Billy Sharp drops West Ham, Wolves and Burnley prediction | OneFootball

EFL legend Billy Sharp has weighed in on the promotion chances of West Ham, Wolves and Burnley ahead of the upcoming 2026/27 Championship campaign

EFL Championship legend Billy Sharp has offered an encouraging verdict on the promotion chances of West Ham, Wolves and Burnley ahead of the upcoming 2026/27 campaign, where all three sides will be bidding to bounce back to the Premier League at the very first time of asking after suffering relegation last season.

It's Wolves who will be commencing the new term at home to Blackburn Rovers, with the Old Gold having not featured in the second-tier since winning the league title in a memorable 2017/18 season under now-Hammers boss Nuno Espirito Santo.

West Ham and Burnley will then kick off their respective campaigns against each other at Turf Moor on Sunday afternoon in an eye-catching curtain-raiser showdown between two sides who both dropped out of the top-flight and will fancy their chances of making an instant return in 2027.

An enthralling season of second-tier football awaits once again and, as West Ham, Wolves and Burnley each bid to enjoy strong starts and complete remaining business in the dying embers of the ongoing summer transfer window, Sharp has weighed in on how he believes the trio will fare in the promotion race.

Billy Sharp drops West Ham, Wolves and Burnley promotion predictions

Sharp, who remains the all-time leading goalscorer in Championship history with 130 goals for six different clubs, has thrice achieved promotion to the Premier League at Southampton and boyhood club Sheffield United, and is therefore a strong source of authority in such discussions.

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Still a free agent following his exit from Doncaster Rovers earlier this summer, the 40-year-old striker has been undertaking punditry work on the side and took time to run the rule over West Ham, Wolves and Burnley in preparation for the new season.

Sharp believes that West Ham represent the strongest outfit of the trio, but maintains that all three sides can enjoy sustained success if they start encouragingly and part ways with a losing mentality from relegation campaigns at the highest level.

When asked to name the best-primed side to go straight back up to the Premier League of the relegated clubs, Sharp explained on CBS Sports Golazo: "I think West Ham,"

"Obviously they've already got a good squad, they've just added a few players as well. Burnley always seem to do well whenever they come down, but it's about the start.

"These three teams have been losing a lot of games, you have to try and change that momentum quickly because, if not, you can be sucked in. When you're winning it's hard to lose, and when you're losing it's hard to win.

"If those three teams get off to a good start then I'm sure they'll do well because they've all got good squads.

"Like I said, West Ham have added a few players in recent weeks so they should be very strong, and they've also kept Jarrod Bowen who has been a big part of that squad."

West Ham feel stronger than Wolves and Burnley right now

Sharp's sentiment is widely-held throughout the second-tier landscape as West Ham possess the strongest overall squad by some distance and were also much more competitive than Wolves and Burnley in the Premier League, taking it all the way to the final day before ultimately suffering relegation.

The other two sides were beleaguered all season long and their fates were sealed with plenty of time to spare, but West Ham hung in there - even if their efforts did not come to fruition in the end.

West Ham are the only relegated side led by a manager with tangible experience in English football in the form of Nuno, who, as aforementioned, just happens to have one of the most memorable second-tier promotions on his CV for good measure.

The Portuguese boss is in charge of a star-studded squad by Championship standards, and while it would be no surprise to see the likes of Taty Castellanos, El-Hadji Malick Diouf and Aaron Wan-Bissaka leave East London before the window is up, they've got real quality in every area of the pitch and retaining talismanic winger Jarrod Bowen remains a huge statement of intent - and huge funds have been raised by selling both Mateus Fernandes and Crysencio Summerville.

West Ham have been getting busy in recent times by bringing both Manor Solomon and Joel Veltman to the London Stadium, where the mood among supporters is much more hopeful compared to at Wolves and Burnley.

You do get the impression that both sides - perhaps the Clarets in particular - will need to work some magic in the final weeks of the window if they are to keep up with the strongly-backed Hammers this year.

West Ham, Wolves and Burnley's starts to 26/27 assessed

Sharp is bang on the money by outlining the urgency for strong starts to the season in order to shake off a losing culture and assert their dominance from the get-go, but none of the three sides have a particularly comfortable opening set of fixtures.

After facing Burnley, West Ham will look ahead to home clashes with Charlton Athletic, Wolves and Derby County alongside a trip to Watford on August 29.

Wolves, meanwhile, will follow up their inaugural Molineux encounter with three away trips in their next four matches by traveling to Preston North End, West Ham and Birmingham City, with a home clash against Stoke City sandwiched in-between.

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As for Burnley, daunting trips to two potential promotion contenders in West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City await after welcoming the Hammers to Turf Moor before returning to East Lancashire with stern tests at home to Middlesbrough and Bristol City.

That's a particularly notable baptism of fire for the Clarets, who will need to start strong after such a dismal campaign but may face some difficulty in doing so under new boss Nicky Hayen.

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