When Cardiff City sealed automatic promotion to the Premier League last year, the club's achievement was viewed by many supporters and plenty of pundits as some sort of a miracle. Considering that he hadn't spent much money in transfer fees and his squad appeared on paper to be reasonably limited, the job Neil Warnock did was widely believed to be incredible.

Given the nature of the Championship, I didn't see it that way at the time and I don't now. I believed Warnock and his players did exceptionally well in 2017/18 and fully deserved their promotion, but I didn't view it as a miracle and the 2018/19 season has only served to reinforce that view.

City finished in 12th position in the Championship table in 2016/17 on 62 points. At the start of the 2017/18 campaign, they were generally priced by the major bookmakers at 25/1 for the Championship title and 8/1 for promotion. Longshots perhaps, but not rank outsiders by any means.

Norwich finished in 14th position in the Championship table in 2017/18 on 60 points. At the start of the 2018/19 campaign, like Cardiff in 2017/18, they were also priced at 25/1 for the Championship title and were 8/1 for promotion.

Meanwhile, Sheffield United finished 10th in 2017/18 on 69 points. At the start of 2018/19, they were priced at 28/1 for the Championship title and 10/1 for promotion.

Last summer, Norwich sold their two star players (Maddison and Murphy) to Premier League clubs Leicester and Cardiff, while Sheffield United sold their best youngster (Brooks) to Bournemouth. If the figures produced by Sky Sports last night are correct, Norwich achieved promotion this season after spending approximately the same in transfer fees as Cardiff did in 2017/18 on Lee Tomlin and Gary Madine. I don't know what Sheffield United have spent, but looking at their squad I'm confident it isn't much by Championship standards.

During the last ten years, there have been no less than eight teams that have started the Championship season at prices of 20/1 or bigger and have gone on to achieve automatic promotion to the Premier League. They are:

2010/11 - Norwich (20/1)
2011/12 - Southampton (20/1)
2012/13 - Hull (28/1)
2013/14 - Burnley (80/1)
2014/15 - Bournemouth (25/1)
2017/18 - Cardiff (25/1)
2018/19 - Norwich (25/1) and Sheffield Utd (28/1)

During that time, only one pre-season favourite has gained automatic promotion. That was Rafa Benitez's Newcastle side in 2016/17. Most of the rest of the favourites haven't even made the play-offs.

To me, these facts reinforce what a tough and difficult-to-predict division the Championship is, and they also underline that while gaining promotion to the Premier League is always a notable achievement, it is far from a miracle if a side that finished mid-table during the previous campaign manages it.