EFL awards: Amad, Akpom, Andy Cook – and Watford’s social media team

The end is almost upon us. Only one game of the regular season to go before the thrills and spills of the play-offs — games always packed with drama — bring the curtain down on another EFL campaign.

There has been tears, tantrums, torment — and that’s just at Watford — and takeovers. But the main takeaway is that the three divisions have never been more popular. That’s probably one reason why US investors are arriving in droves.

It has been a blast — though maybe not for the managers, with 46 changes among the 72 — so now is the time for The Athletic’s EFL ‘experts’ to hand out their awards for the season.

Manager of the season?

Craig Chisnall: Steven Schumacher. The Plymouth Argyle manager has clinched League One promotion in front of Sheffield Wednesday and alongside Ipswich Town, both big spenders, and with an attractive style, too. Honourable mentions for Sheffield United’s Paul Heckingbottom and Leyton Orient’s Richie Wellens for their promotions.

Richard Sutcliffe: Neil Warnock. Brought hope where there was previously only despair at Huddersfield Town, who looked down and out when he answered an SOS from owner Dean Hoyle to come out of retirement in mid-February. The job was completed on Thursday and the 74-year-old’s impact has been huge.

Nancy Froston: Richie Wellens. It takes some doing to transform a team that was looking over its shoulder at the relegation zone in March last year to one that has walked to the League Two title. Crowned champions long before the end of the season, the final day will make it 199 days at the top of the league for Leyton Orient. Remarkable.

Phil Buckingham: Paul Heckingbottom. Vincent Kompany has made more headlines in the Championship, but I’d argue it was Sheffield United finishing runners-up that was the greater achievement. The was a club on a financial cliff edge, but Heckingbottom inspired that all-important promotion at a canter.

Duncan Alexander: Another vote for Schumacher here. When Plymouth lost 5-0 on the final day of last season to drop out of the top six, it looked very much like it might be another case of an over-promoted EFL assistant manager. But the way Argyle have rebounded this season suggests he’s a very special coach indeed. Scoring more than 60 open play goals from an expected goals rate of around 40 is extremely impressive, though transferring that to the Championship might be difficult.

Steven Schumacher (Photo: Tim Goode/PA Images via Getty Images)

Adam Leventhal: Mark Robins was appointed Coventry City manager in 2017, which is a ridiculous tenure in football, and has since won two promotions (into League One, then the Championship, and could get into the Premier League via the play-offs). The club has been in disarray at times, but Robins has kept calm and carried on.

Andy Jones: To avoid the accusation of bias, Kompany is second to Schumacher. Bounced back from last season’s heartbreak of missing out on the play-offs to taking on Ipswich and Wednesday — and coming out on top — has been impressive. A mention to Michael Duff, too, who went to a far-from-stable Barnsley, steadied the ship and they have flourished.

Michael Bailey: Robins getting Coventry to this point after so long at the helm is remarkable. Schumacher at Plymouth is my favourite story of the season. The other name I’d throw in is Rob Edwards. When Luton lost Nathan Jones the first time around, they completely lost their way. This time, Edwards was appointed and has arguably made them better, more stable and potentially a Premier League team. All after a horribly short spell at their fiercest rivals Watford. Blissful.

Richard Amofa: Schumacher. He’s led Plymouth to promotion ahead of sides with much greater resources, playing a good brand of football. He’s instilled resilience in the squad, too, with plenty of late goals scored and the fact they didn’t lose two consecutive league games all season.

Player of the season?

Chisnall: Championship: Josh Brownhill. A Premier League player who could have gone last summer but has stayed loyal and been outstanding. Captaincy has brought a different level from him.

League One: Aaron Collins. Sixteen goals and 11 assists for a bottom-half team in Bristol Rovers. He won’t be in the third tier much longer.

🙌 Well done @aaroncollinsx – shortlisted for the @SkyBetLeagueOne Player of the Season!#BristolRovers @EFL
— Bristol Rovers (@Official_BRFC) April 11, 2023

League Two: Carl Piergianni. The Stevenage captain arrived on a free transfer last summer and has been immense. Eight goals from centre-back and has led by example in their promotion campaign. And centre-backs don’t get enough credit.

Sutcliffe: Championship: Iliman Ndiaye. As recently as March 2022, he couldn’t make the matchday 18 at Sheffield United. Today, he’s played at the World Cup for Senegal and been the attacking talisman on which a promotion campaign has been built. United fans have this season adopted a stance of ‘Enjoy him while we can’. Wise because Ndiaye is destined for big things.

League One: David McGoldrick. Once again proving age is merely a number, the 35-year-old has proved he’s a cut above in the third tier. Does miss the odd sitter, but his goals explain why Derby County are still in the promotion hunt.

League Two: Owen Moxon. An inspired import from Scotland, he has been a revelation in the Carlisle United midfield. With a great eye for a pass and a decent finisher, the 25-year-old has bags of energy.

👀 Here’s what @owenmoxonn’s first goal for the club looked like last night after great work from @JackStretton4 👇
— Carlisle United FC (@officialcufc) September 28, 2022

Froston: Championship: Chuba Akpom. It feels like from nowhere he’s had the season of his life at 27. A great goalscorer and key to Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough revolution.

League One: Conor Chaplin. So important to Ipswich at big moments and with a great goal return — thrilling to watch him hit new heights under Kieran McKenna, with 29 goals.

League Two: Lawrence Vigouroux. Could have been a few Leyton Orient players, but so much of how they play — and their league title — is built on their defensive record. And that starts with Vigouroux.

Buckingham: Championship: Amad Diallo. Sensational for Sunderland. A little magician. Fascinated to see what happens next for him.

League One: Sam Morsy. Ipswich’s natural-born leader and a key figure in midfield. Typifies a team too good for League One and an underrated influence.

League Two: Andy Cook. Did the rounds in non-League but he’s now excelling. Bradford’s promotion bid might’ve fizzled out long ago without him.

Duncan Alexander: Championship: Jack Clarke at Sunderland has had a brilliant first full season at the club. He leads the division in key passes and assists from carries, as well as showing composure at vital moments — such as his last-minute assist against Watford last weekend.

League One: On their day, Ipswich have been one of the most dominant teams I’ve ever seen in the third tier. So, given others have mentioned Morsy and Chaplin, I’ll go for Leif Davis, who has a semi-ridiculous total of 14 assists from (mostly) left-back. Also, he’s called Leif — which is cool.

League Two: Moxon’s total of more than 20 goal involvements from central midfield is impressive and a shoutout for Iraq international Ali Al-Hamadi, who moved from Wycombe to Wimbledon in January and has scored 10 goals in 19 games for a team who rarely win.

Leventhal: Championship: Akpom. Goalscoring machine for Boro, which is what you need to be competitive. Feels like he’s worked hard for it, too.

League One: Barry Bannan. I just like him as a player and he helps make Sheffield Wednesday tick: 20 goal involvements, including 13 assists.

League Two: Cook. Like Akpom, he’s in the right place at the right time on a consistent basis. And winning a promotion being a marksman is what we like to see.

Jones: Championship: Josh Cullen. The heartbeat of Kompany’s side. Played the most minutes, sets the tempo, dictates the game and does all the things that go under the radar to allow those in front of him to gain the credit through goals and assists.

League One: With Chaplin getting a vote, I’ll opt for Jonson Clarke-Harris who has provided the firepower to keep Peterborough in with a shout of being in the play-offs. Again.

League Two: Impossible to look past Cook, who has banged them in for fun all season. Moxon’s been superb for Carlisle and Elliot Watt’s creativity for Salford City has been a huge part of their play-off push.

Andy Cook is having the season of his life (Photo: George Wood/Getty Images)

Bailey: Championship: Viktor Gyokeres. A Coventry match-winner who became one of the highest-value players in the Championship.

League One: Leif Davis. Young, impactful and an exciting player in an Ipswich team that has thrived this season.

League Two: Elliot Watt. Midfield progressor and creator playing beyond his years. He also deserves to be playing at a higher level.

Amofa: Championship: Ndiaye has always impressed with his skill and creativity, but it’s great to now see an end product to match, with 15 goals and 9 assists this season.

League One: Collins at Bristol Rovers. An incredible output for a side who have struggled for any kind of consistency in 2022-23.

League Two: Cook. Thriving under Mark Hughes and his 28 league goals for Bradford is more than double his previous season’s best in the EFL.

Unsung hero?

Chisnall: Jon Brady, the Northampton Town manager. There aren’t many Australians managing in England, but he’s done a fine job at Sixfields. After missing out on automatic promotion last season when Bristol Rovers won 7-0 on the final day, he regrouped and they are just one win away from making certain of that this time.

Sutcliffe: Pete Wild. Barrow might not have made the play-offs this season, but the very fact the Cumbrian club was in contention after two years of struggle since being promoted to the EFL says everything about Wild’s impact since having taken charge only last summer.

Froston: Robins has done, and continues to do, an amazing job at Coventry. Credit to him for getting results on the pitch despite whatever off-field crisis seems to be lurking at the club, but there’s not enough singing that can be done about this unsung hero in my book — especially if they reach the play-offs.

Mark Robins (Photo: Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Buckingham: Paul Simpson. Carlisle were in grave danger of being relegated to the National League when he was appointed 15 months ago and look at them now, in with a chance of reaching League One. The hometown boy has a halo.

Alexander: Plaudits to the ground staff in the EFL, most of whom do incredible jobs on limited budgets. The standard of pitches in all three divisions these days is lightyears ahead of where it was even a decade ago and it is one of the reasons the quality of EFL football is increasing exponentially.

Leventhal: The Watford social media team, who have to stick to a positive script in welcoming new head coaches as if the new man is the one.

Jones: Robins. An impressive achievement to guide his side into the play-off places with a limited budget and relatively small squad while having to deal with off-the-pitch issues during the campaign. They had to bounce back from a bad start to the season, too.

Bailey: That John Eustace has kept Birmingham City up with games to spare and all that has been happening around that club for so long is a remarkable job.

Amofa: Matt Taylor made the step up from Exeter in October to take the reins at Rotherham — a side among the favourites for relegation — and has steered them to safety with a game remaining.

Biggest surprise of the EFL season?

Chisnall: Queens Park Rangers. Their implosion from Championship leaders to battling relegation has been staggering. Gareth Ainsworth has a big job on — all does not appear well off the pitch.

Sutcliffe: AFC Wimbledon’s struggles. I thought they would thrive after relegation — a feeling only reinforced by being at the opening day 2-0 win over Gillingham as part of my quest to join The Ninety Two Club. But they sit fourth-from-bottom with a game to spare and must be thankful for Rochdale and Hartlepool’s demise.

Froston: Rob Edwards. Not for any doubt over his managerial ability, which was evident at Forest Green Rovers, but for making the unexpected pivot from Watford to Luton look so easy. A surprising and happy turn of events in a mad season for managers.

Buckingham: Darren Ferguson returning to manage Peterborough United. A real bolt from the blue…

Alexander: I did not foresee Oxford and Milton Keynes both being in the League One relegation battle. Oxford now look safe thanks to the appointment of the manager the other team sacked because they were near the bottom.

Leventhal: Luton Town. I was initially surprised that Jones had got them going again after missing out in the play-offs last season. But to be best of the rest and seamlessly switching to Edwards, too? Fair play.

Jones: Toss-up between Watford sacking a few managers (again) and Neil Warnock coming out of retirement again for me. Who am I kidding? It has to be QPR’s insane slide down the table from being top in October to just about avoiding relegation; winning at Turf Moor was arguably the biggest part of the surprise. Looks like that Haka fella was the key after all… just a rather long delay for the inspiration to take effect…

Bailey: I’ve always liked Carlton Morris. He’s a great character to have around your team, so it’s even better to see everything come together for him. He’s hit such brilliant heights with Luton this season: 20 league goals and a potential promotion. One of the good guys.

🔟 unbeaten now for @LutonTown! 🔥#EFL | #SkyBetChampionship
— Sky Bet Championship (@SkyBetChamp) April 16, 2023

Amofa: I didn’t have Stevenage to get promoted on my bingo card this season, especially after finishing 21st the season before. They have not played the most attractive football, but they’ve been incredibly effective and outwitted some of the more fancied sides in that division such as Salford and Stockport.

Biggest disappointment?

Chisnall: Blackpool. Awful managerial appointments (two). Awful recruitment. Awful season. The fans have deserved better. Wigan’s owners, too — a shoddy way to treat the sacked Leam Richardson, their players and supporters.

Sutcliffe: QPR. I saw Rangers at Bramall Lane in early October and they were superb. The squad size probably wasn’t there to challenge for the title, but I felt the play-offs were easily gettable. Instead, Michael Beale left and the club went into freefall.

Froston: It’s hard to disagree there. It really felt like something had been building at QPR and they got off to such a flying start under Beale that their collapse has been shocking.

Buckingham: Watford. All the usual chaos without the success from a team that was implausibly easy to roll over. The model is broken, Mr Pozzo.

Alexander: The guy doing the Haka in front of the QPR squad in March? Seriously, though, that club has had the sort of season that was crying out for another documentary. Ainsworth has kept them up — just — but it doesn’t feel like there’s any more stability, or good vibes, there at all.

Development Day 1 ✅
Squad and staff experienced the ‘𝗛𝗮𝗸𝗮’ at Heston this week as Gareth Ainsworth looks to enhance team spirit 🤝#QPR | #RDevelopmentDay
— QPR FC (@QPR) March 2, 2023

Leventhal: Hold my beer. Watford have been a shambles once again, but perhaps this one was to be expected. There needs to be a reset from top to bottom.

Jones: MK Dons. After such an impressive campaign in 2021-22, not sustaining that was disappointing. Replacing Scott Twine and Harry Darling proved too big a task and it was a shame to see Liam Manning depart after plenty of us praised him heading into the season.

Bailey: Norwich. For a club that prides itself on being well-managed and a constant promotion contender, it has now been 18 months of unravelling with no guarantee they’re finished yet.

Amofa: QPR’s descent has been alarming but Watford have really disappointed me. They’re struggling to find an identity and seem to wilt at the first sign of adversity.

Why should you watch the EFL next season?

Chisnall: Not just for Wrexham. The jeopardy of the promotion and relegation places across all three divisions — much more entertaining than the same old, same old in the Premier League.

Sutcliffe: There’s no better league around. The hype and the global appeal might belong to the Premier League, but it’s basically a closed shop, where the same six teams largely beat the rest whose sole aim in August is to survive.

Froston: It will remind you of all the reasons you fell in love with football in the first place. Real people, real battles, proper competition. Goalkeepers scoring last-minute equalisers. Tactical fouls. Floodlight failures. Refereeing decisions you can be angry at without VAR to confuse things. Need I go on?

Ben Wilson is the first goalkeeper since Steve Ogrizovic to score for the Sky Blues. Iconic. 💥#PUSB
— Coventry City (@Coventry_City) April 20, 2023

Buckingham: Cherish that absence of VAR while you still can. Referees might not be perfect, but at least there’s no one sitting in a room 100 miles away spoiling your fun by drawing some dubious lines on a TV screen.

Alexander: It’s been interesting to observe the wider world — largely thanks to Wrexham — discover and understand why the English football pyramid is so special and unique. The three EFL divisions are a crucial part of that, with each tier having its own strengths (and weaknesses). Some of the football in the Championship would be top-tier fare in most countries. League One continues to act as a high-octane reputational revival clinic for fallen giants and League Two is a place to see great players at the start and end of their careers. And, whisper it quietly: there is a certain Welsh club joining in 2023-24.

Leventhal: Because it’s more wholesome than the Premier League, not the glitz and glamour (bar Wrexham), but it’s where real-ish football still plies its trade.

Jones: Because it’s mad, wild and impossible to predict… unless you’ve covered Burnley this season. I’m just looking at the Championship next season and how tasty that could be. Potentially you could have Sheffield Wednesday joining Plymouth and Ipswich going up, plus three of Southampton, Everton, Leeds, Nottingham Forest and Leicester coming down… added to what’s already there… mouthwatering. Aside from that, proper fans, proper atmospheres, proper tackling, proper football.

Bailey: There is something wildly competitive about the three EFL divisions that just isn’t present in the Premier League. Sure, the quality has dropped — especially in the Championship — but the sheer swings from season to season at so many clubs makes the EFL a marvel. There are gems of clubs and players that you will uncover too; your very own scouting missions.

Amofa: Who doesn’t like chaos?

Who will get a summer move?

Chisnall: Alex Scott, the Bristol City midfielder. He would do a mid-table Premier League club a treat before moving on to the very top. Has been magnificent this season. I would have said Michael Cooper before the Plymouth goalkeeper’s serious injury. He’ll be back.

Sutcliffe: Scott seems a given. But I’d also suggest Gyokeres, providing Coventry don’t make it up via the play-offs. A huge threat who is great with the ball at his feet and in the air. Be fascinating to see how he fares in the league above.

Froston: Scott and Gyokeres look likely. Also Zian Flemming — a quality player who has been excellent value for money for Millwall. If they don’t go up, they could (and should) cash in for a big profit.

Buckingham: The usual suspects above, but you can add Akpom to the list if Middlesbrough can’t get up through the play-offs. He’s finally starting to show why he was once so highly rated by Arsenal. Plenty in the Premier League will have been watching.

Alexander: Charlton Athletic’s Miles Leaburn has looked impressive every time I’ve seen him — 12 goals from only 25 shots on target at 19 years old is special. He looks destined to play in the Premier League at some point. And yes, Alex Scott looks set to be the EFL player people at barbecues this summer claim they know all about.

Leventhal: Ilias Chair. Been in the tumble dryer of QPR’s season and would expect someone to snap him up and give him a chance to shine.

Jones: I’ve been on the Gyokeres bandwagon for a while. The striker I watched in the Championship this season looks like he has everything needed to succeed in the Premier League and deserves to get his move this summer.

Bailey: In terms of the Championship, Scott and Flemming offer a lot and are as ready as anyone. But it will be interesting to see how much business the Premier League is prepared to take from the Championship this summer. There might be only limited interest.

Amofa: Scott and Gyokeres are two of the most exciting players in the second tier and you’d expect clubs to be lining up for them this summer. I expect them to be at the top of the Championship or in the Premier League next season.

(Main image: Amad of Sunderland, Middlesbrough goal machine Akpom, and prolific Bradford striker Cook. Design: Sam Richardson. Photos: Michael Driver/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images, Stu Forster/Getty Images, Pete Norton/Getty Images)