Expert EFL tips and betting predictions from Mark Langdon: Be wise to Owls

The EFL is wild and at this stage of the season everything is up for grabs.

You don't get the gulfs in quality which can make the Premier League a touch predictable, and the playoff system means virtually every team will go into this campaign at least thinking promotion is for them.

You won't be short of storylines with 72 unique clubs all battling for their own version of success, but here's three to keep a close eye on.

Wholesale changes at Hull

Premier League teams cost a fortune to buy, so some foreign owners are getting stuck into the Championship and hoping to realise their top-flight dreams via promotion.

Step forward Hull's Acun Ilicali, who has been referred to as Turkey's Simon Cowell and will be hoping his new signings have the X Factor under boss Shota Arveladze.

Ilicali is doing good work in the community, offering cheap tickets to bring the fans back to the stadium, and there has been the best part of an entire new team shipped in. Pre-season results include thrashings at the hands of Leicester and Peterborough but it's only normal to expect a new side to take time to gel.

Four players have arrived from Turkey and Oscar Estupinan is really interesting given he scored 15 goals in Portugal last season, nine fewer than Liverpool's Darwin Nunez and representing a much worse club, while Jean Seri (Fulham) and Tobias Figueiredo (Nottingham Forest) played for promotion-winning teams last season.

At this stage it's really impossible to know whether Hull will be good, or bad. It sums up the EFL.

Different strokes for different folks

Presumably November 12 is already in the diary of EFL aficionados - Bristol Rovers v Fleetwood, or Joey Barton v Scott Brown in the dugout. It should be a feisty affair. If they don't get the chop before then that is.

Most teams in League One now seem obsessed with playing passing football so it's great to see Gareth Ainsworth signing a new contract at Wycombe. We can't have everyone playing the same way otherwise it would be as dull as La Liga.

Forest Green have recruited Ian Burchnall from Notts County. During his time at Meadow Lane Burchnall told the Athletic: "We were top of the division for passes, for completed passes and for final-third entries, for touches in the box — because we pass the ball a lot. There is a feeling among some that we could just 'gerrit forward' a bit more but everything we do is for a reason."

After sacking Charlton manager Johnnie Jackson, Addicks owner Thomas Sandgaard said: "I'm very convinced that more pressing high up on the pitch would give us a higher probability of getting promoted."

The best bet could be to stick to those with balance and Sheffield Wednesday, fast finishers last season, look rock-solid each-way.

One last attempt at a Stags party

Death, taxes and backing Mansfield to go well in League Two. A headline on a local website did make me chuckle this week: Rarely has a new season been so eagerly anticipated in Mansfield.

Maybe not since last season, or the season before that, or the one before that.

The optimism (again) seems well placed. No team still in the division picked up more points in the second half of the season and Nigel Clough laid similar, patient foundations at Burton.

I am giving them one last try. Until next season ...

Best bets

Sheffield Wednesday to win League One
1pt each-way 9-2 BoyleSports

Mansfield to win League Two
1pt 9-1general

Mansfield top-seven finish
2pts 11-10Betfair, Betfred, Paddy Power

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