Another month has gone by and the Championship continues to be as unpredictable as ever. Managers have been sacked, early frontrunners fall by the wayside and Reading continue to pluck draws from the jaws of victory
After the jump we'll see how the last few weeks have affected our promotion and relegations chances in the eyes of the bookies!
Our last bookie watch was on September the 27th and can be found here, so how's the outlook changed? All odds are the best price available.
To Be Promoted
TODAY SEPT 27
Southampton 8/13 6/4
West Ham 8/11 8/13
Leicester 3/1 2/1
Middlesbrough 10/3 13/5
Birmingham 9/2 11/1
Cardiff 11/2 6/1
Hull 6/1 8/1
Leeds 7/1 8/1
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Reading 14/1 12/1Odds Shortening Odds Lengthening
Source: Oddschecker 5/11/11
So the bookies now make us a 14/1 shot to be playing Premier League football next year, with the odds of us actually winning the Championship as high as 80/1. It's pretty hard to disagree with either of those, though given our history of strong finishes under Brian 14/1 is worth half a shout because if you make it into the top 6 anything is possible. If you fancy betting on Reading for a top six finish we're at 10/3 with Coral.
Elsewhere West Ham and Southampton remain the favourites to go up with Southampton joining West Ham as odds on chances with the bookmakers. I find it somewhat surprising that Leicester are still third favourites for promotion as despite the resources at the club, the managerial situation and the turnover of players might make it hard to find a rhythm. Birmingham are the big movers, coming in from 11/1 to 9/2 as Chris Hughton's side have shot up the table.
To be Relegated TODAY 27 Sept
Doncaster 8/15 4/7
Coventry 11/13 11/8
Bristol City EVS 5/2
Watford 5/2 3/1
Barnsley 7/2 11/4
Portsmouth 7/1 7/1
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Reading 25/1 20/1Source: Oddschecker 5/11/11
Reading's chances of relegation have decreased according to the odds men, who have lengthened us to 25/1 to drop down to League 1. Some markets do have us as short as 14/1 to be relegated but still place us well off the favourites to go down.
The bookies still don't give Doncaster much hope of survival, even with a change of manager the addition of Diouf, while Coventry have now joined them as odds on favourites to go down with Bristol City best priced at evens. There's a clear break in the market after those three, Watford and Barnsley, with the Yorkshire side 7/2 and Portsmouth next best priced at a more distant 7/1.
In terms of top goalscorer, Southampton's Rickie Lambert still leads the way with odds of 4/1, ahead of Ross McCormack and Charlie Austin. Reading's best priced player is Adam Le Fondre who you can get odds of 40/1 to take the honour at the end of the season. Simon Church is out at 80/1 with Coral offering 150/1 on Noel Hunt to top the scoring charts.
So if you fancy a flutter those are your options, personally I don't see amazing value in any of the markets although Birmingham at 9/2 do tempt me given how well they've coped so far with Europe and how Chris Hughton has turned them around. We'll have another look in a months time to see how it all changes!