On Wednesday morning I picked up a copy of the Racing Post's Big Kick-Off - an in-depth, 72-page betting guide to the new football season which the paper produces each year during the week before the campaign begins.

This year, the Post's leading Football League correspondent, Dan Childs, has selected the following as his best bets for the Championship:

Fulham to win the league - 1 point at 11/2
Cardiff to finish in the top six - 3 points at 2/1
Hull to be relegated - 2 points at 9/2
Reading to be relegated - 1 point at 9/1
Cardiff to win the divisional handicap with a +12 points start - 1 point at 18/1
Birmingham to finish in the top half of the table - 4 points at 6/4
Dominic Solanke to finish as top scorer - 1 point at 18/1
Cardiff to finish above Swansea - 5 points at 4/5

Childs predicts City will finish second and makes much of the team's improved form last season after Mick McCarthy took over. In his seasonal preview, he says:

"McCarthy's had a few issues to contend with, including the loss of loanees Harry Wilson and Sheyi Ojo, but the experienced gaffer has recruited well. He's added energetic midfielder Ryan Wintle from Crewe, while his attacking options have been boosted with the season-long loan singing of exciting winger Ryan Giles from Wolves and the free signing of Irish international striker James Collins from Luton.

"Those additions add further firepower to a team who scored 66 league goals last term - the fourth-highest in the Championship - and Cardiff will be hard to beat thanks to the powerful presence of Sean Morrison, a member of last season's team of the year, at the heart of their defence."

The pundit's prediction for the Championship's top ten is as follows:

1 - Fulham
2 - Cardiff
3 - West Brom
4 - Bournemouth
5 - Sheffield United
6 - QPR
7 - Birmingham
8 - Middlesbrough
9 - Nottingham Forest
10 - Millwall

Childs believes Swansea will finish 14th. His is a very positive outlook as far as City is concerned, but I should point out that he predicted the Bluebirds would finish third in each of the last two seasons. His main bets in those campaigns paid dividends (Fulham to be promoted in 2019/20, Norwich to win the league in 2020/21), but his bet on Cardiff to be promoted last year didn't.

Elsewhere in the betting guide, stats expert Kevin Pullein also backs City for promotion at odds of 11/2, but it's notable that none of the representatives of the eight major bookmakers who were asked to give their seasonal predictions for the Championship selected Cardiff.

Meanwhile, the paper's leading football writer, Mark Langdon, captures my feelings perfectly when he says: "In terms of quality, this season's Championship looks absolutely dreadful."

City are rated as fifth-best in almost all of the bookmakers' pre-season lists and it's easy to see why. If you remove Fulham, West Brom, Sheffield United and Bournemouth from the equation, who else looks capable of mounting a promotion challenge? For me, given the nature, experience and depth of the squad, the Bluebirds are fifth-favourites almost by default in a division that was desperately short of genuine quality last season and looks even more so this.

If I had to bet on City's finishing position for 2021/22, I'd opt for fourth on the basis that at least one of the relegated sides is likely to disappoint. It promises to be an interesting campaign as nothing looks clear cut at either end of the table, but I'm expecting the quality of the football to be the poorest we've seen in the Championship for many years.