‘Sheffield Wednesday, Stoke City and Birmingham City’: boss pinpoints major factor stiffening Championship challenge

John Mousinho believes the lower reaches of this season’s Championship underlines the size of the task Pompey face next term.

And the Blues boss reckons the rise of club’s associated with the basement English league in recent decades is upping the levels the Blues will face in the second tier next term.

Pompey return to a level they last inhabited 12 years this August, with the terrain very different to the one they left in terms of finances and size of clubs.

A look at Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke City facing an almighty battle to retain their places in the division this season tells a story to Mousinho.

The likes of QPR and Blackburn also flirted with relegation, while Birmingham City dropped out of the division on the final day.

Mousinho puts the proliferation of sizable clubs down to teams he encountered in the lower leagues as a player enjoying rich spells of success.

Brighton, Bournemouth, Luton and Brentford are all Premier League outfits who’ve been in English football’s basement division in the 21st century.

Mousinho sees a huge challenge for Pompey on the horizon, but he told how every game being against established opposition is also a prospect which excites the 38-year-old.

He said: ‘It’s an incredibly difficult league.

‘You now have clubs like Brentford, Brighton and Bournemouth, who are clubs who’ve operated in the fourth division in the time I played, now operating in the Premier League.

‘That then knocks down some of the big boys into the Championship and sometimes League One, meaning you are competing at a different level. So we have to make sure we compete with the teams.

‘If you look at bottom of the Championship, Rotherham are a side who’ve been up and down and have been relegated. But the bottom of the Championship, if you look at some of the sides there they are big clubs.

‘Sheffield Wednesday have been in the bottom three for large parts of the season, Birmingham dropped out and Stoke were close to it before pulling out a couple of brilliant results.

‘There are some huge clubs down there with some dropping into League One and some competing at the bottom end of the Championship next season.

‘That is a really exciting thing to know we’re stepping up to a level where every game is a massive one.’