Championship play-offs pits slumbering Premier League giants against each other

There’s plenty at stake – including money – for the play-off champion, with the final to be played at Wembley on May 27. Here, we take a look at each of the teams desperate to be there.

LEEDS UNITED

Manager: Marcelo Bielsa

League finish: 3rd

Premier League experience: 1992-2004

Best finish: 3rd (99/00)

Star player: Pablo Hernandez

Story of the season: Madcap manager Marcelo Bielsa ensures Leeds are always in the headlines – whether it’s been for their football or the sideshow off the field.

Say what you will about the manic Argentine, it’s not been dull. In February the club was fined £200,000 and given a severe reprimand after a member of Bielsa’s coaching staff was caught spying at rivals Derby’s training ground ahead of their January clash, which Leeds subsequently won 2-0.

On the pitch, they were among the leading contenders to go up automatically, thanks to some stellar form in the first half of the campaign.

But the Championship is a notorious beast to escape from – a mammoth 46-game season is arduous for even the most experienced of managers and talented of squads.

Leeds suffered just three defeats in their opening 23 games, to sit first. But they plummeted with 10 defeats in their remaining 23, dropping out of the automatic spots in the final month. Just three wins in their final nine games saw them pipped to that coveted second spot by Sheffield United, who eventually finished six points ahead.

Former Chelsea prospect Patrick Bamford was a shrewd £7million signing from Middlesbrough last summer – the 25-year-old bagged nine goals in 22 appearances. Kemar Roofe led the way for the Whites with 14 league goals, while veteran Spaniard Hernandez bagged 12 and also contributed 12 assists – the league’s joint-second most.

Leeds boast one of the best defences in the division – only the Blades and Boro shipped fewer than their 50 goals. They also contributed a joint-high three players to the team of the season – centre-backs Pontus Jansson and Liam Cooper, as well as former Valencia man Hernandez.

Despite faltering, the Whites will prove a stern test for Derby in the play-offs, but the Yorkshire side will have to grit their teeth and forage for their early season form.

WEST BROMWICH ALBION

Manager: James Shan

League finish: 4th

Premier League experience: 2002/03, 2004-06, 2008/09, 2010-2018

Best finish: 8th (12/13)

Star player: Jay Rodriguez

Story of the season: The Baggies have the opportunity to bounce right back into the big time –no mean feat in a division that is supremely tough to escape from.

They’ve also had their trials and tribulations this season – not least the unpopular sacking of manager and idolised former player Darren Moore, strangely let go in March despite West Brom occupying fourth spot.

It followed a 1-1 draw at home to Ipswich – the Tractor Boys would end up being relegated – although their two defeats were to fellow play-off opponents Leeds and promoted Sheffield United. Replacement James Shan has led them to an impressive six wins and one draw in their final nine games. Even still, they finished in the same place as they were when Moore was dismissed.

The Baggies have been among the division’s great entertainers. The Midlands club plundered 87 goals on their way to fourth spot – only champions Norwich City (93) scored more. Strike duo Dwight Gayle and Jay Rodriguez have been mesmeric – Gayle rocketed in 23 goals in 40 appearances on loan from Newcastle.

He picked up the Championship’s player of the month in September and April – the only player to win it more than once. Should he continue to feast and fire them back to English football’s top table, West Brom will surely be in contact with the Magpies with the hope of swooping on a permanent deal for the 29-year-old.

Rodriguez has also revitalised himself in the second tier – notching 22 league goals in 44 games, his joint-best single season career haul and highest since netting 17 for Southampton in 2013/14. In addition to six assists it’s been an impressively well-rounded campaign for the one-time England cap.

West Brom have certainly been rewarded for their consistency. They briefly occupied top spot in September but haven’t been outside the top six since November 3, and have been inside the top four since November 28.

ASTON VILLA

Manager: Dean Smith

League finish: 5th

Premier League experience: 1992-2016

Best finish: 2nd (92/93)

Star player: Jack Grealish

Story of the season: Another big gun hoping to break back into the elite. But in a league that is littered with fallen giants struggling to bridge the gargantuan gap from the second to top tier, it looked for a long spell as if the Midlands club were going to stall as they had in their maiden campaign in 2016/17. Following their Premier League relegation the previous season they meandered to a mediocre 13^th place finish in the Championship.

Fortunes improved a year later as they finished fourth and made the play-off final, but lost out to Fulham. And initially they looked bruised from that experience this season. Brentford manager Smith was the surprise choice to replace sacked Steve Bruce on October 10, the Villains earning victory over Swansea in his first game but then losing to Norwich and Queens Park Rangers.

A superb run of just five defeats in the following 31, however, has contributed to Villa’s vibrant second half of the campaign – which has been fuelled by Tammy Abraham’s 25 goals in 37 games. Only Norwich’s flying Finn Teemu Pukki (29) has found the net more times, while Chelsea loanee Abraham has navigated his way into the Championship’s team of the season – alongside another key figure, Grealish.

Floundering in 14^th when Smith took charge, Villa have vastly improved but only surged into play-off contention in recent months – entering the top six with a 3-0 thrashing of fellow promotion-chasers Boro in mid-March.

Aided by a scintillating run of 10 straight wins in March and April, Smith’s side are the form team heading into the play-offs, even if they did lose to the champion Canaries on the final day.

With Republic of Ireland international Conor Hourihane (11 assists) and Scotland midfielder John McGinn (9) supplying the ammo, they are deemed the favourites to go up.

DERBY COUNTY

Manager: Frank Lampard

League finish: 6th

Premier League experience: 1996-2002 and 2007/08

Best finish: 8th (98/99)

Star player: Harry Wilson

Story of the season: Appointing one of England’s greatest and most capped players as manager in the summer was an exciting, if slightly starry-eyed, shot in the dark by Derby.

But Chelsea great Frank Lampard has impressed hugely as the Rams charge toward the Premier League. They secured the fourth and final spot in the play-offs on the final day with a nerve-shredding 3-1 triumph over West Brom.

They don’t possess monstrous goalscorers like Villa and West Brom and are comfortably the lowest scorers (69) of the four teams in the play-offs – Leeds have netted four more while West Brom (87) and Villa (82) are way ahead.

But what Derby – and Lampard – should be championed for is their ambitious youth project. Lampard has delved into his extensive contacts book to bring in a host of Premier League starlets on loan.

Chelsea duo Fikayo Tomori and Mason Mount, and Liverpool’s Welsh wonder Harry Wilson, have all shone. Defender Tomori, 21, claimed the club’s player of the year, attacking midfielder Mount, 20, has been a key creative force while 22-year-old Wilson leads the Rams with 10 goals in 32 games.

Youth team graduate Jayden Bogle, meanwhile, has been instrumental at right-back. The 18-year-old has played 40 games, leads the side with eight assists and collected Derby’s young player of the season accolade.

They face Leeds for a place in the play-off final, a fixture that carries plenty of meaning from the ‘Spygate’ scandal.

The team that finishes sixth has so often been the side to go up – they are usually the most in-form team at the end of a gruelling campaign, and Derby have only tasted defeat once in their last 12.

They already have big-game experience from earlier in the season – Lampard got one over his former boss Jose Mourinho as Derby knocked out Manchester United in the EFL Cup before being downed 3-2 by Chelsea, the club he made his name at, in the fourth round.