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Words: Oliver Harsley (@OllieHarsley)

As a supporter of a Championship club, I like to keep myself informed about everything happening within the EFL as a whole. It’s mainly just in case players are signed from Leagues One and Two or a manager is plucked from those divisions.

I’m certainly not an expert or possess absolute knowledge of the EFL, but it’s great to know the basic stats of which players have scored the most goals or contributed the biggest tally of assists. It’s not pundit level expertise that I offer when I engage in conversation about these topics.

It all comes from the passion I have for watching football and forming my opinions based off what I’ve seen for myself.

When I was younger, I used to dream of doing Jeff Stelling’s job on Soccer Saturday.

It was such a source of fascination for myself which was coupled with playing old Championship Manager games. This combination of things helped spark my real interest in how the other EFL leagues progressed over the course of each season. Even when my club wasn’t in the EFL, I still had a keen eye on what occurred in the three divisions.

The main reason of my admiration for the EFL is the sheer unpredictability of things. This is exemplified through the club I support in Hull City. They finished seventh in the 2023/24 season and were right in the Play-Off mix up to the final game of the season. In the following campaign, they were embroiled in a relegation scrap and stayed up on goal difference on the final day.

I’d rather have a more boring season next time round, but it’s pretty much guaranteed that it won’t turn out like that. 

As a neutral, I look forward to seeing how Leagues One and Two unfold over the course of the 2025/26 season. It’s different to the Championship of course because my club are part of that division. I obviously have my allegiance to the Tigers, but I can still watch other games from the division as a bit of a neutral though.

I’d personally prefer my club to remain in the EFL for the foreseeable future instead of getting promoted into the Premier League.

Some may find that to be a rather odd or crazy statement, but I’m rather serious about it. It’s because of how difficult it is for newly promoted teams to stay in the top tier longer than one season and the dreaded VAR that seems to suck all the enjoyment out of everyone involved.