This article is part of Football League World’s ‘The Verdict‘ series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Sheffield Wednesday are overwhelming favourites to win the League One title this season despite not yet pulling clear of Plymouth Argyle.
The Owls have bided their time this season but since the turn of the year have established a seemingly bulletproof level of consistency that will likely see Darren Moore lead them back to the Championship.
Wednesday have assembled a very high profile squad for the third tier and could arguably field two separate XIs of the required quality to finish in the top six.
We gathered the thoughts of a selection of FLW writers to see if they believe that this current squad would stay up in the Championship this season...
Simmey Hannifin-Donaldson
It's a really tough one.
Just because of how consistent they have been in League One, I'll go with yes.
I really admire Darren Moore and the job he has done not only this season but at the back end of last.
His side can dominate games, but even when they are not playing well, have the ability to grind out results when needed.
As such, I do think they'd survive in the Championship, but without any further additions, perhaps not by much.
Josh Cole
When you consider that Wednesday have set League One alight this season, their current group of players would certainly cause issues for the majority of Championship sides if the club was participating in this division.
Barry Bannan, Josh Windass and George Byers would be an asset for teams that reside at a higher level than the Owls and thus it would not be at all surprising if they go on to help the Owls achieve a great deal of success in the second-tier if the club secures promotion later this year.
Given that there does seem to be a distinct lack of quality in the teams that are currently struggling at the bottom end of the Championship, the Owls would not have anything to worry about in this hypothetical situation.
Providing that they end up returning to the second-tier later this year, Wednesday ought to be looking to follow in the footsteps of Sunderland who have achieved a great deal of success in their first season back in this league.
Marcus Ally
It can often be an easy thing to say as the sides at the top of the division below win far more games than those at the bottom of the league above.
However, in this case, this is definitely true, Wigan Athletic and Rotherham United have got worse since winning automatic promotion from League One last season and this Wednesday squad would finish higher than both of them in the second tier.
After those two we are only searching for one more to say that Wednesday would stay up, with the way Blackpool are going there is no argument that they are a better side than the Owls.
That midfield of Bannan, Byers and Vaulks is an upper mid table second tier trio and with Windass in the form that he is, it is unlikely they would be threatened by relegation if competing in the Championship this season.