As the world's most commercially developed and high-profile second-tier football league, the Championship is arguably one of the most competitive leagues in the world.

With 24 teams on the roster, there are eight more league games than the Premier League every year, plus several domestic cup competitions have to start from earlier rounds, and there may be promotion or relegation play-offs, which makes the fatigue accumulated by the players over the course of a year very high, and it is not easier than the big teams that have more to participate in.

As for the fiscal side, around 2015, some media made a statistics on the cost of overtaking with the case of the past ten years, and gave the estimated figure for that year to be an extremely exaggerated figure of no less than 157 million pounds for the whole year, which is more than four times higher than ten years ago.

As of the 2023-24 season, the three teams that have just been relegated to the Championship can receive a total of 131 million pounds in financial assistance in the next four years, especially the huge amount of money that will reach 59 million in the first year, which will increase the cost of this season's rush to 225 million.

In other words, if a Championship team wants to fight their way to the Premier League in the fierce and bloody competition, it will need to spend at least £225 million this season, which is more than the annual budgets of many Premier League clubs.

However, even so, there are still no less than double-digit Championship teams who will not hesitate to join this money-burning battle that is destined to produce many losers, because once successful, the benefits are also extremely substantial.

Last season, for example, Arsenal successfully defended their Champions League title, and they brought in 120 million euros, which can be said to be a huge amount of money. But when compared to Reading, the eventual winner of the Premier League promotion play-off final, the figure is a bit inadequate.

Nicknamed Royalty, Reading has steadily put into their pockets a huge income of at least £260 million, including £117 million in TV revenue next season, at least £17.8 million in broadcast revenue, at least £2.4 million in ranking bonuses, and £131 million in relegation umbrella subsidies, just because they won the last ticket to the Premier League with a win over Norwich. With such a big carrot in front of you as bait, how can you not make these Championship teams crazy?

It's just that in the vast majority of cases, you can't succeed by throwing money at it alone, at least in football.

In addition to the goal of determining the best, professional sports ultimately pursue a healthy and sustainable environment, and running a club is no exception. Although Coventry's annual budget is not very high, and this year it ranks seventh from the bottom of the 24 teams with 137 million, which is far from the so-called promotion and upgrade, but in the eyes of their owner and football director, promotion is actually very close to the Sky Blues.

His greatest confidence comes from the strength of the team, although compared to the previous Arsenal, all the players in Coventry City are unlikely to be part of the former's first team, even after several of the most promising youngsters have fully grown, that is, the Gunners' fringe level. But in the Championship, the overall quality of this team is still very good.

On the one hand, because of the team-building philosophy of manager Paul Scholes, and on the other hand, it is also limited by the amount of investment in the transfer market, the Sky Blues do not currently have too dazzling star players in this level, compared to big stars such as Wales international Joe Allen, who plays for Stoke City, and Scotland international Oliver Burke, who plays for West Bromwich Albion, Coventry City's players are obviously ordinary characters in the eyes of the outside world.

Even if the team's biggest left-back Ryan Bertrand is a former member of the England national team, it is because of the 34-year-old who is suspected of not being able to gain a foothold in the Premier League, so he switched to Coventry this winter as a last resort.

However, if a team is used as a reference, Li Mudi is still relatively satisfied with the team formed by Scholes. Ginger's tactical concept is very similar to the former Arsenal manager's thinking before the "great success", that is, on the premise of striving for a solid back, on the offensive end, using multi-point flowering rapid counterattacks to impact the opponent's defense that must not be formed.

And as the world's top midfielder in the past, he also has a good understanding of passing the ball in positional battles, at least much better than Li Mudi, who has just started his coaching career two or three years ago, which is one of the reasons why the latter is very optimistic that the Manchester United legend may be promoted to a well-known manager in a few years, he just lacks some experience. However, this also means that either next year or the year after, Coventry is likely to find a new manager, and the temple can't accommodate the big Buddha!

The current lineup characteristics of the Sky Blues are also in line with Scholes's tactics, allowing Ginger Head to apply his concept to the playing field more perfectly.

The team's goalkeeper is Luca Zidane, who came on a free transfer from Nancy last year, and the second son of Zizou did not get a chance at the Bernabeu, and after accepting his father's advice to go to Ligue 1, he was unable to gain the trust of the manager due to various problems, and finally defected to his Uncle Li.

The boy's ceiling is average, but the victory lies in solid basic skills, and after breaking the reckless habits of his youth, he finally ushered in his own stable period. In addition to being a bit short (183 cm), Luka's ability is very reliable in the Championship, and his command and defence ability of 15 can provide a more comprehensive perspective on the defensive side of the ball.

In front of the goalkeeper is a four-man defence, with the experienced veteran left-back Bertrand at the heart of two key centre-backs, Jordan Willis and former Manchester United player Matthew Olosunde.

The 29-year-old is a Coventry academy graduate who has not taken off the shirt since joining the Sky Blues at the age of 14, and is the team's leader and the best choice for the first captain. Willis is characterized by all-roundability, although he is not tall and only 1.80 meters tall and can play as a guest left and right fullback, he has no obvious shortcomings in various abilities, and of course there is no commendable specialty. However, at a critical time, we can still count on this self-trained veteran to stand up and play a role.

As for the 25-year-old centre-back Orosand, it was Scholes who accepted a gift from the Red Devils in last year's summer transfer window with his connections, and the former American fringe international was deemed unworthy of the first-team demands by Zinedine Zidane, and he himself did not want to spend much more time at Old Trafford, so he agreed to the Coventry boss's offer.

And he was born at right-back, but he was transformed into a centre-back at his new club, and he unexpectedly found a good feeling. Tall 1.86 meters Orosand's header ability is excellent, is the team's first air defense tower and a big weapon when attacking set-pieces, although the potential is also not high, but the effect in practice is still very good.

The core player of the midfield is the first midfielder/central midfielder Maxence Caqueret who joined the team as a future reserve talent handpicked by Li Mudi three years ago, born in 2000, the former member of the French national youth team at all levels was born in the youth of the Lyon team, and was also regarded as a future star by the outside world at that time. The Master of the Church came to England and soon earned plenty of playing time in the team.

In the previous two seasons, Cakre had learned a lot of on-pitch skills from the side of some of the veterans, and his awareness and technique had improved considerably, and he was finally recognised by Paul Scholes and given more important responsibilities.

With him as a representative, in the following years, Coventry City had newcomers emerge from the youth echelon every year, and finally gradually occupied the rotation and even the main position in the first team, which proved how wise Li Mudi's strategy was back then.

Up front, 26-year-old homegrown right winger Jordi Jones, who has been with the team since the 2015/16 season, is an old-school English wide attacker with excellent dribbling ability and a quality cross, and is a reliable specialist in delivering shells. Another new signing, Josh Himms, who plays as a right winger, has been deployed on the left, and the short striker, who has been frustrated at parent club Southampton, has been able to use his speed and technical advantages to cut inside frequently, and it has been very effective.

There are two main players in charge of attacking the team, one is Frenchman Elie Youan (Elie Youan), who is on loan from West Ham United, and the other is former England international Andy Carroll, who joined on a free transfer last year.

At the same time, Li Tenglong will be an important rotation in many positions in the front court, enjoying a status no worse than the main team in the team, and is also one of the key generals who can rely on him.

Add to that five or six reliable rotations with current ability values between 128 and 135 on the bench, as well as a group of youngsters with a potential of 140 or more, and Coventry's results are worth looking forward to.

After three league games and a League Cup adaptation, Paul Scholes led the team to explode from the last week of August, with a thirteen-game unbeaten record that included a six-game winning streak and a four-game winning streak, and in late October, they not only firmly occupied the top spot in the Championship table with a five-point lead, but also reached the last 16 of the League Cup, creating the team's best performance in the last 16 years.

At this point, Coventry, which was not regarded as a promotion favorite by the outside world before the start of the season, has really stepped onto the edge of the stage, attracting the attention of some people who are temporarily tired of all the big events in the Premier League.

However, without the support of the plug-in, the Sky Blues have inevitably suffered from the inconsistency and injuries of their players, and their results have fluctuated significantly in late October and early November, and they have not been able to live up to the momentum that their director had when he was in charge of Torino and Arsenal.

Thankfully, Paul Scholes and his players gritted their teeth in the face of adversity and returned to the top of the table after beating promotion favourites Stoke City and Bournemouth. It's just that the lead is not big, because the performance of the competitors is not bad, and the point difference has been bitten around one or two points. When the winter break came, Coventry still maintained its league leader status with 17 wins, 6 draws and 3 losses and 57 points, but the chasing soldiers behind them also did not relax, and the ownership of the two direct promotion places is not clear for the time being.

Since the third promotion ticket would have to go through two more brutal and uncertain play-offs, Li Mudi, who was unwilling to take that risk, decided to do something. He postponed his scheduled trip to East Asia to negotiate new deals with his sponsors, but instead invited Scholes to his home on New Year's Day, and let their wives and children stay in the living room to talk and play after the meal, while the two men went to the study for an in-depth exchange.

Three days later, when the Coventry director had arrived in the capital to begin his series of trips, a new squad change was put into the hands of the club's staff in charge of specific transfer matters, and several unforeseen player deals were put into the process and the majority of them were finalised before the transfer window closed.

Not to mention the few departing members who are insignificant to the team, the three new signings who will join in the winter of 2024 are quite a bit of a surprise, which has taken the media and fans by surprise.

First of all, Manchester United's academy graduate, who moved to Leicester City because he couldn't find a place at Old Trafford but still couldn't get a main place, came to the Ricoh Stadium on loan, so that Coventry supporters will no longer worry about the team's attacking ability falling into a slump before Carroll's knee injury returns.

After joining the Sky Blue Army, the newcomer is Norwegian-Chinese midfielder Hou Yongyong, time flies, and the former young man has also spent his 26th birthday, and there is not much youth to waste. In the Torino team, the current head coach Gattuso does not like this all-round midfielder who is more technical, which makes Hou Yongyong, who has entered the peak of the player, quite helpless.

When Li Mudi, who single-handedly excavated it and always cared about his growth when he was young, proposed to invite Hou Yongyong to the United Kingdom to start a new journey, the latter nodded and agreed without hesitation, even if his agent did not want to join a Championship team at this time, it did not stop the determination of the wanderer who finally failed to return to the embrace of his motherland to join his mentor.

The last to appear as a big axis was a heavyweight new signing, the 33-year-old former Spain international and centre-back Baltra terminated his contract with Borussia Dortmund early and became a member of the Coventry squad as a free agent.

For a while, the Sky Blue Army, which was originally thought to have no bright spots in the lineup, instantly became a little attractive and became one of the objects of attention from the outside world this winter.