West Ham 7/1 to win title on Championship return next season
Published:West Ham are 7/1 to make an immediate return to the Premier League by winning the Championship next season.
Promotion by any means necessary will be the least expected by many West Ham fans and they would gladly take a repeat of the 2004/05 season where they returned to the Premier League via the play-offs.
West Ham’s odds are 7/4 to be promoted next season by either winning the Championship, finishing second or winning the play-offs, but whoever replaces Avram Grant faces a tricky task to accomplish this feat.
Only once in their history have West Ham achieved promotion in the season straight after being relegated and this was not when they last faced the drop in 2003.
On this occasion, the Hammers may have had to sell their best players, but with decent money made through the sales of Jermain Defoe, Trevor Sinclair, Frederic Kanoute, Glen Johnson and Joe Cole, they were in a decent position to rebuild a squad fit for the Championship.
But there will be no such luxuries this time around, as the club will begin with a smaller squad and hardly have any money with which to improve it.
A hatful of players including Matthew Upson, Danny Gabbidon and Kieron Dyer are all out of contract and are expected to leave, while there are a shortage of players that can be sold for big amounts.
Scott Parker is easily their biggest commodity and West Ham will hope that can get around £8m for the Premier League player of the season, while Rob Green, Carlton Cole, Mark Noble and Thomas Hitzlesperger may fetch approximately £3m each.
Therefore, a lot of pressure will be on the young players in the squad to step up to the plate, which is liable to be led by the likes of Jack Collison, Freddie Sears, James Tomkins and Zavon Hines, assuming he is offered a new deal.
A £30 stake on West Ham winning the Championship next season would return £210. New customers can sign up here for a free £30 bet.
