All 24 EFL Championship club's final position in the 2025/26 table predicted by AI | OneFootball

Who is going to get promoted and relegated from the Championship this season? AI takes its best shot at a prediction...

The 2025-26 Championship season is fast approaching, and it promises to be as exciting and chaotic as the second tier of English football always is.

All three clubs who were promoted in 2024 may have returned to the Championship at the first time of asking, but with a newly-minted Birmingham City, Charlton Athletic and Wrexham all coming up from League One, there's certainly an interesting feel to the upcoming campaign.

Transfer business is by no means done yet with plenty of time still to go in the summer window, but FLW asked AI to predict where every single Championship club will finish from top to bottom in the table for the upcoming season - let's take a look.

A big call straight off the bat from AI, as they believe the 25/26 Championship title winners will be Leicester City.

The Foxes have just installed ex-QPR boss Marti Cifuentes as their new manager, but the club are still licking their wounds after suffering Premier League relegation last season.

With a potential points deduction still looming large, winning the league could be a very tough task for the club to accomplish.

However, they're no strangers to doing so, having been crowned champions in their last two seasons at this level, most recently in 2023/24, and back in 2013/14.

2 Southampton

Taking the second and final automatic promotion spot next season, according to AI, is Southampton.

Like Leicester, they've also got a new man at the helm in the form of highly-rated young coach Will Still, and the 32-year-old inherits a very talented crop of players at St. Mary's.

With proven Championship performers throughout the squad, the Saints look sure to be one of the best sides in the division next term.

3 Ipswich Town

AI evidently feel strongly that the newly relegated top flight sides are going to be no match for the rest of the Championship next season, as Ipswich Town are their third-placed team.

However, unlike Cifuentes and Still, Kieran McKenna knows exactly how to win promotion from the Championship, having masterminded the Tractor Boys' remarkable automatic promotion-winning campaign in 23/24.

But, if he's going to put a second Championship promotion on his CV next year, then AI believes he and his Ipswich side are going to have to do it via the play-offs.

4 Blackburn Rovers

Perhaps the first big shock in this list, AI believes Blackburn Rovers will be the best of the non-relegated Premier League sides next season, and will finish in fourth.

Valerien Ismael didn't get off to a great start at Ewood Park last season, after arriving in February to replace John Eustace, but an end-of-season resurgence saw his side go unbeaten in the final six games.

Rovers have yet to record a top-six finish since their promotion to the Championship in 2018, despite going close multiple times, but AI believes that next season will finally be the year they buck that trend.

West Brom have bounced in and out of the play-off places over the last couple of years, but AI thinks that the Baggies will return to the top-six in 25/26 with a fifth-placed finish.

That would surely be seen as a very strong debut season at the helm for Ryan Mason, after Albion could only muster a ninth-placed finish last term.

It's a new era at The Hawthorns, and AI feels that it will be marked with the club fighting in the four-team tournament for a place in the Premier League come May.

6 Wrexham

The Hollywood story of Wrexham AFC looks set to write its next blockbuster chapter in 25/26, as AI believes the Red Dragons will announce themselves in the Championship with a bang, and claim the final play-off place in sixth.

Going for a remarkable fourth-straight promotion in the second tier next term, Wrexham are sure to be one of the most fascinating clubs to watch next year.

It may well prove to be their toughest challenge yet in the Reynolds-McElhenney era, but it would take a brave soul to bet against them accomplishing another promotion next season.

7 Coventry City

It may well take some time for Coventry City to get over that heartbreaking night at the Stadium of Light in the play-off semi-final last season, and AI believes the Sky Blues won't be able to do so next season, with a seventh-placed finish predicted.

Having finished fifth, ninth and fifth again in the Championship over the last three seasons, the club have firmly cemented themselves as perennial play-off contenders.

However, Frank Lampard's side are backed to fall just short of achieving another top-six finish next year, as the club's agonising wait for a return to Premier League football is backed to go on.

A new head coach in charge in Rob Edwards for Middlesbrough next season, but the same play-off agony is predicted for them by AI, with Boro backed to finish eighth.

Transitional seasons are always incredibly tough to predict, and the Teessiders are going to be in one in 25/26.

After suffering two years of back-to-back play-off misses, the Edwards era at the Riverside Stadium is predicted to start by following suit.

9 Bristol City

It's not going to be easy for Bristol City to dust themselves down from their 6-0 humiliation across two legs to Sheffield United in last season's play-off semi-finals, and perhaps, another transitional campaign awaits here as Gerhard Struber has been brought in to replace Liam Manning following his move to Norwich City.

The Robins' fortunes next time out are not all that simple to predict, then. AI, however, has backed Struber's new side to finish in ninth, which would not represent the worst campaign imaginable if they can manage to still keep within touching distance of the top-six.

10 Hull City

One of the most surprising predictions from AI has Hull City securing a 10th-placed finish at the end of next season.

The Tigers only managed to stay in the Championship on the final day last season under Ruben Selles, who was contentiously dismissed by controversial chairman Acun Ilicali and has since been replaced with the appointment of Sergej Jakirovic.

That already had alarm bells ringing, but the subsequent three-window transfer embargo imposed by the EFL has spelled major concern about how Hull could fare next time out.