Six Championship managers assessed by Tony Gale and Alan Curbishley

By Sky Sports News HQ

Thursday 4 August 2016 14:10, UK

Tony Gale and Alan Curbishley assess six of the Sky Bet Championship's new managers ahead of the 2016/17 EFL season.

The Championship, which is set to kick off on August 5, has seen a total of 15 new managers enter the league including some familiar faces to followers of Premier League clubs.

Rafael Benitez, Roberto Di Matteo, Alex Neil, Nigel Pearson, Garry Monk and Alan Stubbs are just six of the names to be taking charge of their teams this weekend, with Newcastle set to kick off the EFL season - live on Sky Sports - on Friday night against Fulham at Craven Cottage.

So ahead of the bumper weekend of football action,Tony Gale and Alan Curbishley gave Sky Sports Now their verdicts on how the six managers will perform this season. Here's what they had to say...

Rafael Benitez - Newcastle

Alan Curbishley: It's interesting with the signings Benitez has made. He's bought two, big strapping centre-backs [Grant Hanley and Ciaran Clark] and he's got the skill there already. He's also bought a centre forward in Dwight Gayle who he thinks is going to score 20 goals, so he's looked at the Championship, taken some good advice, and gone down the road of buying certain types of players.

Roberto Di Matteo - Aston Villa

AC: I think Villa have got a different pressure to Newcastle. It's been dreadful for the last couple of seasons at Villa. The place is deflated and it does need a lift, it does need a quick burst of enthusiasm. Villa need to get off to a really good start and then you'll find the Villa fans get right behind Di Matteo and the team. Their start is going to be vitally important to them.

Di Matteo did win promotion at West Brom and he's added Steve Clarke and Kevin Bond to his backroom staff. Clarke knows the division. He's been at Reading so that will be invaluable to Di Matteo. But Villa, out of all the clubs we're looking at as perhaps the favourites, have got the hardest job on.

Alex Neil - Norwich

Tony Gale: Norwich are my favourites to get promoted. I think they probably will go and buy a striker because that's what they're missing, and was the thing that probably stopped them staying up last season. They played a lot of good football between the penalty boxes but they didn't finish off their chances and made a lot of crucial errors.

But what manager Alex Neil has got is battle-hardened Championship players from the promotion beforehand so they're my favourites to go up.

Nigel Pearson - Derby

AC: Derby have spent a lot of money, really invested in the squad and paid big wages. Now, with Nigel going in there, he took Leicester up and then kept them up so it looks like the perfect fit.

We'll have to see how it goes because I think even in the years he hasn't been in the Championship its changed a little bit, though.

Garry Monk - Leeds United

TG: Monk has got an impatient owner in Massimo Cellino and that's his one problem. He's been at a club where he's grown up at Swansea, where he went through as a player and then went into coaching, and then as manager. Now all of a sudden he's going into a ready-made club.

If you want, Leeds is a bigger club than Swansea in terms of support and everything around it. It's just about getting them into the top flight.

Alan Stubbs - Rotherham

TG: Rotherham have probably got the lowest budget in the Championship but Stubbs has done his apprenticeship in Scottish football in terms of coaching, managing and understanding players, and probably looking at players in and around the price range at the club he was at before to the club he's now gone to. So its going to be a great test for Stubbs.

Tune in to Sky Sports this weekend as the Sky Bet English Football League kicks off, with Fulham v Newcastle on Friday 5 August with QPR v Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday v Aston Villa on Sunday 7 August live on Sky Sports.