The dust has barely settled on an intriguing season yet bookmakers are already quoting odds for the next campaign and are forecasting differing fortunes for the local Championship clubs.
Sheffield United, under Kevin Blackwell, finished very strongly, almost doing enough to sneak a play-off place and this has caught the eye of Betfred, who have installed the Blades as 9/1 fourth favourites to top football's second tier.
The only teams given more of a chance are relegated pair Birmingham City and Reading, 6/1 (Betdaq) and 8/1 (Betdirect) respectively, and a QPR outfit (7/1, Sportingbet) expected to splash the cash this summer.
However, those fancying a flutter on United can obtain bigger odds, of 14/1, with bet365, who opt for the same three favourites but consider the battle behind them to be wide open.
Sheffield Wednesday didn't guarantee their safety until the last day of the season and so it's not too much of a surprise that they aren't considered to be in with a chance of troubling the upper echelons of the division.
Brian Laws' men are priced at 50/1 by VCBet to clinch top spot; the online firm clearly predicting another season of lower-half struggles for the Owls.
A thrilling run to the semi-final of the FA Cup was the bright spot in
Barnsley's campaign but the cup distraction made the Tykes league results suffer and they too were almost relegated.
A decent home record kept them up as no side accrued fewer away points but Simon Davey's men are rank outsiders at 100/1 (Partybets) ahead of the 2008/09 season; the bookies seemingly convinced that they won't avoid the drop this time around.
Encouragingly, newly-promoted
Doncaster Rovers are not one of three longest-priced teams with some firms, Canbet amongst them, anticipating a mid-table finish for Rovers and chalking odds of 33/1 against them landing the title.
Nevertheless, Coral and Blue Square's 50/1 would indicate that Sean O'Driscoll's men will end up towards the foot of the table even if they do manage to finish outside of the bottom three.
In League Two,
Chesterfield could be in the hunt for automatic promotion if the early odds are anything to go by.
The Spireites, who finished one place adrift of the play-offs, are available at as high as 14/1 with Betfred but in a tough-to-call division with up to eight teams given a chance of first place, most firms believe Lee Richardson's men are more of a threat than those odds imply.
Coral meanwhile, rate
Rotherham United at 18/1 and from this quote we can surmise that a play-off place is a realistic target for the Millers.
Odds supplied by
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The full article contains 528 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.
