Birmingham City is proving us all wrong - and that's including me! The Wharton brothers are making waves at Blackburn. And the Golden Boot race is wide open. All this and more from the latest round of the Championship...
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Covering football comes with its pros and cons and chief of those problematic tasks are predictions, the ultimate 'no win situation' game that always ends the same. Firstly, however positive, no prediction is seemingly ever good enough for a fan of the team in question. Secondly, predictions that come true will rarely be mentioned after the fact. Thirdly, any prediction that turns out to be in any way false will be ferociously and unsympathetically criticised by those with the luxury of hindsight.
In dealing with the criticism I've tried to adopt the scientific approach that we sometimes learn far more when our hypothesis is denied than when it's affirmed. For example last season I predicted Huddersfield would finish 23rd, they ultimately finished 3rd and reached the play-off final. I could have been this far out because I'm an idiot, or God forbid the team's brilliant performance was actually somewhat of a surprising but outstanding operational triumph from the club. I say this as this season I had Birmingham City in a similar spot and they've been nowhere near as bad as I thought. Off-pitch chaos has been kept to a minimum, recruitment has been really nicely done and the untried manager has performed very well.
Blues' weekend win at home to QPR moved them up into the top half and felt like a bit of a statement victory against a team functioning right at the top of the table. I'm not for one minute suggesting that Birmingham will follow Huddersfield all the way to the play-off final, but by making them my team of the week I am very happy to acknowledge they're looking far more viable than their pre-season disposition might've suggested.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Adam Wharton (Blackburn Rovers)
There are lots of footballing brother stories I could reference here, whether it's the Neville's, the Toure's, the Ayew's, the De Boer's, it's probably more common than we imagine for a club to take two players from the same family. It could be a genetics argument, helping integrate one or both players, or just sheer hedging of bets, clubs seem very happy to sign up siblings. Over at Blackburn the Wharton brothers are proving to be the latest pair to be making waves, with younger brother Adam particularly on the lips of Championship observers.
I wrote about older brother and centre half Scott in this column last season after he went on one of those strange 'when Ian Rush scores for Liverpool' type streaks. Following his return from nearly a year on the sidelines, Wharton's next thirteen appearances in a Rovers shirt saw ten wins, three draws and anyone with a superstitious bone in their body designated him Blackburn's lucky charm. At 25, Scott Wharton has taken a long journey to first team Championship football following stints on loan at Cambridge, Lincoln, Bury and Northampton.
The same cannot be said of younger brother Adam, who at just 18 is already rocking and rolling in the Championship. Last week Wharton scored Blackburn's second against Birmingham with a lovely sidestep and left footed finish. This week he picked a hole in the Hull defence with the outside of his left foot to assist Sammie Szmodics. I'm sure older brother Scott will be only too happy to admit that what young Adam has already shown in his box of tricks could be extremely valuable to Blackburn going forward!
TALKING POINT
Golden Boot Update
After a couple of record breaking performances, the Championship 'Golden Boot' race looks a little more of an even playing field this season. Just two seasons ago Ivan Toney's 31 goal haul for Brentford was rightly lauded as a fantastic achievement, the first player to reach 30 since Glenn Murray back in 2013. To Toney's 31, Aleksandar Mitrovic said 'hold my beer' and embarked on a season for the ages last time out. Mitro smashed in a staggering 43 goals in 44 starts in the most dominant second tier season in decades.
This season the current top ten are separated by just a couple of goals, with no rampaging Toney or Mitrovic figure threatening to obliterate the competition. On seven goals, Scott Hogan of Birmingham and Nahki Wells of Bristol City would probably fall into the 'been around the block' Championship campaigners. They're tied up on seven with the Sheffield United pair of McBurnie and Ndiaye, who I'm sure Blades fans would be happy to see both pushing above 15 for the season.
On eight goals Hull's Estupinan got nearly all his goals during a two week August purple patch, in contrast Jay Rodriguez has scored in seven different games during Burnley's climb. Carlton Morris of Luton and Josh Sargent of Norwich both have eight and look like viable challengers for the crown, as does Blackburn's Ben Brereton-Diaz who's 22 goals last year means he's the only name in the current top ten as well as last season's list.
Out in front on his own at the moment is Blackpool striker Jerry Yates. He's had his own recent purple patch with three doubles in the span of four games, to land on nine for the season in seventeen starts. It looks like a fairly close run thing and as with a lot of our Championship analysis this season, it looks like whoever sets the pace after the World Cup break will take the prize.
LOANEE OF THE WEEK
Aaron Ramsey (Norwich City on loan at Aston Villa)
It feels like this column has come completely full circle for our loanee of the week. We've already done a football brothers story with the Whartons but Aston Villa's Ramseys are currently apart thanks to the loan system. Jacob Ramsey is fairly well entrenched in the first team picture at Villa Park after being brought through by current Norwich manager Dean Smith. I'm sure Smith would've loved the loan of Jacob Ramsey but he's surely happy enough with being able to bring in younger brother Aaron to Carrow Road.
I got the feeling from the temperature of Norwich fans that Saturday was an important day for Dean Smith. Perhaps if they'd gone behind the natives could've turned but Aaron Ramsey made sure that wasn't the case. Ramsey was in the ten role behind Teemu Pukki and the Finn's lightning quick feet in the box gave him a juicy rebound to fire home for the opener. The second was more started and finished by Ramsey but still owed much to a lovely touch by Pukki in a devastating one two by the pair.
Norwich feel like a club in need of a bit of a new direction. Yes Pukki is still there, but Daniel Farke and Emi Buendia are not, ironically it was Smith's Aston Villa who took the Argentinian who proved such an irresistible force in their last two Championship promotions. Ramsey will do well to get close to Buendia's levels of output but certainly looks the part in terms of guiding former Villa boss Smith in the right direction.
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