moment, is that they don't have too many players in their squad with Championship experience. They have a Premier League squad that is trying to get results in the Championship. Why is that a problem, I hear some people ask? Shouldn't they then be able to hammer every single team and win the Championship at a canter? Well, the answer to that is no, not necessarily. Just like promoted teams needing to add Premier League experience when they enter the top flight, relegated teams need to add Championship experience to their squad, often to replace the big players that have joined other Premier League clubs and who will be a miss for the team. Complacency is also a big problem for relegated teams when they play in the second division. The players sometimes (not always) think that they are too good for the Championship, in that they feel they should be winning every game easily. The beauty of the Championship, though, is that anyone can beat anyone on their day. It doesn't matter who it is you are playing - Manchester City or Mansfield Town - you have to be switched on and concentrating 100%. Otherwise you get a situation that Stoke find themselves in at the moment, where the players get complacent and then lose games or don't play well in the league games, because they expect the games to be easy.

Some of their results so far this season highlight this issue, with them not managing to win until their victory over Hull, their fifth game of the season. That has been their only win thus far, and they have lost three of their opening six games. Things will turn around for them, because they are too good not to be, but they need to turn it around quickly or they risk going the same way as Sunderland did last season.

SWANSEA CITY

Last season's PL final position: 18th

Championship position (at time of writing): 6th (out of 24)

Swansea have been almost the opposite of Stoke in their approach to this Championship season. They brought in a new, untested manager in Graham Potter, who last season was in charge of Swedish side Ostersunds, who reached the Europa League knockout stages despite being a minnow in the Swedish league (Ostersunds reaching the Europa League knockouts is akin to Leicester winning the Premier League in terms of a big storyline when it happens). Potter has been smart with his summer acquisitions, bringing in Championship players to help a squad that last season lacked any kind of punch to it. Oli McBurnie, who has been on the Swansea books for a few seasons but has been loaned out a lot, most recently to Barnsley last season where he thrived, has been made the new first-choice striker. And why not? He is a home-grown talent who made a huge impression with the Tykes despite their relegation to League One last campaign, and Potter giving him the no.9 shirt for this season was a smart move of trust in his quality. Behind him, he has signed Joel Asoro from Sunderland, Bersant Celina from Manchester City (on loan at Ipswich Town last season), and Barrie McKay, who was at Nottingham Forest last campaign. All three had relatively good seasons, and gained Championship experience which they have now brought to Swansea. The Swans have also kept a lot of the players from their last campaign, such as Mike van der Hoorn, Martin Olsson and others, so the continuity is also there. Stoke also kept players, but their signings weren't as astute as Swansea's have been, as previously shown. Swansea have also re-integrated their pacy Ecuador winger Jefferson Montero following last season when he was out of favour and then loaned out, which was a strange move I thought, and this season he is showing them what they missed last year.

Their results have been very impressive, with 3 wins, 2 draws and just 1 loss from their opening 6 games, meaning that they currently occupy a play-off place - a very solid place to be at this stage of the season. They managed to open with a win away at Sheffield United, which anyone who watched the Championship last season will tell you is a very hard place to go because the Blades are a really tough team to beat. Preston at home followed, another tough game, but Swansea gained a clean sheet. Their only loss was against Bristol City at the Liberty, which is OK because they are a potential play-off contender as well. But overall, it is almost as if Graham Potter has gone in there, begun the whole thing from scratch, and freed them from any previous restraints they had, and it has worked a treat and their football is now both attractive and effective.

WEST BROMWICH ALBION

Last season's PL final position: 20th

Championship position (at time of writing): 8th (out of 24)

West Brom have made a positive start to life in the Championship, and have the results and current placing to show for it. They are another team that bought well, bringing in two goalkeepers with Championship experience (Sam Johnstone and Jonathan Bond), a defender who was a previous Championship captain (Kyle Bartley), an attacking midfielder who played on loan in the Championship last season and impressed (Harvey Barnes), and a striker who has proven time and again that he is a Championship goal machine (Dwight Gayle), amongst other acquisitions. Do you see the common theme here? Like Swansea, they brought in Championship experience to help turn the club around and aim for an immediate return to the Premier League, and like both Swansea and Stoke, they retained the majority of the squad from last season. They also appointed Darren Moore as their full-time manager, and brought in Graeme Jones as assistant - a coach who was Roberto Martinez' assistant at Swansea, Wigan, Everton and the Belgium national team, helping them to a third-placed finish at the tournament in Russia. All of these meant that they have a very good chance of returning to the Premier League next season. They have strength in depth, leadership, experience, a good attitude, and goals in their squad, which are all the ingredients to Championship success.

They have begun this season with 3 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, a mixed start but one that shows promise as we are still very early in a long campaign. A couple of results stand out as showing the qualities teams require to get out of this league at the right end. Their first win of the season, a 4-3 victory over Norwich City at Carrow Road, and a home win over QPR which finished 7-1 in their favour. Why have you picked these two games, I hear some ask? Well, two very simple reasons. The Norwich result showed the guts needed to get results even when it looks like you can't get away from your opponents in the match scoreline, but the fact that they did it and got the win showed that their squad has instilled in them a never-say-die attitude, which is one of the things I mentioned earlier as being essential to a successful Championship campaign. The QPR result displayed the destructive qualities needed to show your full threat to other teams, and QPR at that stage provided the perfect opponents to do that because they were in a rut themselves at that point. To score 7 in a Championship league game is so rare that it's spectacular when a team has the quality to score that many. West Brom have that quality and for that reason, they will have a good season, and should be a contender for an immediate return to the Premier League.