Rooney sack, Leeds United heartache among eight Championship opening weekend kneejerk reactions

As is typically the case, the Championship opening weekend delivered pure chaos with goals, shock results and statement victories aplenty.

The events of matchday one were enough to make me uncomfortable about my bold pre-season predictions for the 2024/25 season. But instead of backtracking a la Martin Zubimendi, I thought it best to double down and provide our (forgiving, I hope) readers with some kneejerk reactions (eight, to be exact) from Championship opening weekend.

Be sure to check out those predictions before pointing and laughing at me for a couple of selections. But moving forward and starting with matters at the top, here are eight major talking points I can foresee after the 24/25 campaign’s first set of Championship fixtures…

Burnley win the Championship
In my bold predictions, I went all in on Burnley flopping and even suggested they would sack Scott Parker. But after Monday night’s ominous statement 4-1 win against Luton Town, their promotion rivals must have let out an audible gulp.

Burnley’s dressing room is overcrowded and this could cause difficulties down the line, but there is no doubt that their clear abundance of quality all over the pitch *should* propel them towards the promotion picture.

During Parker’s previous promotion campaigns with Fulham and AFC Bournemouth, he relied upon an immensely talented crop of players to get them over the line as his preferred playing style and tactical decisions were left wanting at certain points.

Similar questions about Parker’s managerial capabilities remain valid after the miserable end to his spell at Bournemouth and a woeful brief stint at Club Brugge, but Burnley have one of, if not the best squad in the Championship and as proved by Leicester City last season, that can take you a long way .

Burnley are joined in the top two by… Sheffield United
While Blackburn Rovers’ 4-2 win over newly-promoted Derby County was the more eye-catching result, Sheff Utd’s routine 2-0 away win at Preston was arguably more important as they got out of the negative points column at the first attempt following their two-point deduction in pre-season.

Parker has critics to silence this season, but the same can be said for Blades boss Chris Wilder, who – despite his recent struggles at this level – has been given significant backing by the board this summer.

The imminent arrival of Crystal Palace starlet Jesurun Rak-Sakyi on loan adds to an impressively fruitful window for the Blades, who are gradually building a very enviable squad.

Despite Wilder’s team lacking cohesion following their recent flurry of deals, it bodes well that they were able to grind out a win at Preston and this gives them an advantage over a thoroughly entertaining but chaotic Leeds United side, who may need to settle for the play-offs once again if the opening weekend 3-3 draw against Portsmouth is anything to go by.

READ: Leeds United stars reassigned before £150m fire sale as Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea land signings

Sheff Weds finish in the top six
Everything is looking pretty rosy at Bramall Lane and that’s also the case at arch-rivals Sheffield Wednesday, who arguably produced the performance of the weekend as they demolished Plymouth Argyle.

Inexperienced boss Danny Rohl helped build a buzz of positivity around Hillsborough during last season’s remarkable great escape and this was always likely to carry over into this campaign.

It cannot be overstated how good of a job Rohl did last season as he made a team lacking in quality look like world-beaters in the run-in. A positive summer of recruitment has handed him a much stronger group of players far more aligned with his preferred approach and the Plymouth performance suggests they will be a force to be reckoned with this season.

Obviously, tougher tests lie ahead for the Owls, but if they are not left in the lurch by a Premier League club stealing Rohl mid-season , they are capable of being in the mix for the top six come the end of the campaign.

📣 TO THE COMMENTS! What are your kneejerk reactions to the Championship opening weekend? Join the debate here

Plymouth Argyle sack Wayne Rooney
Rohl and QPR’s Martí Cifuentes proved last season that a great manager can almost single-handedly positively alter a club’s trajectory. Unfortunately for Plymouth, Rooney is not close to being at this level and was given a lesson on how to build a team by the Sheff Weds boss in a potentially disastrous 4-0 opening day battering.

Previously considered one of the best-run clubs in the Football League, Plymouth – following Steven Schumacher’s move to Stoke City – have been a shambles. After barely surviving last season, their limited funds mean their target for this season will just be to stay up once again and it’s difficult to see Rooney being the manager to achieve this goal.

While Rooney’s appetite for management cannot be faulted and he deserves a bit of credit for jumping back in after the Birmingham City disaster , his decision to continue with his summer media commitments after taking the Plymouth job was foolish as his team came into their opening game undercooked and were miles away from being competitive against a strong opponent.

“Angry, disappointed and surprised” were the words used by Rooney after the 4-0 loss, with the latter being the most alarming. This heavy defeat could be a blessing in disguise for Plymouth, but if there is not a stark improvement soon, the Manchester United legend will quickly find himself out of a job once again.

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Preston’s early sack decision pays off
One slight positive for Rooney is that he won’t be the winner of the Championship sack race this season as that not-so-prestigious award has already been claimed by Ryan Lowe.

Sacked after Preston’s 2-0 loss to Sheff Utd, Lowe’s exit has not been scrutinised by onlookers arguing the board has been too rash with their decision. It is actually widely accepted that he should have been let go during last season’s prolonged slump and certainly shouldn’t have been given this summer.

Lowe’s statements in the press promised a lot, but in reality, the style of play adopted by Preston during his tenure was workmanlike and uninspiring. This resulted in the 45-year-old being an unpopular figure at Deepdale.

Had he stuck around for a couple of months, Preston slipping into a relegation battle would have been on the cards, but a fresh face in the dugout could give the club a much-needed lift, especially if Crawley Town’s ever-impressive Scott Lindsay is the man they go for.

Josh Maja = Chuba Akpom 2.0.
One of the more surprising aspects of opening weekend was West Brom’s Josh Maja being the matchwinner against QPR, scoring a hat-trick in his side’s 3-1 win.

It’s fair to say Maja’s career has been one of peaks and troughs, with his stunning goalscoring form for Sunderland in League One preceding several nondescript seasons before his 17-goal campaign in Ligue Un with Bordeaux in 2022/23.

His form there earned him a move to West Brom last year, but injuries meant he only managed a single goal in his 12 Championship outings in 2023/24.

However, Maja’s opening day display suggests he may be back to his best, with the head coach Carlos Corberan seemingly working wonders to unlock the striker’s talents. After Middlesbrough’s Michael Carrick did a similar job with 2022/23 Golden Boot winner Chuba Akpom, a similar story of a previously underperforming forward enjoying a goal-laden breakout season could be on the cards at West Brom.

READ: £30m Man Utd target among five Championship stars waiting for transfers on 24/25 opening weekend

Stoke City *finally* finish in the top half
The Potters have had a rough old time of it since dropping from the Premier League in 2018, finishing in the bottom half in six consecutive seasons.

While Watford and Norwich City have been generally poor since their recent relegations, their failure is nowhere near the level of Stoke’s, whose endless list of terrible decisions and wasted parachute payments has left them far away from the promotion picture for too long.

Many considered Stoke to be dark horses for promotion last season following the summer window, but this optimism was misplaced as another mid-campaign manager change led to a 17th-place finish. It could have been a whole lot worse for Stoke, who feared relegation before ex-Plymouth boss Schumacher guided them to safety.

With a full summer under his belt, Schumacher’s Stoke got off to a great start on opening weekend, earning a surprising (but well-deserved) 1-0 win over well-fancied Coventry City. Boosted by the summer arrivals of Viktor Johansson, Ben Gibson and Sam Gallagher, I reckon this is *finally* the season that they break their bottom-half curse and sneak into the top half of the Championship.

Oxford United survive
One of my bold predictions was Oxford to finish above Portsmouth and Derby County this season. And if anything, the opening weekend has only reaffirmed this view.

Des Buckingham’s side carried on where they left off from last season in front of a jubilant crowd at the Kassam Stadium as they deservedly beat Norwich City 2-0.

As always, home form will be key to a side’s survival and Oxford will be looking to build on this result in the coming weeks. Their front-foot approach is refreshing and while they will need to be more pragmatic against certain opponents, they appear capable of providing a tough test for most in this league.

It will be a slog and their lack of quality may catch them out from time to time. Still, the early evidence suggests Oxford can be confident about at least finishing ahead of Derby and Plymouth, while they should also be around fellow relegation candidates Millwall, Portsmouth and Watford in the standings. After 25 years away, the U’s may well stick around the Championship for longer than a single season.