Cardiff won’t be top promoted team in Premier League
Published:Given that Cardiff led the Championship for the whole of the second half of last season and ended up topping the standings by eight points, punters could be forgiven for thinking that the Welsh club are good value at 10/11 to finish the upcoming Premier League campaign as the top promoted club.
The fact that £7.5m has been spent in the close season bolstering their striking options with Andreas Cornelius shows the club have serious aspirations of survival and even bigger names have been linked, namely Toulouse midfielder Etienne Capoue.
However, spending big and being crowned champions of the second tier does not guarantee a top promoted club tag.
Wolves spent £6.5m on Kevin Doyle in 2009/10, Hatem Ben Arfa and Cheick Tiote were among the new signings at Newcastle in the following season and in 2011/12 QPR were busy recruiting the likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joey Barton.
Yet none of these teams earned the tag of top promoted club and in fact, the last five Championship table-toppers have failed in this particular bid.
Therefore, there is enough of a reason to oppose Cardiff.
Somewhat surprisingly, it has been the Championship play-off winners that have been the top promoted club in each of the last two campaigns, with Swansea finishing 11th and then West Ham one position better.
This is good news for Crystal Palace, even if their price of 8/15 to be relegated suggests that they will make an immediate return to the Championship, making them the first team to drop out of the Premier League on five occasions in the process.
Hull have been quietly going about their business thus far, with Allan McGregor a smart acquisition in goal, while Maynor Figueroa brings top-flight experience in defence and George Boyd some added midfield creativity.
It is 15/8 that Hull end the Premier League season as the top promoted club.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
